doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Ithaca Flues Duck or Pigeon

Thank you Drew. These guns are not for today's boutique shotgun folk. These were man guns made for the task at hand!

Thanks, the gun is REALLY heavy, just put it on the scale....9lbs 7oz, bores are mirror...the safety is manual, which i think was not standard, so lending more credence to my live pigeon gun theory. Also cast for the right hand. If it werent for significant surface rust on barrels, i would have left the gun alone. No real pitting yet, but getting rid of the rust is going to leave silver tubes. So going to restore the gun. I still shoot pigeons a few times a year, and my Elsie specialty grade, no safety, pigeon gun is suffering from stress cracks in the straight grip wrist, so hopefully i can shoot this 'ol cannon!!

doesn't need a complete restoration just the barrels reblued..don't think they will have any problem with not having enough barrel thickness for a proper reblue... . just hope the rust didn't mess up any barrel ledgers.

At the time that nice No. 3 Flues was made, our North American ammunition manufacturers offered loaded 12-gauge paper shells in 2 5/8, 2 3/4, 2 7/8 and 3-inch lengths. Generally the 1 and 1 1/8 ounce loads came in the 2 5/8 inch shells, but to get the 1 1/4 ounce loads one had to go to the longer shells. The heaviest loads offered were 3 1/2 drams of bulk smokeless powder or 28-grains of dense smokeless powder such as Infallible or Ballistite pushing that 1 1/4 ounce of shot. These loads could be had in the 2 3/4 inch and longer shells which offered more/better wadding, which many serious shooters believed beneficial.





P.S. Drew's "Double-Thick Nitro Breech" ad is from the Ithaca Lewis Model era.

I will try to find the cannon breech ad tomorrow. I have so much stuff I can't find anything anymore.

Thanks all for any info. Been lurking at this forum for years! I like all doubles, but have a particular fetish for American Straight grip guns. Have a few in my collection that are factory straight grips. Elsie specialty 12, an Ideal 12, aFox Skeet and Upland 16, a LeFever DS 12, Baker B grade 12, Parker VHE 20, and Iver Johnson Skeeters in 16 and 20. Really jazzed by this mammoth Ithaca. It is going to Mark Larson for a,stock and checkering freshen up, and his metal guy is going to strike and re-blue the tubes, and color case the action. Will show photos when done. Again, thanks for the welcome!!

What is the LOP & other stock dimensions? That may answer your question about whether a water fowler or a pigeon gun. From the pic it appears to be more water fowl dimensions w/quite a bit of drop.

Glad it has found a good home! It should clean up to be a knockout! Were it mine, I'd enjoy mostly as is w/minimal cleanup and if going the full Monte for a total restoration choose very judiciously about who you select to do the work. I'd expect that Walter can help you there, if you ask.

Addendum: I didn't read the posts far enough before I posted above. Good choice! Look forward to further report when finished and you get to shoot it some.