Posted by David Williamson on January 9, 2025, 9:13 am
Not sure if many know this but changing a Hot to a double trigger sometimes does not work out. Example, some catalogs from Hunter Arms Co. had in the back an order form. You picked out what you wanted whether it be a pistol, straight, POW, ejectors, HOT, what ever within reason. It also had a place for length of pull showing a diagram of the two triggers, with a line from the center of the front trigger to the end of the stock wood. You put fill in your LOP which we will say is 14". You wanted a HOT in the rear position. Hunter Arms used these dimensions to make your stock but now added 1" to the overall length because that is the difference between a two trigger gun. The LOP would still be 14" LOP but is now from the centerline of the rear trigger location. Many HOTs are rear trigger probably taking into account for a gloved hand. Now let us say the gun is sold and the next caretaker doesn't want the HOT and wants it changed to a two trigger gun. Now the length of pull is 15" from the centerline of the front trigger. If the owner is not told of this and gets the gun back he then finds out the stock is too long for him, now what? Cut an inch and basically ruin a good stock. For those of us a 14" LOP is fine, but a 15" is just too long. So there are things to consider when having this procedure done. Middle position, 14 1/2" LOP which might be ok. There are many past tournament shooters that used a HOT with thousands upon thousands of rounds shot and no problems, they have taken a bad rap because of sending the gun to someone that knows nothing about them and proceeds to take gun apart and I have stated this before, the side plate connecting screw could be 1/4- 1/2 turn too tight or too loose and the trigger will not work. I always measure that area with a digital vernier caliper before taking locks off.
Re: Consequences on going to double triggers on a HOT
As someone who has converted DTs to SSTs over 100 times and worked on hundreds of Hunter One Triggers I’ll say this. The gunsmith doing the conversion better have their act together. It’s a monster of a job. The factory changed out the floor plate. The hammers & sears will need changed too as a single trigger hammer is not the same as a double trigger hammer. Safety is different. And if the stock was homemade and sloppy then Katie bar the door. Just sayin’