doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Idle pursuit of the ideal 20 ga

Ted, thanks for that.. I should have thought of Hallowell. The chart also answers my next question which was, does choke designation vary with gauge.

I believe it would be less.

A 16ga Lefever with the "XX" frame stamp is a joy to handle. Remember Brent that all real Lefevers are antiques...Geo

I have two Lefever DS grade 20 ga. guns, and one DS in 16 ga. All have 28" barrels, and one 20 ga. weighs 6 lb. 1 oz. and the other is 6 lb. 3 oz. The 16 ga. falls right in between at 6 lb 2 oz.

I think the one in the Gunbroker link is pretty pricey, even given its' condition. I really like them for grouse or doves, but they wouldn't be my choice for pheasants if we still had a shootable population of big native birds. As Geo said, they are all 100+ year old antiques, and I would avoid sending heavy payloads out of them in deference to their stocks. Lefever stocks are pretty fragile around the fingers where the wood meets the action above and below the sideplates, and many are found with split or missing wood in those locations. The majority of small bore Lefevers you find above the DS grade will have Damascus or twist barrels.

While my preference is a 16 Ga. game gun, these two BSS 20's aren't bad albeit a touch heavy for the gauge. BSS's can be had somewhere between 1k and 2k.

I will just note that my Lefever H grade 16 has 28" barrels with full choke in both barrels. It is built on an XX frame yet still weighs a full 6-3/4 lbs & amazingly has 3" chambers. It is too me a nice handling gun even at the 6-3/4 lb weight, but certainly is no featherweight. Most of the difference in weight in this gun & those in the 6-6� lb range is I believe in the weight of the barrels & the actual spacing of the firing pins. I actually have an H grade 12 which is �lb lighter that was not built on an XX frame. The width across the bar of my single XX frame gun is narrower than on any of my other Lefevers.

I regret not purchasing a H grade Lefever a few years back, at the time I did not know what a great gun there were.

I never wanted an H grade Lefever due to the usual twist steel barrels. However, I found and bought one with american flag damascus which was original. Guess you could buy'em anyway you wanted back then...Geo

The DS was introduced after the Durston family took control of Lefever Arms as an entry level gun and lacked the fine wood, cocking indicators and finer finish of the graded guns, however, internally with the exception of the cocking indicators and use of cheaper [censored] steel barrels it has all of the innovative design features of the graded guns. It would make a fine gun to use with standard 7/8th ounce loads in a 20 but I would hesitate to use anything heavier and would opt for a 16 (which I used exclusively for all of my upland shooting which includes Sage Grouse).

For that kind of money a Parker repro instead of the DS Lefever? For something a bit more rare and surprisingly nice a Ithaca Lefever A grade at about 2/3 that money for a nice one. The before mentioned Fox Sterlingworth, again.