A 1904 serial number range G Grade should have the large cocking hook. It was the two hook guns which required manually reaching under the barrel flats with a pencil or small screwdriver to separate the hooks to allow removal of the barrels from the frame.
I've had a couple large hook Lefevers that gave me this problem. On one, someone had added a bit of weld to the nose of the cocking hook for better engagement with the pin in the barrel lump. The weld was probably added after someone who didn't know better removed too much material from the nose. But when the weld was dressed down, not quite enough was removed. I had to drift out the pin in the lump to get the barrels off, to see what was going on. This pin is small and very easy to lose. Dressing the nose of the cocking hook is a slow cut and try process. If you don't remove enough, the barrels cannot be removed (unless you knock the pin out of the barrel lump). If you remove a hair too much, the gun may not cock properly.
On the other gun, I believe someone who didn't know what they were doing messed with the compensating screw in the action knuckle. Or they may have replaced the cocking hook with one from another gun, and it wasn't fitted correctly. I was able to free the barrels in the usual manner simply by pushing them firmly all the way toward the breech as I removed them.
The last side plate Lefever was built 105 years ago. That amount of time helps to explain why it is getting harder and harder to find one that hasn't been messed with. I myself would probably use this problem as a dickering point to get a better price. But if I was in the position where I had to pay to send the gun to a gunsmith who understands Lefevers, it could be a deal breaker. If you mess up the cocking hook, you can't just simply go out and buy a replacement.
