Please explain the trigger. Is it a single set ?

I saw that.   Yes, I strongly suspect that it is the single set option that was listed for the 44-1/2 for a while.  Stevens would fit it to a 44 on special order. I bought one such from a Gunbroker listing about six months ago.   This is only the second that I have ever seen.

What clues me in is the sharp rearward rake of the trigger.  A normal single trigger rests more forward.  And the only reason to have the separate lower tang on a 44 is set triggers, double or single.

The one I bought needed some TLC.   The trigger spring in it was much too stiff.  I narrowed it down on a grinder, and now it works quite well.   The serial number on my tang is from the 44-1/2 series.   

The option wasn't popular.  Apparently a first iteration didn't work well, so they improved it in some way.  And I doubt that the Schuetzen men would have liked it, because you have to release your right hand from the grip to set it.

There is a description of it on Pg.46 of the 1907 catalogue.

Screw runs through the root of the trigger from back to front. Virtually impossible to see it looking from the side. 

I only know this from looking at mine.

I emailed the seller when I first saw it, asking them to try setting the trigger. No response.

Too bad Bubba cut a dovetail on top of the receiver. 

Here's a couple of pictures of one of my 44 1/2's with a single set trigger.  With the trigger pushed forward the adjustment screw is visible,  with the trigger un-set and all the way back the adjustment screw isn't visible.

How well does the trigger work ?

I have a set of dimensioned drawings for the single set trigger.  I may have found those drawings on this forum.  Somehow I have blundered into four 44-1/2s and 044-1/2s with this trigger.

Got 'em. I still had to take mine apart to see how it works.  Too simple.  When you push the trigger forward, the tip of that little spring in front rides over the point formed by the two cuts in that slot on the side.  When you pull it, it snaps back over that point, throwing the trigger against the sear.

Are these trigger groups interchangeable between a 44 and 44 1/2 ?

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.