doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Market price of Lefever Grade H 12 ga.

Saw my first Lefever in person a couple of weeks ago at a gunshop down South.
It was an Grade H 12 ga. 30" barrels 70% blue, little to no case color and the stock and forend had pretty good checkering considering age. Stock was straight grip with a small rubber pad. Wood appeared to be quite light in color.The action seemed very tight. Ser. 40xxx I believe that puts it in the 1902-1903 range.
The asking price was $1050 had no idea if that is appropriate market price.
Welcome any insight on pricing.

Around here that gun is $200-250 above market price as described. Straight stock is a plus to some and a minus to others. Might increase value $100 to the right person. Did it have ejectors?

Like KY Jon, I think it's high, maybe double what it's worth. Good checkering and light wood might indicate replacement. Blued barrels suggest reblue, maybe over the twist construction. I don't think they came with fluid steel barrels at that time. I'll go out on a limb and suggest $4-500 would be plenty. If possible, get a friend to look at it with you who is knowledgeable about what refinishing and replacement stocks looks like. Neither make it a bad gun, but certainly worth less than original condition. If you can, take pictures and post them here. HNY

Watch the barrels, the bluing could be covering twist steel barrels. I paid about $700 for one a few years ago, it was very overpriced with twist steel barrels and a shot stock but I wanted a project to work on in Alaska and - the gun was near the airport.
jas

This brings up a point, how does one test a gun that has been blued. To see if the barrels are steel , twist steel, or damascus at a gunsmiths?
jas

There are exceptions to all rules, & this is nowhere more brought out than in Lefevers. However, generally speaking all DS/I grades (introduced ca 1901) were made with steel bbls & half pistol grip (uncapped) stocks. All grades H & above were available with full, half (often capped) & straight grip stocks. I do not know the exact date steel bbls began to be made available on the H & up grades, but believe it was fairly close to the intro of the DS. In Lefever catalogs the H was particularly recommended with steel bbls, probably because it was the only grade which regularly used twist rather than damascus. Over the years I have I believe seen more H grades with steel bbls than any of the grades above the DS. I also have seen more of the higher grades with the straight grip. I suspect Lefever made up many steel bbl'd Hs & put them in stock, while st grips were most likely always special order. I would be more suspicios of the stock than the steel.

I do not have any pictures of the gun. I will say that all serial numbers match. The wood did not appear to be redone. It was a superior job of inletting if not redone. The barrels are fluid steel not Damascus or twist and the barrels gave little appearance of re-blue job. Sorry that is all I can provide.