For 200 yard Standing I like the Ballard. They have the best triggers and are easy to load.

Quote:



Pretty dogmatic statement there, Pete, and not quite true. I respectfully but firmly draw your attention to the several different types of three- and four-lever set triggers found on the Martinis. Also, Frank de Haas showed details of his self-setting four-lever (I believe) Ballard trigger in one of his books. Of course none of the US factory rifles ever had anything more than the simple two-lever trigger, that's true, but then again there are more single shots made in other parts of the world..........

I DO agree with your statement that the best trigger is the one that works best FOR YOU.
Good luck, Joe

And the more levers the slower the lock time.

Mr. Sharps,

If you don't have a copy, get a copy of Frank DeHaas' book "Single Shot Rifles and Actions".  It is a MUST HAVE for any single shot enthusiast, and the author goes into detail (with very nice illustrations) about many of the fine early actions.  I've had my copy for over 20 years, and have durn near worn the ink off the pages.  even after all these years, it sits prominately on my nightstand, in easy reach!

Greg

Martin,

  Your statement might be true, but I don't think many could tell the difference in the time, considering that the internal hammer versions of Adyt and Martini actions would have about 1/4 the travel distance as an external hammer such as is prevalent on American Schuetzen rifles. So, what you say might be true, but.....

  It would be an interesting test to see how the lock times actually do compare. I don't believe I've ever read of such a test.

  And unless an American action was tuned by an expert it can't be SAFELY set to the minimum trigger pulls a factory 3 or 4 lever system can.

  Now I'm certainly not against any American trigger system. I use several of them all the time, and only own one 3 lever.

  Sharps1874,

  Don't mistake a discussion of the various trigger systems as a battle. Far from it. This is how the "newbies" learn something. It only becomes a battle when someone sees they can't win the discussion and have to bring personalities into it.

  Someone mentioned they liked Ballards for offhand shooting. I think Ballards are a decent action, but, I'm not overly fond of them for offhand shooting because getting a grip suitable for offhand shooting with my Ballard requires me to move my hand to far forward in order to get my trigger finger situated so I get a straight pull back. Things don't feel secure.... to me. This could probably be corrected by going to a better lever design, but I'm not going to alter a Schoyen to do it. My problem!

  I happen to prefer SST's or CCST since I can get my trigger finger around in front of the trigger to suit me, plus get a decent hold of the rifle, and do it with standard levers. Some have mentioned on other threads here that they think SST's aren't any good, or at least far inferior to a DST.

  You want to know what actions we consider best. Well triggers are probably the one most important item in deciding which action to use. I don't think anyone makes a set trigger for the Trapdoor, and altho there are some set triggers for RB's I haven't seen any I thought would equal those of falling block actions....... Again, I own one and that's my opinion.

  So that leaves you with side hammer, centrally hung hammer, and internal hammer lever guns. I own guns in all three! Personally I wouldn't use a side hammer gun for target work, due to the fact they create more movement to the action on let-off, and the hammer fall time is longer than the central or internal varieties.

  That leaves you with the three major American lever gun models, a few European internal hammer guns, and the Ruger #1 or #3. There are a few low production actions around, but I like to keep my comments to something you can readily get ahold of. If you can find a smith who knows how to tune & setup the Ruger that would probably be your best bet.

PETE

MartiniB,

  There are probably quite a few actions that are out there that can be used, and might be better than any of those mentioned so far.

  But, I like to talk about the ones I'm familiar with, and have, or, have had experience with, and leave the rest to those familiar with them. As such I've kept my remarks to those actions that are readily available. Actions such as the Hoch, which I've owned, are decent actions, but I didn't comment on it since finding one would be pretty hard to do. I'm not one of those guys who does his shooting with a typewriter, so in many cases my experience with particular actions is lacking.

  I'm always interested in hearing about some ACTUAL comparisons between action types not readily available and the more common types, or even with those I've never shot compared with those I have.

PETE

I prefer the Remington hepburn-Even through i'm left-handed , i've got one at a gunsmith being rebuilt now-it was in horrible shape only the barrel threads could be described as first class, everything else was poor-but i only paid $72.00 for it on a auction site that shall remain nameless(less they ban me for buying guns there). The last one i had was stolen in 1979 so it's been a long time between drinks. It's going to have a new tang welded on and be surface ground to remove the pits from it-but i did salvage the original extractor. I'm going to make it 45-70(cause i've got a reamer in that size)