doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com William Ford with single non-selective trigger

I have a William Ford BLE on the way with a single non selective trigger.

Serial number is 8798, so somewhere between 1904 and 1911 (I've found two Fords with serial numbers that bracket this one), but probably closer to the earlier date.

What do we know about them, when did they come into use, what impact on value might they have?

...and if anyone knows who has the Ford records, that'd be cool to know.

The rest of the photos.

No one has info on William Ford and/or English single triggers?

For anyone following along, I've got the date of mfr. down to 1908.

I'm on vacation away from my references so I can't comment on this trigger. Reliable single non-selective triggers especially non-inertia ones are a plus for me. Most people don't like them even if they almost never shoot left barrel first.

Geoff, I own two William Fords, but unfortunately I don’t have any insight into either Ford records nor the single triggers they might have used. (My two are a chamberless 10gr in original condition, and a chamberless 12 rechambered to 10ga.). Good luck with your search. Chris

I read about Ford's "chamberless" work when I was researching him. Interesting idea.

I appreciate the reply regardless. If you think about it once you're home, that'd be great.

I've shot my AyA Model 53 with a single non-selective trigger for over 20 years now...barrel selection is - IMO - overrated for ~90% of shots we take with shotguns.

William Ford is known to have made a gun with a Boss patent (turret type) single trigger, but i see from your photo that your incoming gun is not a Boss single trigger.

Stephen Howell

How can you tell by looking at the photos? Was there some defining external characteristic of the Boss trigger that this gun lacks?

Look at the photos on pages 44-47 of BIRMINGHAM GUNMAKERS by Douglas Tate about William Ford.


Stephen Howell

I wish I could, but I don't own the book.

Geoff - FWIW, here's a thread with pictures of both of my William Fords in it. https://doublegunshop.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=482486

The book BIRMINGHAM GUNMAKERS is a must have for British gun enthusiasts. I looked at eBay and they must have two dozen copies for sale, one was only $30.00. The section I mentioned about William Ford provides little details of their guns, but for other makers discussed in the book much detail is written.

Stephen Howell

Looks like the Joseph Lang trigger. I have a Lang "Best" made 1907 that has what looks like the same.

Thanks!

I'll take a look, thank you.

Thanks - I'll get a closer look at it on Tuesday when it gets here.

I have the gun in hand.

The trigger is mechanical - it will fire both barrels with snap caps in without having to tap the butt.





I haven't started cleaning anything up yet, just wanted to get the photos up.

No one knows what kind of trigger that is?

Suggestions from other sources say it's a Baker trigger.

I would say correct. Same as in my 1907 Lang. I have never had any issue with my Lang single trigger. Works flawlessly

Thanks so muchI

Great to hear about your Lang. I read that they were another consistent customer for the Baker trigger.

In my digging around, I found that adding a single trigger to these guns could ad 15% - 20% to the price, so they seldom went on lower end guns.

I saw this thread and shared it with Steve Dalzell. He really likes the gun and asked me to share his thoughts:

"What a very nice gun! By a very good, if little known maker, too.
"I've done a little research and come up with the following, which you might like to add to the discussion.
"Date: From Ford's records, which do exist despite the confident claim in the tread that they do not! 1908
"Proof marks: Date to post 1904 with a re-proof after 1954 and before 1989
"Trigger: Baker patent 19,430 of 1901. This is a selective single trigger, though I'm not surprised that everyone has missed that as the selection is done by pushing the trigger forward. It reverts to right/left firing after a left/right sequence so you have to select left/right every time you want to use it. It seems quite a few of the best Birmingham makers used this pattern. I have a picture of a similar quality Charles Boswell so fitted.
"You're welcome!"

Learn something every day....

Of course, I set down my laptop and went down to check this immediately.

Mr. Dalzell is correct - it is indeed a selective single trigger, and works exactly as he describes. There's a slight reluctance for the 2nd barrel to fire with snap caps when the trigger is pushed forward - I'll have to look into that.

Is there a way for me to thank Mr. Dalzell directly?

I meant to reply to this as well: There is a London reproof mark from 1989 at the left rear of the left barrel - it's hard to see in the photo above as it was obscured by grease.

Here's a link to that patent: https://worldwide.espacenet.com/pub...=GB&NR=190119430A&KC=A&ND=4#

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