One of these has appeared at a local shop. It is in pretty good shape and might have been restocked. What is unusual to me is that it is hammerless and has a thumb push opening system. Is anyone familiar with this gun?

If it is marked Nichols & Lefever it should be a Hammer Gun.
Could be covered from Hammer to Hammerless which was done at
the time. Does it have a Safety?
Bill McPhail

Yes it has a safety.

A friend emailed me this earlier and ask if I had ever heard of this. I said no but the more I thought I did recall an NL gun converted to a cocking rod gun. I looked over my serial number list and I do have one listed as a D grade. This might or might not be the same gun.
Boyd could you please share pictures and the serial number with me.
If you don't want to do it in public please email at lefeverarms@gmail.com

Bob:

I'll have to go the the gun shop and take some pictures. Will e-mail to you privately when I can get that done as I don't know how to post here.

Ok guys I was wrong. It is a Lefever 10 ga damascus but not a Nichols however, it does have the weird thumb release. Serial # is 90XX.

If Bob wants to post the photos go ahead.

Bob can answer this better than I, ut info I have shows the side cocker #'s going up into the 9100's Hammer guns as well as the side cockers had thumb push openers. The Side pivot top lever generally i believe began to replace the push opener in the upper 9xxx's. With a # of 90xx this might seem a bit low for a self cocker but the thumb push would definitely not be out of place for that time frame. Perhaps the side lever cocker & the "Automatic Hammerless" guns overlapped in production or perhaps this one was built a bit pout of sequence or was a conversion to a self cocker. Several possibilities. If the price is good would be a nice one to have.

Ok Mr. Boyd was nice enough to send me pictures of this gun. It is a very early Syracuse, thumb push opener, cocking rod gun.