Nice thing about all this documentation of "Hardware store" shotguns- a big ol' rooster cacklin' as his wings beat, coming out of the cut cornfield- doesn't matter if he drops dead from a H&H or an H&R- it's all good. My pick, as also Steve Bodio's, is for the "Working Man's double- the Ithaca NID. My friend, the late Brad B. also endorsed it-- RWTF.
I don't think the Ithaca NID is in the same class as the Lefever Nitro, Western Longrange, Hunter Fulton, Winchester 24 etc. (That's why Ithaca brought out the Nitro and the Western Longrange as lower priced "working man's" options.) The NID was the best double Ithaca made. True, a Field Grade didn't have much "bling" to it. But the only thing separating an NID Field Grade from, say, a Grade 4, was the "bling": Much nicer wood, a lot of engraving, etc.
