Strictly IMO- but for under $1000 I'd buy a later series Ithaca NID 12 field grade (w/o the cocking indicator pins) DT- ejectors sure, but extractors are just as useful unless you are invited to a driven bird shoot in LimeyLand--My gunsmith rates that series Ithaca as being as durable as a Fox or a M21 boxlock. Ithaca marked their chokes with a number code, also gauge- many other gun makers from that era didn't.
Why buy a $500 "beater" that you'll try to unload later on the "greater fool marketing theory" or spend big bucks getting it "upgraded" plus all the time it is with the gunsmith is time it won't be in your hands being used-and you getting used to it.
Spend the extra dime now-save the dollar you'd spend later. And for the gent from the First State (I have sister in Wilmington) wow- you sure see some good prices out there- ditto Major Brian and the $800 Parker Hinge Pin Sterlingworth 12- area dealer has a 1911 12 Sterlingworth pin hinge ejector gun- 30" barrels, Hawkins pad "on consignment" at $1750- has had it for 3 years, it's getting dusty on the shelf- but the owner saw the article about F&S shotgun editor Phil B. buying a similar Fox from Scheel's for $1800 and then having it "facelifted" and he's convinced his weathered old Sterly is worth that kinda $.. I'd buy it in a heartbeat for $800-but not for $1750!!
