About 5 yrs ago, I ran across a 20ga Ithaca NID 3E, factory SST on Crosnoe's site. It was beat up, mistreated and had a peg leg (butt graft) that was coming undone. It was overpriced but I saw a gem in there somewhere.
I disassembled it to find that the stock inletting had been gutted by some hack in the past. The head was split and there was virtually no camming ramp left to draw the action into the stock. The recoil surfaces had been almost reduced to nothing. I started to rebuild the stock inletting to use it as a machining pattern, but spoke to Gunter Pfrommer about restoring it along the way and decided this would be a good way to go.
A few years ago, Gunter completed a nice restock with a blank I picked, as well as refinishing the metal. At the time I started this project, I was envisioning a nice vintage 20g with a straight stock and BTFE for an upland hunting gun. So, I had it converted from pistol grip/splinter to straight stock/BTF. Overall, it came out nice. But the trigger had been mangled by the hack as well and Gunter polished it up as nice as possible. I was never happy with the trigger, so when it started doubling a year or so after the restoration, I just put it away.
About a year ago, I corresponded with Dan May of Miller Trigger about fixing the doubling problem. He said they could probably fix it. After a year or so, I finally shipped it to him. I asked if they could cut off the trigger shoe and replace it to replicate the original mid position as pictured in Walt's book, as well as install a OEM style buttplate where I had done a checkered butt previously. I received it back a week and a half ago and have had it out shooting twice for sporting clays. The trigger works flawlessly, even that funky 3 position tang safety/selector. The restoration of the trigger shoe is just right and the buttplate is as specified for pitch and LOP. Great work by Dan and company(s).
From Walt's book.
