doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Basket case Lefever Optimus

The very early Optimus guns were not full coverage the later guns were and very ornate as can be seen in Bob Elliott's book.

You gents are a kindly lot, as this gun is a lost cause and must go to the light!
The gun seems too me to be lightly engraved for such a super high grade.

Says $4000-5000.

Doug,

When do you figure this one was produced? The external metal looks as though it needs a good cleaning. I do not see any external pitting, but you would have to handle it to be sure.

Do you think the Optimus guns were sent out to a special engraver?

Pete

I looked at the gun in Las Vegas. The barrels are badly pitted inside and outside. With the min. wall thickness now of .o20, there is not much chance of saving the barrels for a shooter. The receiver is also pitted and would have to be reingraved. I can't remember the triggerguard, but it, too, probably needs reingraving. The stocks are sadly gone. For an Optimus a blank will probably run close to $1000, unless one finds a deal somewhere. Stockwork close to $2500, plus or minus, but probably plus for Optimus carving and checkering. Now, figure the metal, and you still have a wall hanger for your trouble. I doubt Teague would line these barrels after filing out the pits, if possible.

The ideal candidate for this gun would be someone who would do the stocking himself and has prior experience working on and stocking Optimus Grade Lefevers. I hope a person meeting those criteria will purchase the gun. I would imagine that a person like that would already have his wood picked out!

I'm thinking about it,.....but my problem is different!, If I was lucky enough to get it at a good price,..how would I bring it over??.

I have some real nice wood for it too

CJ

I closely looked at this Optimus at Vintagers, Maryland 2007. In my opinion, the posted photo looks much better than the actual gun.

Roger Lake of Greg Martin said "the gun cause more interest than any other gun that they had at the Beinfield show. However, there were a number of Lefever Collectors present and we all had to go back and look it over several times. We did have an excellent Lefever meeting and got to see some interesting things. Including work by a West Coast Lefever Collector - Engraver..
The gun was in very poor shape needing a new stock, forend, engraving re-engraved if possible, and then there are the barrels. Greg Martin estimates the sale between $3000 to $5000 and a major overhaul would be close to $20,000 on the low end with you doing some of the work. The estimate I got on time to do the repairs was 2 to 4 years not including barrels.
Good luck...

Didn't some pretty clean Optimi recently sell for $25K or so?