doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Lefever .410s - Nitro Specials, A grade, etc...

A fellow contacted me about some .410 Lefevers he has: a couple Nitro Specials, one A grade, and a single shot.

How much are these things worth?

I don't follow the market on Ithaca-period Lefevers, so I have no idea.

Lets assume 90% all original and then 50%, standard use.

BTW: he said the .410 A grade is a pretty rare gun. Is this true? The reference materials I have don't say anything about this.

Thanks for the help

OWD

The A grade and single shot would be more rare than the nitros. I see them on gb all the time, and always for astronomical prices. Personally I would love to own a nice 16 Lefever long range field and trap single.

Yes, the A Grade .410 is very rare. Any A grade is rare.

I assumed the Lefever A Grade being referred to is the later Ithaca Lefever made in the 30's and almost identical to the NID marketed as the "New Ithaca Field Grade" in 1935. It is shown in Walt S's book and has single line engraving around the perimeter of the receiver and not much else. In the same book is a picture of a real Lefever A grade finished in 1926 after Lefever had been bought by Ithaca. A completely different gun and on par with a Grade 5 or better Ithaca and a B grade Parker in terms of engraving, checkering and embellishments. I would think the latter would be the truly rare-and expensive- gun you speak of. A later A Grade or New Ithaca Field Grade in .410 would probably bring a hefty premium over a 12 or 16 gauge- maybe 4 or 5 times more-, but nothing near the early hand crafted high grade Lefever. Walt would know much more about this than I. Hope this helps.

All .410 doubles have suffered from significant inflation. Rarest gauge out there in classic doubles, other than the 28 which was only made in any kind of quantity by Parker, Ithaca, and Iver Johnson. Result is high prices, even on hardware store .410 doubles.

Any .410 Lefever will be an Ithaca made (& Designed) one. Neither Lefever Arms Co or D M Lefever (Etal) made guns smaller than 20ga. This would include any side-plated guns made/assembled/finished by Ithaca bearing the Lefever Arms Co name.
The Ithaca NS/A grades are totally different guns. Only these were made in .410.

I just looked on one of the gun for sale boards and the prices asked for .410-bore Nitro Specials seems all over. Low was $1200 from Paul Crusnoe, and high was $3399 from Cabelas in Fort Worth, for guns that appear virtually identical in the pictures!!

The A-Grade is very scarce with just under 2500 total built in their six year run (1934 to 1939) to begin with and in .410-bore even more so. There is an article on the Lefever A-Grades in The Double Gun Journal, Volume Eighteen, Issue 4, pages 42-46.

In 1984 my Father came back to the east coast to visit, and he and I took a September driving tour of New England. At the Kittery Trading Post in Maine, they had a Lefever A-Grade, the Model 6 Skeet Gun, in .410-bore, for the then astronomical price of $750!!!! Ah.... Hindsight!!