Poor boy triggers. Single or double?

[tenngun]

I'm just mainly wondering why the vast majority of these antique poor boy guns have double set triggers when a single trigger would have been simpler and more affordable. Isn't that the whole idea behind that style in the first place?

The ‘poor boy’ rifles were poor boy only by not doing frills, carving, patch box ect. They still wanted it to be a shooter
The workmanship on these guns was as fine as best coming out of the gun shops of Europe Pennsylvania and Connecticut

 

[stephenprops1]

My apologies, I see you asked about single set triggers as apposed to double set. Your own research shows double set to be PC but as to building one for your own use you will need to decide for yourself.

Didn't Andew Jackson have a dueling pistol with a single set trigger? He just pushed the trigger forward to set it.

 

[stephenprops1]

A good single trigger can do everything a set trigger can do without all the expense and complications. Some will no doubt disagree. Probably even the smiths that built the originals.

I disagree. I usually get better accuracy, from the same gun, when I use my set trigger. For hunting I rarely use the set trigger. For shooting competition, I usually use the set trigger.

 

[Rob M.]

Any set trigger trigger , single or double , and the rifle is far from a poor boy . Just put in a forged single trigger . They work just fine .

 

[ronaldrothb49]

In Thoughts on the Kentucky Rifle in the Go[lden Age Kindig list info from Leonard Reedy's Journals. He shows making a rifle for $7.00 and also a smooth rifle for $7.00, also shows a number of listing as made a gun $7.00 so the question is were the ones listed as guns smooth bore or Rifled? So many people talk about how expensive rifling is. Reedys most common repair was to freshen a rifle for the price of 0.25 cents.
I have found that a single trigger properly installed can easily have a trigger pull comparable to any set trigger. The current rifle I am working has about a 2 pound trigger pull.

 

[Coinneach]

Jed Clampett had a single trigger on his mountain rifle. He did miss his food shot but stuck crude oil instead.

Theres a message in that for all of us, any target miss has to hit the ground somewhere; and any one of us could end up an Oil baron.......or something.

 

[Tradbow]

Here in middle Georgia if your shot missed the target and hit the ground you’d be a rock baron.

 

[Comfortably_Numb]

Any set trigger trigger , single or double , and the rifle is far from a poor boy . Just put in a forged single trigger . They work just fine .

That works, but isn't generally historically correct for TN and NC mountain rifles.

 

[hanshi]

As already been stated terms such as "poor (or po) boy rifles, barn guns, canoe guns, Late Lancaster/Early Lancaster, etc, likely were never used until the 20th Century. The original builders of yesteryear either used other or used no particular epithet for rifles they built.

 

[Pete G]

The ‘poor boy’ rifles were poor boy only by not doing frills, carving, patch box ect. They still wanted it to be a shooter
The workmanship on these guns was as fine as best coming out of the gun shops of Europe Pennsylvania and Connecticut

SOME of the workmanship was good, but a lot was not. Pictures in the Kindig book show some pretty bad work by today’s standards.

 

[Comfortably_Numb]

To be honest, I don't think I have ever seen an antique Appalachian rifle that didn't have set triggers. Many of them were single blade so the triggers had to be set to cock the lock.

 

[ronaldrothb49]

SOME of the workmanship was good, but a lot was not. Pictures in the Kindig book show some pretty bad work by today’s standards.

The guild system in Europe regulated who could become a master gunsmith and open a shop. Not having that in the colonies or later in America anyone could open a shop. In Kindig's, Shumway's and others books you can see a large range of work. You have some like Isaac Haines and some others who were true masters. You have others like Wolfgang Haga who Shumway considered a master carver but none of the guns attributed to him were carved. Peter Gonter supposedly apprenticed to Haga was also considered an excellent carver but a poor engraver probably because Haga couldn't teach him. I have often wondered how many of the gunsmiths who came from Europe were actually Journeyman who were probably never going to become masters and later how many were runaway apprentice's.