This explains something that has puzzled me for some time about my Merkel 140-2, 470NE double rifle. I’ve had three people accidently double that rifle by pulling the back trigger first, and everyone says this is a malfunction.

Like you found the makers say the rifle was designed to fire the front trigger first. The right trigger has a slightly lighter trigger pull than the back trigger. Now I know why the maker says this. It is because of the inertia trigger block. That allows the right trigger to be lighter without being a “SET “ trigger on the big bores for pin point accuracy.

The strange thing is, I often fire the back trigger first to select a solid that is almost always loaded in that barrel, with a soft point in the right barrel. I have never had a double discharge on this rifle myself in ten years.

This is the way I load this rifle when leaving the hunting car. My reason for this is, I want a soft for the first shot on anything but elephant, and the second shot to be a solid for a possible going away shot.

Thank you for the pictures!