Don't know what I was thinkin....

For alot more money, I coulda got a 90 year newer foreign made ***....


250 bucks... Tight as the day it was made in the US of A. Regulated, and patterns like a dream.


1923 Ithaca Lefever Nitro

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Non gratum anus rodentum

Wow. That is ugly. So that you can sleep at night, I'll take it off of your hands for $300.

Why don't I ever find those deals? Great looking gun!

Great Scott!!!
Are you feeling well??!?

Pssssst....hey, I don't know if friends told you or not....IT DOESN'T HAVE HAMMERS!!!

Kinda new-fangled for y'all, ain't it?

Great looking piece! I'd have bought it in a heartbeat. Hopefully it hasn't got 3" chambers.

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Lost it all in a boat accident

sometimes ugly is a good lookin' thing

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is it just me?

If you get bored and want to post more pictures of that "ugly" old gun, I'm sure we'd love to see them.

Gizamo, I have a 1927 12ga. Nitro Special... Handed down from my Grandfather.
Currently in Ithaca, N.Y. getting a full restoration...
Nice find,
KB

Yeah, that thing is so ugly. Better sell it to me.

Some people have no taste in firearms at all.

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Endeavor to persevere. <><

When did Smith and Wesson make them??!! Nice scattergun at a nice price........

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Go big or stay home

They are nice guns. I had a 20 gauge for a long time and when I could no longer chase the birds I sold it for a bunch more than you paid for that one. Enjoy it.

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Mighty 90's,Trying 4 a 100!

Nice Find!

Please tell me that it didn't get all scratched up on that wall

Nice find, Giz! I love a good double gun.

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Even older, even crankier....

Nice vintage double, will you hunt with it? Hey Giz, do you still have that Stevens 414? Another nice old gun. Larry

You mean,
You bought,
Something,

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Buy American
Vote Responsibly

That is a dependable gun that should shoot a long time. You got it at a really good price. Do you shoot at Vintage events? Larry

Gizamo,

That's a nice one; my Dad had one that I used to hunt with while I was growing up. Wish I had inherited it, but it went to my brother-in-law.

I sometimes cringe at your choice of props when you take a picture, but to each his own!

Andy



Do they still have a shop there?? The factory was razed a few years ago, and the company is now located here in NW Ohio.

Andy

I cut my teeth on a 16ga Nitro Special...still have it.

If that's ugly, I'd hate to see beautiful!!!

NICE GUN!!!!!!

Great double and a great price.

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SWCA #2421

I was using an original 1897 winnie for CAS=It's marked Adams Express Company. Didn't want anything to happen to it, so I went to a double. My wife had a cheap Chinese double. I got a Rossi Coach gun. Then a found an old LeFever for $300. Cut the barrels down. Then I found an Ithaca Lewis with a cut-down barrel for $200. Then I found a Stevens/Savage/Fox 311 or 312 for $200 (kept the 28" barrels)


Ithaca Lewis



My Chinese "loaner




Wife's Rossi





The 1897 just for contrast

This may make some of you "old double purists" unhappy, but it is odd enough that it is worth telling the story.

A friend and I visited a gunshop not far from where he lives. He was on the hunt for a particular Browning over-under. He had purchased one in 12-ga. and there was a "rumor" that it's brother in 20-ga. would be coming into the shop on consignment, owing to the owner's demise.

We walked in and asked about the Browning, to no avail, but the dealer mentioned another shotgun had come in from the same estate. We noticed what looked like a Lefever double in the rack, but it obviously had been restocked.

My friend is normally not interested in side-by-sides, but he must have been in the mood to spend money that day (unusual for him), so he asked about the gun. It had been completely refurbished, wood and metal, and there was not a mark or nick on it anywhere. But it had been restocked in... maple! I know this sounds "intolerable," but the workmanship was extraordinary - something you would expect to see somewhere else, not out in the cornfields of Indiana.

Everything about it was superb. The stock design and dimensions suited my friend perfectly. Wood to metal fit was perfect. The wood itself was a beautiful piece of bird's-eye, but not overly much so that the bird's-eyes were distracting, as they sometimes can be. It had a dreamy yellow-cream color that was slightly odd for maple, in my opinion, anyway. There was simple, but beautifully executed checkering as needed for a hunting gun - nothing too ornate. Prince of Whales 1/2-grip, 1/2" Pachmayr old English pad fitted to perfection. I don't believe I have ever seen a pad fitted any better. It had a small, semi-splinter forearm that somehow contained all the original iron, yet still looked like it belonged to the rest of the gun. Just an exceptional, exceptional piece of shotguncraft - but in... maple.

My friend set the gun back on top of the display case and stepped back a foot or two. Silence, for a few seconds. Then he said to me (thinking of the wonderfully out of place maple stock on this old gun that had been so skillfully refurbished), "Now what?"

The answer came quickly, "If you don't buy that thing, I will."

Whenever I see a Lefever I always think of that day and that shotgun, which my friend still owns. It goes afield exactly one day per year. Please forgive the drift here. I am always delighted to see others still taking pleasure in these old doubles.

The Old Factory is gone... The head Gunsmith for Ithaca has a shop in town, Diamond Gunsmithing... He does ALL THINGS on the old Ithaca's and Lefevers (That ithaca made)
KB

Giz, nice catch! I had one, traded it. Found it's near cousin
in Syracuse with a dented BBL. '23-'33 Baker Batavia Leader. Legally abbreviated and appropriatly named "the crowd pleaser".



I paid $90. for it.

They're nice classic US shotguns. Simple strong action, all coil springs, not much to go wrong.
Here's a 12ga Nitro Special in their 'A' Grade (slightly different stock style and offered w/ some options like ejectors, ect).
I think this one was made in 1934 IIRC.

A $250 gunshow special that I restocked, checkered (forend is original but restored), engraved, refinished, ect. One of the pics is the butt stock finished and filled but not checkered yet.
..and with all that,,it doesn't shoot a bit better than yours!

Have fun with it..

Dad's Lefever Nitro sure is the ugly compared to these beauties. He paid $50 back in his college days. He got taken big time. It was probably worth $50 in my college days. I fixed it up some, but it will never amount to much.