doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Interesting Lefever Find

A friend of mine acquired this Lefever shotgun in a trade. He is a knife dealer and took it in exchange for some knives. The gun has three barrel sets, in different bores. I don't yet know what the bore sizes are. The gun and case are in rough shape, though the gun appears to be restorable.

He said that the only numbers on the barrels are those in these photos. There is nothing on the flats. He is curious if this gun is unusual , having three sets of barrels. Also would like to know if it has any value.

Sorry about the rather poor cell phone pictures that the owner sent to me.

I am not a Lefever expert but G grades are common. Yet I have never seen a 3-barrel set in any Lefever and I would think that in 3 different gauges would be an especially rare find. I think it is fairly late based on the configuration of the forend.

Interesting, 19537 is 1892 time frame, 32665 and 31263 are 1900 time frame. When a gun went back to have factory fitted barrels, they
usually had two numbers on the additional fitted barrel, the original number and the number of the frame that was being fitted too.
Best,
Craig

Another 'JDH' on a Lefever F grade courtesy of Robert Chambers. I don't know which barrel maker that mark represents

As Craig noted two of the bbls have 2nd serial nos on them. Also this is a single hook gun (appears to be large hook) which puts it out of sequence with that 19,537 SN. an 1892 era gun would normally have been a two hook gun. It has plate mounted sears as well as it had the cross pin in the bar, which would have had the center cut out to accommodate the hook. This gun could have been built out of sequence on an existing action or it could have been returned to the factory for the extra bbls & an action Upgrade. The action itself in my opinion is an early 1890's one which is compatible with both the G grade & the pushbutton forend. It can't be seen from the pictures if the forend originally had an extractor cam or not, but if you note the configuration of the bbl is a bit different on the one with the single SN just ahead of the lug. It would be interesting to see a view of the entire lug on this bbl.

Please let us know what the bore sizes are.

I assumed that the JDH barrel set was the original. I thought that the configuration difference of the JDH barrels was just because of the different bore sizes of the other tubes. But, I hadn't noticed that there is also a difference in the length of the flats. Guess I've been too focused on cleaning up the crumby photos for posting, to actually look at the gun.

The owner took the gun to a gunsmith to have it checked out and hasn't picked it up yet. I told him to take some more pictures of it and measure the chambers to find the bore sizes. I'll tell him to get a good shot of the fore end.

I know he will try to sell it soon. It would be nice to learn more about this unusual gun, before the piece disappears into another collection.

Several years ago I happened to meet a gentleman in Charlotte, NC who owned a 16-bore EE Lefever that had been passed down from his Grandfather, who had purchsed the gun new. The barrels were Damascus; and although the gun had been hunted often, it remained in very good condition save for the fact the its original splinter had been replaced with a really ugly beavertail. A most unusual/amazing thing about this gun was that it had a second set of 20-bore barrels (and I believe forend also; can't be sure?); so that the gun was a 16/20 two-gauge set. The 20-bore barrels were fluid steel and were extractor, as opposed to ejector; but fit the frame perfectly, and the owner even had the original wooden box in which the gun was shipped by rail from Lefever Arms Company. But the most interesting part of this story (to me anyway) was the original letter he had from Parker Brothers concerning this gun. Seems that the Lefever Arms Company had already been sold and closed; so this gentleman's grandfather, who wanted another barrel set, had sent the gun to Parker with his barrel request. Someone at Parker subsequently responded in type, and on Parker letterhead(which letter I recall was dated 1919) to this effect, although they appreciated his request and could certainly do the work; the cost to him, given that their tooling was not set up to produce Lefever barrels, would be prohibitive. They suggested that he send his gun and request instead to the Ithaca Gun Company, and assured him that the folks at Ithaca could meet his request. Obviously he took that advice, and whether he specified a set of 20-bore barrels; or if those 20-bore barrels were all Ithaca had on hand at the time, was not determined during my visit. I kept thinking I'd get Terry Allen to photo that unique gun, as it would make a great story; but for now this task remains one of those things I've always wanted to do and will likely never find the time.

I'm not absolutely sure what it means, but the 19537 serial number stamp on the second set of barrels (the set with only one serial no.) is a different font. So I'd assume was that the original set with the others having been made around 1900 as Craig Havener has noted? I'm also assuming there are not 12, 16, and 20 ga barrels, but rather two 12's and a 16, or two 16' and a 12. I'm not seeing that wide of a range in barrel OD's, but as you say, the cell phone pics aren't the best. It will be interesting to hear from you when you have more information to share. Does the water table have the XX small frame marking? It would also be interesting to know the width across the action breech face and barrel breeches.

Keith,

For what it's worth, the owner confidently told me that the barrels were three different bore sizes. None of the photos that he sent me have the entire water table in the image. So, don't know about the frame size markings.

I told the owner to let me know when he gets the gun back in his hands. I hope that he can bring the gun to my shop, so I can take good photos and measurements.