From the earlier discussion begun by Idared with his question about 1903 Springfield set triggers it appears that there is a consensus against the use of set triggers in bench rest and for them in Schuetzen work. But their utility, or lack of it, for big game hunting has scarcely been addressed here. I would suggest that historically there are three traditions in the development of hunting rifles: the Continentals, the Brits, and us in the USA. The Europeans from wheelocks on used set triggers on their hunting rifles and still do, some even of their modern double rifles have single set triggers and many if not most Euro Mausers I have seen are DST. This may be because much of their hunting is from blinds where standing shots are the rule. The English were not much on rifles on their own island, saving some limited stag stalking in Scotland, and when they began serious big game hunting in India and Africa they did not use set triggers. Our own early Pennsylvania FL rifles were DST and this carried over into the brief percussion era but began to die out with breechloaders and faded away, despite their availability from such as Winchester, with lever action repeaters. American bolt guns never have had them. Yet much of our hunting calls for deliberate rather than quick shooting and it would seem that the ability to set a trigger for a light pull would offer advantages. One obstacle occurs to me, using an ST reasonably well requires practice, something the average American hunter won't do. But those of us who consider ourselves rifle cranks don't usually hunt with set triggers either.
