Why horn trigger guards?

[Doug Kellermann]

I have noticed that several of the fancier drillings have horn trigger guards. Can anyone provide insights as to when the horn trigger guard started and why it was selected?

thanks

Doug

[Axel E]

Many hunters insisted that horn, later plastic triggerguards are more friendly to the touch in cold weather. Remember, most rifle barrels were used here with set triggers. You cannot properly handle a set trigger with gloves, so at least the trigger finger has to be naked in winter.
Horn triggerguards on rifles go back to flintlock times. In Austria and neighboring countries the so-called (for unknown reasons) "Kapuzinerschaft" = capucine stock was rather popular during the late 1700s. Here the triggerguard was carved as part of the stock, from the same block. Soon the wood was replaced by the less breakable horn.

[C. Roger Bleile]

Doug, thanks for asking about the horn trigger guard, I have always wondered about it.

Axel, thanks for your answer. Can you tell us the German word(s) for the horn trigger guard?

Thanks,
Roger

[Axel E]

Horn-Abzugsbügel or (short) Hornbügel

[rtenenbown]

I understand that another reason is the noise factor of having other items, (especially metal) such as binoculars, come on contact with the trigger guard.

[xausa]

Axel, I saw a pre-war drilling advertised recently with what was described as a bakelite trigger guard. My memory of bakelite is that is a very brittle substance. Was it actually used for trigger guards and, if so, was any kind of metal reinforcement used to prevent breakage?

[mike ford]

More modern plastic trigger guards were called Kunsthorn.Not nearly as brittle as bakelite. BTW broken horn is very difficult to repair.
Mike

[Axel E]

Bakelite, or more correct phenolic resin, is brittle in usual appliances, but could be made tougher by using some fibers instead of minerals as fillers. Most pre-war "plastic" or "ebonite" buttplates are actually made of this stuff. Up to the 1950s "Bakelit" was often used as a generic term in Germany, just as "Plastik" is today. Somewhere in my junkboxes there is a broken triggerguard from a Walther, Zella-Mehlis "Sportmodell" .22lr trainer. here the black plastic was formed around a steel sheet inner core, invisible unbroken.

[norsk]

Axel's comment got me thinking about my Walther WSF shotgun. The factory reprint brochure I have states that "The trigger guard is of black artificial horn, which is very pleasant to the touch, especially in cold weather;" The guard on my gun has a couple if lengthwise cracks along the bow of the guard, most likely caused by a fall sometime in the past. But, the guard is still very solid, with no splitting. A quick test with a magnet revealed that it too has a steel inner core.