scharfe wrote on Aug 3^rd, 2023 at 1:48pm:


Short answer yes.   The tang assembly was designed for the three-digit version of the 44 somewhere around 1894, but back them was used only for set triggers.  Fast-forward to ~1902. When the 44-1/2 was being designed, they lifted it verbatim.  I'm surmising that this was necessary because the 44-1/2 receiver is a forging. They could forge one tang efficiently, but not both.  I've swapped a 44 DST assembly into a 44-1/2 frame, and vice versa, just to prove it to myself.

It's worth knowing that the assembly from a CPA 44-1/2 is not line-to-line compatible.  It fits in, but the tang  itself is enough different that it doesn't fit the wood of an original.  Pin diameters also differ.  I'm still possessed of a CPA pistol-grip DST assembly that I gave up on after finding this out.   

Single set trigger parts and parts list from Stevens catalog #54, c1914 reprint. 
The sst trigger plate or tang is basically the same as a 44 1/2 with a standard single trigger, with the difference being only an extra threaded hole for the knock off spring.

I think you might like these drawing.

Some time ago I discussed the single-set trigger with Gail at CPA.  She was familiar with the Stevens single-set trigger although CPA has never offered the feature.  She understood that Stevens discontinued the single set due to problems with the flat spring.  Typically after a couple hundred shots or so the spring would take a "set" (weaken) and the single set would no longer work, but the rifle would still fire without the single-set feature.  Gail indicated the spring only worked within a narrow range of tension, to light & the trigger will not go into the set position.  She was not clear on what happens if the spring is too strong.

Wayne

There are two springs.  The long one is what they called the trigger spring in the plain trigger 44-1/2.  I can't see how that one could "take a set", since it deflects very little.  The short, dog-legged one in front could be a problem, maybe.  I could imagine that wear on the tip would change the adjustment, and severe wear might make it not work at all.  Would that happen in a few hundred cycles?  I doubt it.  Would it "take a set"?  I doubt that, too, unless it were made of inferior metal or not tempered properly.  Possible.   

Given that the 44-1/2 didn't survive the Westinghouse takeover, the option for the 44 would have died also, whether it worked or not.

Who bought the one on Gunbroker?  Not I.