What do you think of this one...
32inch swamp rib grade 2E.

Odd combination to me. Trying to save weight on a double with 32” barrels. Why? Nice looking gun but I suspect it was special ordered for someone who had ideas about what he wanted and did not worry about others.

Oh, it’ll get better...

I don't like it a t'all.

SRH

Agree, Stan. If it ain't a NID Ithaca, I wouldn't want to own or shoot it- Looks like a Flues Ithaca to my old eyes. RWTF

VERY interesting !
Do you have the build sheet on order??

Mike

... and now the punchline. It would be hell on trap but a little tough for skeet !

Lon B. Smith's was a Gr 5 NID



Researcher's images

I'd rather Miss than shoot a gun with a stock that looked like that.
I could live with the swamped rib, but not that stock.

Drew beat me to it!! That is an awesome piece of wood for a No. 2E Flues.

Wonder if it was a Lawrence (Lon) B. Smith gun from the years before the NID? Maybe if I actually read his book Better Trapshooting, Copyright 1931, E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc.?

That stock looks like a continent!

Atlantis?

Looks like a Flues? As in, you're suspicious but not certain?

I would have to shoot it mighty well to grow to love it. Frankly, I think I'd rather give up a few birds than have to look at that in my own safe.

Nope- Just 100% sure it's NOT a NID-- and by the way, do I see sling swivels installed? Wonder why anyone would want that feature on a clays/live bird gun?? On a German drilling, yes, but on this Flues 2E 12, what useful purpose do they serve? Foxie

Drew, thanks for a great post. To the topic and explaining what Jason's gun is.

Dave did all the work Daryl; I'm just the librarian.

When BBHC is able to generate Ithaca research letters with Bro. Walt's records, this would be a gun worth investigating.

More about Smith
https://www.trapshooters.com/threads/vintage-trapshooting-book-from-the-1930s-cool.614737/
He was NY State Amateur Champion in 1930 (200x200) and 1931.

He ran a shoot in 1921
https://books.google.com/books?id=28g6AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA518&lpg

The LOP looks to be short. Could the gun have been for his wife?

The gun is in unused condition-there is a sharpness / edges/ on the engraving that is rarely seen. I need to set up a tripod to photograph better, you’d be surprised how much the trampoline moves when photographing.
Positivity is a wonderful thing, regardless of the shape (or brand) there is incredible history here, choose to take what you want from it. It may be just an Ithaca, but that was ok for Sousa, Roosevelt, and about 300,000 others!

Also thanks to the knowledgeable- I bought copies of two of Smith’s books this am. Little reading never hurt anyone.

You may want to post over in the Ithaca section on Shotgunworld to make sure Walter Snyder sees this --

https://www.shotgunworld.com/bbs/viewforum.php?f=59&sid=f9efd32735d5bfaac9f1553e020faadb

Add Al Capone, and Idaho hunters "Bud" Purdy and Gene Van Guilder, and sports luminaries Jack Dempsey and Red Grange to that list of "Ithaca-istas"-- My 12 gauge 2E NID has the best trigger pulls of any doublegun I have ever owned and shot enough to be familiar with. RWTF

It doesn't seem any other company bragged on the famous folks who used their products like Ithaca. From the 1925 Ithaca Gun Co. catalog --







Each page actually has two more shooters, but my flat panel scanner won't completely do those 14-inch pages of Ithaca catalogs of that time.

Not that it means anything, but while watching the BBC World News this evening I thumbed through High on the Wild With Hemingway. The two pictures of Gene Van Guilder with an identifiable shotgun showed a Featherweight L.C. Smith and Model 21. The one picture of "Bud" Purdy he was holding a Remington Model 870.

2nd page left is Jay Clark; the Gold Medal 1920 Antwerp Olympic Team - F. W. McNeir, Frank S. Wright, Frank Troeh, H. R. Bonser, Mark Arie, Jay Clark, Jr. (Capt). From "Trapshooting: The Patriotic Sport" by D. H. Eaton
https://books.google.com/books?id=6aQvAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA159

2 shots were allowed at the Olympic Games and I don't know what gun Clark used but it might be a pump



He and his Ithaca

"High On The Wild With Hemingway" is the ONLY book about Hem's Idaho years I do NOT have. But I have Tillie Arnolds book--"The Idaho Hemingway" on page 35-= Gene is shown mounting a single triggered double gun- can't see enough detail from the grainy foto- but looks like a boxlock to me- and from the frame shape- my guess is Ithaca- Bud Purdey may have shot other pumpguns, but his vade mecum pumpgun was an Ithaca M37 featherlight- Hem gave him a made-to-order Spanish double 12 gauge, but Bud shot the Ithaca better--RWTF

Ithaca turned out quite a few unusual guns during the Flues era (but most of them not quite THAT unusual!) I've seen several Flues, both 20 and 28ga, with 24" barrels. Some hunters' idea of a grouse and woodcock (or possibly quail) gun, I suppose.