Lefever Nitro Special 12 Gauge Coach Gun

[s&wchad]

I looked at some items from an estate yesterday and spotted this hiding in the back of the safe. The family thought it was illegal and wanted to know how to “dispose” of it without going to prison!

I measured the barrels (18-1/2”) and assured them it was perfectly legal. They still had no interest in keeping it and snapped up my modest purchase offer.

The barrels were obviously cut down. There was a good size unsightly void at the muzzle between the barrels and ribs. The previous owner added the Raybar front bead.

It was filthy. I spent a few hours cleaning it inside and out. It’s tight on face and the bores turned out to be in fine condition. I cleaned the inside of the void at the muzzle with alcohol, fluxed the heck out of it and crammed some solder into the void to act as a stop. I then used a butane torch to gently heat the barrels, built-up molten solder and then filed it down and polished it. It could probably use a little more work to bring it down perfectly even with the steel, but I’m calling it good for now. I doubt Holland and Holland would hire me, but I’m pleased with the results.

Say hello to my little friend!

 

[Richard Simmons]

I think the repair looks fine! Congratulations on your new friendship!

 

[Nevada Ed]

Nice find and it looks in great condition.
Coach guns are sort of neat................

Mine is not in as good of shape as yours, since it has a few more years on it........
and it has been a while since it was last shot.

This is a picture of what the muzzle looks like.

 

[Ruger 13]

Nice find!

 

[.357magger]

Nothing like The Lupara.

Congratulations on a nice find and clean up.

Thanks for sharing it.

 

[bigmoose]

That is one neat coach gun. In my opinion a great self defense weapon. Kudos on your find and respectable repair job.

 

[6518John]

That is one neat coach gun. In my opinion a great self defense weapon.

Mine too. 2 3/4 inch shell holds NINE 00 Buck pellets of .33 caliber. So that’s 18 .33 caliber rounds flying through the air, BAM, BAM. (As fast as one can pull the trigger).

No more formidable close range weapon other than maybe a hand grenade, Claymore Mine, or full auto sub gun.

 

[OLDSTER]

I like it. Those old Lefever Nitro box locks were not elegant, but are bank vault strong.

 

[Heinz]

Nice Lupara! A real "to whom it may concern" gun

 

[s&wchad]

The serial number (108K range) dates to 1922, so it’s a hundred years old!

 

[Mule Packer]

Nice job!! I agree completely with bigmoose and 6518 John. A coach gun is one of the most simplistic yet most effective weapons for self defense.

Here are mine. The top one is an old Ansley H. Fox Sterlingworth in 12 gauge. Bottom is a newer CZ hammer gun also in 12 gauge. Someone once said that the most terrifying sight to a burglar is a scared woman at the top of the stairs holding a sawed-off shotgun. And I can believe it, too.

 

[Charlie Foxtrott]

Nothing says go away better!

Than the business end of a double barreled scatter gun.

 

[Charlie Foxtrott]

I have a few of those short barreled double guns cut down.

Four twelve gauges and two sixteens. They are handy. I may decide to get an SBS ticket and cut one way down.

 

[max503]

"Say hello to my little friend!"

Friends like that are good to have, and a gun like that can be very practical. I recently bought a short-barreled, single shot 20 gauge. Now that I'm retired I camp a lot. The 20 will go with me to the "shotgun only" hunting areas here in Illinois. The short barrel and open choke keeps from ruining squirrel meat.

Nice work on that muzzle.

 

[Drm50]

I’ve done several cleaning void and shoving in wad of brass wool and dripping low temp Brownels silver solder in. Fast pass with propane torch
then draw file. I was always afraid to get to much heat and separate barrels
I’ve been locking for a good solid gun like yours for about 2 months. I need one for a trade. Doubles are hard to come by unless high dollar or junk.

 

[H Richard]

Not what that was designed for, but try it on a skeet field some time. You may be presently surprised. And, if you still have any quail in your area it could be a handy quail gun.

 

[s&wchad]

I was always afraid to get to much heat and separate barrels.

I was careful not to get them too hot. I looked at the rib attachment pretty close and didn’t see any solder inside, so I suspect they may have been brazed on.

Everything still seems solid, so guess I lucked out!

 

[2152hq]

They are soft soldered.
Being cut down that far, it would have left the farthest forward spacer betw the bbls in the chopped off piece of bbls.
There are usually 3 spacers betw the tubes,,sometimes 2.
Nothing more than stacks of thin strips of steel soft soldered in place. Some are a strip of sheet steel folder over to get the right thickness.

Many SxS's have a piece of steel placed into the muzzle betw the bbl, some times two pieces. Shaped in a triangular shape and anywhere from 1/2" to much longer. These are called Keels.
The better guns usually have them. Some less expensive don't.
They relly don't make much of a different in how the gun performs.

They are fillers generally and also help keep the bbls in place while being soldered together.

Filling up the open void on a cut down bbl'd gun like this can be done a couple different ways and has been touched on already.
The use of a wad of steel wood pushed down in first, then fluxed and then the solder applied is the usual way.

Clamping the bbls in both directions bbl to bbl and rib to rib assures no separations. You don't need much pressure at all just enough to secure it.
Too much clamping pressure will make the bbls jump out of alaignment once the solder melts betw the ribs and bbls if you do get to that point.
But the job can generally be done w/o that much heat.

I do the soldering with an elec soldering gun and it has more than enough heat to do the job and not bother the bbl/rib solder. No clamping necessary.

Those Nitro Specials are tough SxS's.
A simple lock-up and robust parts.

A cracked stock back through the wrist is somewhat common. The action uses a through bolt to secure it in the butt stock. If a bit loose, the rounded ends of the tangs act like a big blunt wedge to pound the stock and often crack the wood.

They are a bear to re-assemble the hammers and mainsprings (coil) w/o the use of some sort of fixture to hold the spring and it's follower captive for you. A home made fixture for use in a drillpress of mill-drill is simple enough.

May people resort to actually drilling and tapping the frame itself underneath the trigger plate and using a setscrew to jam the mainspring and follower in place in a compressed position to enable the hammer(s) to be inserted and pinned back in.
It works, but kind of a Bubba method.

It's Cyl/Cyl now with the cut bbls but the small numbers on the forward edge of the bbl flats will tell you what the orig chokes were.
0,S,1,2,3,4
Most were 2 & 4 Mod and Full.

The old Nitros make up into a pretty nice custom gun as well when styled much like the A-Grade Lefever N/Spl.