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

Personally, I wouldn't dare to attempt a modification to a working single trigger that was 90 plus years old, simple or not. The only place the non automatic reset is a nightmare is if the shooter uses his gun for American trapshooting. In any other clay target game, or in hunting, the non auto reset is just no real world problem needing a fix. Of course, in the "day", trapshooting was the main activity in competitive shooting, and I wonder how the Infallible was accepted in that game. Any Infallibe user in a one shot competitive game would have to have his wits about him to avoid shooting at an expensive target with an empty chamber.

The Infallible Company goes on to suggest [for a trap shooter with a double of equal choke, I suppose, shooting only one barrel] that the proper use is to load the barrel opposite the ejected shell after each shot. In this way one avoids heat build up found in firing the same barrel all of the time. They seem to have good reasons for everything about their trigger.

To quote Daryl...I suppose one could NON-FACTORY alter the Infallible to automatic reset...

You're probably correct, the gunsmith who installed the single trigger on my Prussian Sauer was Otto Neubrand (double barrel patent # 2,092,850) ...I looked at it very carefully to see if it was some other model other than the 1912, it was not...the only difference was that the underside of the safety button had a small bar silver soldered to it that engaged the selector when the safety was moved (backward only)...there were no alterations to the trigger except the removal of the selector linkage, which was not necessary at all and may have been done by the previous owner Loren Smith (Colt author). Loren used the gun for skeet, and it was he who paid Otto to install the trigger. Years later I bought the gun from Loren.

RC, Neubrand must have been a really good 'smith. I can understand what he did with your description of the alteration.

Robert;
I truly appreciate the info you have supplied on these triggers. I apparently have a different edition of "Two-Shots" than does Researcher as mine gives no info on the triggers at all, only a very brief account of Mr Worrest himself & of course the listing of patents.
The H Lefever on which mine is installed, as mentioned has two SNs. They are however only 4 #s apart @ 73,338 & 73,342. I do not have a current listing of the LAC SN list but in the one I have from a few years ago both of these numbers are the highest listed. Again I have absolutely no proof, but tend to believe this gun is as it left the (Ithaca) factory, likely assembled at the very tail end of production utilizing parts on hand. This is also the only Lefever I have with a two position, non-automatic safety. My earliest one has a two position auto-safe, with all others having the common three position auto-safe. All others are two triggered guns. I do not have one of the Lefever SST's which used the safety button as the selector.

Daryl, I haven't read the Infallible pamphlet cover to cover, for years, if I ever have. I'm sure an early trapshooter could teach himself to look down at his breeches every time he opens the gun, and insert a shell in the empty chamber before the empty shell ejects or is manually extracted. My Infallibe guns are all extractor guns anyway. As always, "Read instructions before operating equipment." Murphy

Yeah, Otto was quite the double gunsmith...the patent below is for a double single trigger...the guys he was friends with say that he made the patent gun from scratch, rather than fit his mechanism to an already existing gun, but I've never seen any guns marked Neubrand...Although I had been to his shop in Clarence NY many times,back then, I didn't know enough about doubles to ask to see it (or any other guns that he made from scratch) ...

To the top.

Murphy,
Just an OT side note about SD&G and single triggers...SD&G received a single trigger patent in France in 1908...here it is a year later in Germany ...the gun looks like an Ithaca to me...and although neither France or Germany lists the particular name of the inventor, I have a hunch (two other LC Smith triggers) it was a New York state inventor.

Daryl, the "Peck's Bad Boy" gun with Infallible trigger surfaced several years ago and was sold to a collector. That collector has passed away and the disposition of his collection is unknown to me. I own the Lancaster catalog testimonial Lindner Golcher and would like to own the "Peck's Bad Boy" gun if anyone knows where it is and can contact me. Rumor has it that it now has a Miller trigger. George Peck was a prolific competition shooter and apparently made many changes to his guns. He lived and shot here in the Washington DC area for some years.