doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Ithaca flus 20 ga ejector ?

From the introduction of the Flues Model, both the Field Grade and the No. 1 Special used frames grade marked with an S as the frames for those two grades were the same.



The Field Grade was fitted with smokeless powder steel barrels and a half-pistol grip stock.

The No. 1 Special had a capped pistol grip stock and Cockerill Steel barrels.



The No. 1 was similar but fitted with Twist Steel barrels --



The No. 1 1/2 got a bit of zig-zag border engraving and was fitted with Damascus Steel barrels --



Then in mid-1915 Ithaca changed their engraving patterns to the bold McGraw styles, and the No. 1 1/2 got bold floral engraving --



Pretty quickly after that The Great War cut off the supply of composite iron and steel barrel tubes from Belgium. As Ithaca phased out Twist and Damascus barrels in every Ithaca catalog for 1916, 17 and 18 there were changes in these entry-level guns. The No. 1 Special was dropped, the No. 1 got steel barrels and zig-zag border engraving. June 1918 catalog --



Finally between the July and December 1919 catalogs they combined the surviving No. 1 and No. 1 1/2 as the New No. 1 --

the ithaca lefever nitro special is a far better choice...

https://www.gunbroker.com/Side-By-Side-S...amp;PageSize=24

Researcher, Thanks for all the good info.

Ed, I do like a nitro but very hard to find with ejectors. I do have a complete early nitro 20 ga factory single trigger receiver with all parts that I am hunting a barrel for.

have never seen a nitro special with ejectors...

did ithaca make such a thing?

There are a couple flues ejector guns on the GB now

Lefever Arms Company, Incorporated, offered ejectors on their Nitro Special from 1931 to 1934, the peak years of The Great Depression. By the 1935, ejectors were only offered on the A-Grades. Same for the Western Arms Corp. Long Range Double --

My only experience with 20 gauge Flues is many, many years ago I bought one rather cheap as it had cut barrels. Chokes were marked as 2 & 4 & I suspect it had been a 28" barrel. They were at that point Dead on 26" with some choke remaining. It was a fairly late one, 1924 as I recall & weighed in at a solid 6 lbs even. I hunted with it for several seasons & fed it primarily the factory "Heavy Field load" of 2� DE - 1 oz. I was totally unaware of the Flues' reputation of Frame Cracking at the time & it did have steel barrels & said it was nitro proof. The chambers had been lengthened & apparently wall thickness was adequate as I never had a problem with it, UNTIL, the ribs popped loose at the muzzle. I believe the barrels had previously been hot blued, likely when they were shortened which was, of course, an entirely different matter.

If I still had this gun in shootable condition today, would I recommend these loads for it, Definitely NO? I do however have to say it never squealed or groaned while they were being used. It is I suspect quite likely this late-model heavier gun than the 5�-5� lb earlier models had thicker sidewalls, though I never had on of the light ones to compare.

I'd agree that the later, slightly heavier Flues guns would likely be less prone to suffer a cracked frame. My first American classic was a Flues Field Grade 16. I don't remember for sure whether I had the chambers lengthened (well before I learned it wasn't a good idea) or whether they'd been lengthened by a previous owner. But I shot high brass 1 1/8 oz pheasant loads in that gun without issues. Like you--and even though the serious Flues problems reported seemed to be with the very light 20's--I would not do that again. (Instead, I'd look for an NID 16ga!) But it survived just fine.

The cracked frames weren't just in the light small bores. I have a series of letters from 1932 about a 1921 vintage heavy 10-gauge No. 4 with a cracked frame.

Researcher, do you have any information indicating that the 10ga frame failure in question was more than a "one off"? I wish I had more information on Greg Tag's Flues failure research. All I have, unfortunately, refers to 8 reports that he had collected as of Aug 1998. But I (and am sure others) recall more detailed discussions of multiple failures occurring in lightweight 20 ga guns.

Maybe someone more skilled than I at searching very old BB posts on the subject can come up with more specific information on Flues failures with reference to specific gauges. Unfortunately, we didn't have anyone back then taking a very detailed look at failures such as Doc Drew has done more recently.