doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com iver johnson hercules sxs

saw some good pictures of a set of barrels for a iver johnson hercules sxs. the breech end look near identical to a lefever nitro special. am wondering if the hercules barrels are the same barrels as the lefever nitro special -- just rebranded ect. would like to hear from some one with on hands knowledge.

I've owned both, but it's been a lot of years. I only owned one Hercules but multiple Nitro specials. But given that Iver Johnson and Ithaca were competing for the same market with the Hercules and the Nitro Special, I'd be surprised to learn that Hercules barrels were used on Nitro Specials.

I have a reproduction of Stoeger's 1940 Shooters Bible which shows just how competitive the market for "second tier" sxs was back then:
Hercules with extractors: $35.20
Winchester Model 24: $29.72
Hunter Fulton: $ 29.95
Fox Model B: 26.00

The Nitro Special wasn't included in that book.
The Hercules has a bit of an edge on the others (IMO)in terms of fit and finish. Fox was dropping the Sterlingworth that year and replacing with the much less expensive Fox Model B (Actually made by Stevens.)
$5 meant a lot as America was recovering from the Depression and about to find itself involved in WWII.

I have never been into a Nitro special but have in a Hercules and was very impressed by the design and the machine work. I wouldn't mine owning one.

The Iver Johnson Hercules had quite an evolutionary run. It began with the W.H. Davenport Arms Co. with their mono-block barrel gun with sideplates --





When W.H. Davenport folded up the remains went to Hopkins & Allen and the sideplate double with mono-bloc barrels became the Hopkins & Allen No. 110 --





When H & A folded up, Iver Johnson picked up the gun --





By 1919 Iver Johnson got rid of the sideplates but still had the mono-bloc barrels --





Between 1921 and 24 Iver Johnson dropped the mono-bloc barrels and went to chopper-lump barrels.

The rib extension that does the bolting on the Hercules is only about half the size the Lefever Nitro Special rib extension.