To the uninitiated how would one know if they were looking at an Ithaca assembled Lefever, an Ithaca produced Lefever or a Dan Lefever?
As Miller previously noted, the Ithaca produced double barreled Lefevers all have six digit serial numbers over 100,000. They do not have sideplates. The majority of these were the Lefever Nitro Special guns built between 1921 and 1947. Dan Lefever left the Lefever Arms Co. around early 1902 and started production of the D.M. Lefever crossbolt gun in Syracuse, N.Y., Defiance, Ohio, and Bowling Green, Ohio. As noted, they all had a Greener type crossbolt, and less than 1200 were produced in total. These all had a four digit serial number.
Personally, I'd love to know how some folks decide so definitely that certain sideplate Lefevers were assembled by Ithaca. To listen to some of them, virtually any Lefever with non-standard features is judged to be assembled by Ithaca. As I said earlier, it is highly doubtful that Lefever Arms Co. had several years worth of unfinished parts on hand when they sold the parts to Ithaca. Companies just don't tie up that much capital in unfinished inventory. I have read that those with a letter P or T stamped on the forend hanger are Ithaca assembled, and tend to agree... but that could also include guns sent back to Ithaca for re-barreling or other repairs. It also appears that Ithaca Gun Co. ran out of Lefever made English Walnut stocks, and made some stocks in Ithaca, N.Y. out of Black Walnut.
There are no surviving production records to say definitively one way or another. I think that returns for re-barreling or repairs could also be the case with some of those Lefevers with serial numbers as early as the 38,000 range that are attributed to Ithaca. A smattering of early unfinished frames may have been found and finished after the move to Ithaca, but it makes absolutely no sense to think that Lefever Arms Co. had thousands of unfinished frames for as much as 15 years prior to the sale to Ithaca.
I once thought that a 12 Ga. FE Lefever I own was probably assembled by Ithaca because it has E Grade features and engraving. It's serial number dates it to 1902 if we can believe the serial number list. I'm much more inclined to think it was built in Syracuse now that I've learned more. When we get into the highest five digit serial numbered sideplate guns, especially those with mismatched features such as Miller's H Grade with the 73,xxx serial number, it becomes much easier to attribute those guns to Ithaca production.
