Keith, I highly doubt that the Ithaca production numbers equaled those of the 1910-1914 LAC production. Even if they reached half, that would be 3000 guns which would make them almost 3X more common than crossbolts. In addition I think that a higher percentage of the Ithaca assembled guns were lower grade, but that is just an observation from those that I have seen that were definitely Ithacas. I have examined some high grade guns that were marked Ithaca. Some are high quality and some had really shoddy engraving for a high grade gun. They had to resort to heavy discounting near the end to move the last of the inventory.
I do believe that the I and DS grades contributed to Uncle Dan's departure. I have the distinct feeling that he was similarly opposed to the 0 Excelsior grade crossbolt that was introduced in the last years of the DM Lefever Co. in Ohio.
I don't have personal access to the current numbers list and am too lazy to collect my own. I cannot verify what percentage of guns appear to be out of sequence because of features that had been introduced at lower serial numbers and replaced those present on a higher serial number gun. We don't fully understand how the production ran. Were batches of frames milled, serial numbered and graded, then stored for future use? I wish I knew.
