Visited my home town gun shop in Athens, GA yesterday and noticed what was, to me anyway, an interesting LeFever; a DS Grade with dolls head, cocking indicators, and Damascus barrels (serial number in the 61XXX range). All numbers matched; but I noticed that the serial number on the barrel tube was also stamped on the bottom rib between barrel flats and hanger lug in addition to its normal location on the barrel tube. The serial number stamp on the barrel tube had been partially obscured in the carding process, but close inspection of that number stamp also showed what appeared to be remnants of a letter "G". So I called Buck Hamlin, described the gun and was given the following: Such DS Grade guns, though not rare, are a bit uncommon; and this LeFever represented a gun assembled from parts and sold by Ithaca; most likely around 1920 when Ithaca was filling orders from whatever barreled action remained on hand, that this example was most likely originally intended to be a Grade G gun. The gun had 30" barrels with excellent bores and had not seen much use over the years; but unfortunately had not been stored properly so that metal finishes had turned dark for the most part (Damascus barrels could have been chain pattern; but were so dark I could not tell for sure). I hadn't seen one of these Ithaca made-up DS grade guns before, so found the piece interesting; although not so interesting I couldn't live without it.
