doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Grip safety

What a cracking collection of different guns with the grip safety � Mr Perrins certainly tried to please his customers with the latest innovations from the very top makers.
Moving on to the trigger guards � this is a photo of one of Perrins early percussion singles � with a birds eye maple stock.
As you see it has a similar shaped trigger guard � even if not quite so fancy. I have no idea why they made them like this � I will ask those with much more knowledge than myself.
John

Fletched Pair,
Sorry for the tardy reply.
I was informed by a learned gunmaking friend and colleague that the shape of the triggerguard originates from the fore hand hold used by northern continentals in target rifle shooting.
The triggerguard is balanced on the extended thumb with the first finger on the forend just in front of the knuckle.
Apparently the logic in target shooting is that when shooting a rifle standing without support, it stopped one gripping the barrel and pulling the shot.
The practice carried over to shotgun shooting and survived up to the 1st WW but has since died out.
And no, I wasn't having my leg pulled!
The horse scabbard theory sound plausible except that I don't imagine that wealthy Austrian aristocrats rode out to shoot driven pheasants but if they did, their guns were most likely consigned to a very elegant horse drawn carriage that preceded them to their battue.

Another possible explanation for the flat-fronted trigger guard is to make the gun more comfortable to hold draped over the shooter's forearm. If you've ever tried this with a conventional guard, you,ll recall how quickly it becomes painful.