That seems to be the ticket. The instead trigger is fired once, and the after trigger is what continues to recurse.

USE [master]

GO

ALTER DATABASE [YourDatabaseName] SET RECURSIVE_TRIGGERS ON WITH NO_WAIT

GO

USE [YourDatabaseName]

GO

IF EXISTS ( SELECT *

FROM sys.objects

WHERE object_id = OBJECT_ID(N'dbo.maintable')

AND type IN ( N'U' ) )

DROP TABLE dbo.maintable;

GO

CREATE TABLE dbo.maintable ( triggername SYSNAME );

GO

CREATE TRIGGER dbo.instead_insert_maintable ON dbo.maintable

INSTEAD OF INSERT

AS

BEGIN

INSERT INTO maintable

VALUES ( OBJECT_NAME(@@PROCID) );

END

GO

CREATE TRIGGER dbo.after_insert_maintable ON dbo.maintable

AFTER INSERT

AS

BEGIN

IF @@nestlevel < 20

INSERT INTO maintable

VALUES ( OBJECT_NAME(@@PROCID) );

END

GO

INSERT INTO dbo.maintable

( triggername )

VALUES ( N'test' )

GO

SELECT *

FROM dbo.maintable

go