doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Ithaca 20ga Flues

No, & a telescoping gage is not a dial bore either. I just happened to acquire the long handle which was made by Starrett so picked up some used heads for it at a good price, as I recall I traded a Lufkin set for them.

As one who used tools on a daily basis I did for the most part try to buy quality, but have used some others as well. I have a set of 6" Vernier calipers marked "Draper" & Made in China which will easily read to .001". Have used dial indicators made by "Enco" which is a Cheap Brand with no jobs "Killed" on their account.

I was never one who was tied to one Brand of tools. I favored a B&S test indicator over Starrett's Last Word, the B&S being much more sensitive & not requiring as much pressure on the contact point for a good reading. On the other hand I preferred Starrett's dial caliper over a B&S. The rack on the B&S was not well protected & they were very prone to the little gear jumping track & giving a false reading.

Aha. Thought the reference was to the bore.

The gun was measured with a bore gauge and wall thickness gauge purchased from Brownells. They both read to .001. How accurate they are compared to other brands I don't know.

The barrels have been polished or at least opened up because one barrel is Imp Mod and the other is Skeet.

2 Piper agree with you on the brands. While Starrett is the favored brand B&S or Mitutoyo make nice tools, Lufkin did too.

The Skeets gage is suitable for its intended purpose, checking chokes, and well worth the price. Accurate another thing. It has a 5 dollar Chinese indicator on a wood shaft with a metal rod inside. The heads are interchangeable 12 to 20 gage. Slip fit on the shaft with O ring securing. Comes with 2 setting rings .600 & .700. Using the ring mine will vary at times .oo2 + other times spot on. No depth indication on the shaft, possible to insert different depths when switching one barrel to the other. That can be overcome if you mark the shaft.

Any of these devices particularly Telescoping gages, take some experence to operate, that�s why I say don�t be too concerned if a sloppy tool says your barrels have size issues. Better to get a good gunsmith to check it, or what most do give it a quick choke constriction check and don�t worry about it.

I have never seen Brownells Gage it may read accurately.

Boats

I am far more interested in wall thickness and location of the thinnest areas, than bore diameter on most guns. If they are too thin I don�t care if it�s because they have been reamed, honed or filed down to remove external pitting. So if there is a .004-.005 difference in bore diameter what does the wall thickness measure? Still .020 or .025.

Ithaca small bore and Lefever small bore guns were often struck thin from the factory. I had a DS which was untouched with .018 barrels and a Ithaca 20 which has .020 barrels. Highly doubt the Ithaca has ever been honed or refinished. In fact it�s so thin I won�t refinish it. Best to leave as is.

That was the 20-gauge "standard" but Ithaca Gun Co. would chamber any length the customer requested.

By the mid-1920s, Ithaca had beefed up their Flues doubles quite a bit. In the 1912 through at least 1915 Ithaca catalogues they give their smallbore weights as --

16-ga 5 3/4 to 6 1/4
20-ga 5 1/4 to 5 3/4
28-ga 4 3/4 to 5 1/4

In the July 1919, Ithaca catalogue --

16-ga 5 lbs. 14 ozs. to 6 1/2
20-ga 5 1/2 to 6
28-ga 5 to 5 1/2

In the December 1, 1919, Ithaca catalogue --

16-ga 6 to 6 3/4
20-ga 5 3/4 to 6
28-ga 5 1/4 to 5 3/4

In the 1925 Ithaca catalogue --

16-ga 6 1/4 to 6 3/4
20-ga 6 to 6 1/2
28-ga 5 3/4 to 6 1/4

Boats;
That Slip fit of the shaft would definitely be a concern to me. All the dial bore gages I ever used threaded together to a positive stop. Shaft markings would of course be a convenience but would not affect the actual reading of the gage. You would get the diameter of the bore, just wouldn't necessarily know exactly where you were measuring.
As to brands I mostly favored B&S with the exception of the dial calipers, Lufkin made some very fine tools in the past but went out of business about the time I entered the trade Starrett also made a lot of high quality tools, just didn't like that "Last Word" indicator, even though I have one of them. Finest micrometer I ever personally owned was a C E Johanson, Swedish made, of which I have two, a 0-1 & a 2-3.

Many years ago I bought a 20 gauge Flues. It was not pristine, had some minor pitting in the bores & had likely been hot blued. at some point. Barrels had been cut to 26", probably from 28" as there was some choke left. It was marked 2 &4 so would have been M/F when built. It weighed in at 6 lb even with the shortened barrels so would have been a bit more prior to cutting. This one was built in 1924. At that point I was unaware of the Frame Cracking problem & it was marked Smokeless Powder Proof so I fed it a regular diet of 2�-1 loads, both factory & handloads using Unique powder.

Ribs eventually loosened on it so I retired it, didn't figure it was worth the price of having them re-laid. This was most likely from the past blue job.

I looked on line at Brownells bore gage, it appears to have the same slip fit head design as skeets, may not hard to tell from the photos, it�s real expensive

Boats

I had a late model Flues 20ga. some years ago, 396xxx range (1924), about 8 oz. heavier than an earlier 20 I have, it had 2-3/4" chambers, looked original.

Yours may have a wooden shaft, but mine and others I've seen don't. The shaft is brown but it is not made of wood. An ad at Midway for the newer digital model says the tube is aluminum covered with a resin based material. Hard for me to believe that anyone could actually think a device built to measure to .001" would be made with a wood tube.

SRH