doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Infallible single trigger - what the story....

This trigger is on my Ithaca # 6 Trap Gun. I have thought it may be an infallible ,but not sure. Give me your comments please.

Stallones, your trigger doesn't seem to resemble the Infallible single selective trigger, but I have not seen one like yours. Is your trigger non selective ?

Eightbore, do you know of anyone seeing the Pecks Bad Boy Parker high grade hammer gun with the Infallible single [selective?] trigger ? It was presented to Geo. Peck in Sept. of 1884 and equiped with an Infallible trigger on May 28, 1913. Gun has a large presentation circle shaped plate on the right side of the buttstock.

Yes, it is non-selective, probably installed on this gun about 1915 when sent back to Ithaca for "Crown Steel" bbls

Daryl, I was looking at that gun today in the Infallible folder. It appears to be a C Grade, not a common find. No, that gun has not crossed my path although I am interested in competition guns of the early era, especially provenanced guns, regardless of whether or not they have aftermarket equipment. My Golcher-Linder pigeon gun not only has an Infallible trigger but is the only ten bore hammer gun I've seen with a beavertail forend. Many of these guns are "out there" but have been shunned by collectors and have probably been returned to the hunting field. Bill Murphy

My "Infallible" is selective, chosen by a thumb slide set into the left side of the top tang. It is however not "Re-Setting", ie unless altered by moving the slide it fires the bbls alteranately, regardless of whether the gun may or may not have been opened & reloaded between shots. Thus if you fire the right bbl only, open & reload, the next time you pull the trigger it will fire the left, unless you reset the slide to R. The setting slide itself moves to other setting with each trigger pull.

Miller, that's the way they usually were. As soon as you fire the selected barrel, the selector slide moves to the unfired barrel, waiting for a pull. If you want to refire the first barrel after reloading the fired barrel, you must reselect the first barrel. I have never had a problem with reliability shooting these triggers.

It's always a little hard to know exactly what to say when someone quotes somebody elses misquotes of myself and my research work. The info that Researcher posted from "Larry B Schuknect's book on double gun patents" was actually close but not exactly correct.
The story is far more involved than that but I think it's best if I just stand back and watch (read).
In the name of advancement, I will point out some glaring misquotes though. Patent 871550 was drawn on a Crass, not a Minier.... Don't forget patent 1013255.... Alfreds 3rd single trigger patent was applied for on June 25th 1909. Hint---that patent was never granted. Even Worrest himself knew that 829453 and 871550 belonged in the scrap heap...those first two triggers were both failures in every sense of the word.

This Infallible trigger is fron a LC Smith Crown grade 20ga...note that it's a standard Infallible...All the talk about Worrest's first unsucessful patent has given rise to stories of Worrest being employed by Hunter Arms at one time...or...about LC Smith's with Infallible triggers being hollowed out...and more...they're all nonsense...don't take my word for it, look for yourself...compare it to the drawings from 829453

When I said that I thought it is best if I stand back and read, it's because most of what I have can't be easily backed by cross-reference the way the info I post can be. Besides, maybe my views of Worrest are askew or inverted. If you guys unfold it, the way Revdocdrew's crew unfolded the damascus story, then I could quietly learn and save myself from eatin' crow publicly.
There are three models of Worrest triggers, the 1906, the 1907, and the 1912 models....I've only seen the 1912...and although I've seen 10 or so, everyone was the 1912 model, like the one I have posted pictures of (above)...I theorize (and I'll bet $10) that nobody can show pics of an '06 or an '07 because of the high failure rate. So in reality, when we talk about the Infallible trigger, there is only one...so why refer to it as the 1912? It's the "Infallible", and in my opinion, the most reliable single trigger mechanism of the era, maybe ever.
Also, to 2 Piper and DH...the Infallible can be made automatic reset if you already have an automatic safety. If your safety is not automatic, then you can still have the reset connected to the safety, but you have to cycle the safety to reset for the right barrel...which is alot easier than reaching for the selector...with an automatic safety, the only time you need to use the selector is when you need to shoot the left first...which is never, because we rarely shoot driven game, and the Infallible never balks.

RC, I suppose one could NON-FACTORY alter the Infallible to automatic reset, but the manufacturer takes great pains to say that they do NOT make their trigger this way. They say--

"The Infallible Single Trigger is made to shoot either right or left barrel first, but will not be made to repeat either barrel by opening the gun."

They then spend a long paragraph saying why this is the proper and best design. Then they sumarize----

The Infallible Single Trigger is always ready to shoot the next barrel whether you open the gun or not, and with the convenient shift button on top of the gun under the thumb, the GUN IS ALWAYS IN COMMAND OF THE SHOOTER.