Marraki, 4seventy,

I can see your point Marraki. The notch on the interceptor is deep and the angle argues against an easy release, to say nothing of the effect of the mechanical advantage/disadvantage.

The locks on my Marcel Thys back action, which are supposed to be Holland pattern back locks, so far as I know, do not look like the one pictured above. I don't have a copy of Grey's book to compare, but I'll try to find one or look through my other books for a similar lock.

The locks on my bar action sidelocks, all shotguns, don't look like the lock above either and don't have the mechanical disadvantages it seems. I was able to trip the intercepting sear on one by using the lever and it didn't take a lot more pressure than tripping the primary sear with its lever. I have an Arrietta side lock, which is a nice Spanish gun with locks that are all but identical, on which I would be willing to try to trip the intercepting sear by pulling the trigger. I'll try to do this tomorrow evening, here at home - with a snap cap - to check the effort required. Won't know for sure if the hammer fall will be sufficient to fire a cartridge til I can get out to do some shooting though.

My rifle is away for a stock refinish right now, required when I took some wood off the right side and the cheek peice off the left. The patch job done before my last elephant hunt was ok for that purpose but...I'll try to get the smith to take some photos of the locks to refresh my memory.

FWIW,

I believe it is loose hand or loose finger during recoil, and maybe an unconscious effort to regain grip and control that creates the trigger pull doubling. I also believe that a SxS two trigger shotgun is the best training mechanism. And for a lot of reasons fisrst is volume second is you don't shoot a shotgun in a static situation very often, the reverse of rifles at the range.

Like Marraki, I do not recall moving my trigger finger to the rear trigger. Though, when shooting my shotguns I do recall moving my trigger fingure to the front trigger if I have chosen the tighter choked left barrel first for some reason. Maybe I recall this movement because it is different than 99.99% of the rest of the time and I must focus on the difference.

JPK