doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Calling all Lefever guys

I have called him and left him a message. hopfully he will get back to me.

He will. Last time I talked to him I think he had a rabbit hunt with one of his hunting buddies planned for about now.

You might also try Keith Kearcher 541-617-9299.
Good luck on the IE, a rare gun, only half a dozen known to exist!

Craig

Really??? That rare??? I did see some info that said the I grade was rarer than the DS with only around 2500 being made. But was not able to find out the rarety of an I grade with in frame ejectors. Mine is just marked "I" on the water table, but it does have the ejectors in it.

The I grade was to be sold as a "Branded" gun,a large hardware co could have their name on the gun, like the Tryon Bakers. A no option shotgun. They are all marked just "I", but a few ejectors gun did get built. One of the known guns also has a "Dolls Head" fastener, but still marked I. Lefever is known as a gun of many variations, that is why collecting them is such a challenge.

Craig

Well I did pick up a DS with ejectors for very cheap to maybe use as a parts source for this IE of mine. The DS has a broken stock and shortened barrels. My IE has a bad stock and missing internals. But the barrels are the original 30" length. The stock is no problem since I am a stock maker. But I figured that the IE would be better to bring back since the fact that it is an I alone makes it rarer than the DS. And the shortened barrels on the DS was pretty much the deciding factor in not putting any money or time into that one.
I do not have the DS yet in my hands, so I will see if I can use it for parts to get the IE back together.
I want to keep the shorter DS barrels as a spare set for the IE and then just part out the DS receiver or keep it for spare parts.

Leafing through some H and D Folsom catalogs, they advertised the I Grade with a [G]in the title . Looks like they were saying the I Grade was taking the place of the G Grade.

Craig, I have never seen an I Grade with a Brand name of another on it. What names have you seen ?

My IE has the Lefever Arms marking on it.
Trade name Guns are tricky. There are the big ones like Crescent/HD Folsom, Savage/Stevens, and even Ithaca was making some of the eastern arms marked guns for Sears. But I never heard of Lefever doing it either.

The only one I have seen was marked "Russell Hardware" on the side plates, but the watertable was marked I. That was over 30 years ago at the Dallas Gun show. Guess who was not smart enough to by it?

Craig

B.Dudley, the I grade was only made in 12 gauge and one frame size,the DS was multi gauges and frame sizes. There were two fame sizes on the DS 12, so some barrels do not exchange. Internal parts should be no problem.

Craig