Somebody went too far with this "custom" gun. First the put a porky stock, complete with a ugly beavertail on the gun. Second, for some reason only known to God, they used a dremel tool to add extra skid-mark flower engraving to both sides and his initials on the bottom of the receiver at a 10 year old penmanship level. Third they made sure to polish every bit of that nasty case color off the gun. Fourth they cut the barrels to 26 1/2". Why on earth not get a period pad or a reproduction pad instead of the white line pad? The list, I am sure, would be longer in person. How were the barrels refinished? I would like to know if they hot blued the barrels. See weep hole. Oh, the seller can not get the barrels off the receiver and states they have been altered so they wont come off. Wonder how that was done. I suspect they will come off with effort, which the seller is afraid to use.

Now why is this such a shame? This reworked master piece is a Ithaca Flues, 28 gauge gun, which had to start out with 28" barrels. Those are not very common. If original, I would be very interested in owning it. As it is, if I owned it every time I looked at it I would try to figure out how to un-fix what has been done to it. The stock I could put back to original configuration. The custom engraving might be welded up, re-engraved and case colored. The barrel I can not grow back, but could fix the keel insert which is missing. The white line recoil pad needs to be just burned in a fireplace. This is a gun which has been reworked to death and still has the bones to be a nice looking gun. What a shame. It would cost more than a grand just to undo most of what has been done and twice that if you had it restocked professionally.

Sir, first we had 15 August 2021; Then 22 Feb 2022; and Taiwan is shortly to follow..and as the world as we knew it post WWII comes apart along with the international order and the UN Charter, and we revert to pre-1939 with an impotent West wringing its hands but heading for their latte breaks..here we have a butcherized Ithaca Flues to make us feel good. I need some Kentucky Bourbon.

I'll pop for the George Dickel with a splash of branch water, Suh. Whomever FUBAR this Ithaca Flues should be horsewhipped. RWTF

I have bought quite a few guns from LBS on Gunbroker and had built up a trust level with them since they generally tried to point out flaws in their copy. They have lots of clear pictures and a pretty good description. I have seen several instances where guns have been returned and relisted that they reported why it was returned and had pictures of the flaws. I find that admireable compared to the normal dealer practice of including some bogus excuse accusing the buyer.

This gun I found an anomoly. It had a lot of obvious faults not pointed out and the whole business of not removing the barrels seemed like an afterthought thrown in.

I take a different view than a lot of people. I recognize originality and understand the pricing structure, but it isn't a driving force in my buying. A gun that has been modified is sometimes much more asthetically pleasing and functionally serviceable for some uses, and can be obtained and used at a bargain price. Right after the ad came out, I wrtoe them a note and asked for a picture or explanation of the details of that statement. They did send pictures but they were four copies of the same shot of the bottom of the action without the forearm, hich showed exactly nothing. I replied asking for shots of the action open from the side without the forend to try to get a better idea of the situation. I never recieved a reply but the last three or four shots were added to the listing. Amazingly, the shots added I had asked four appear to be duplicates again.

As an aside, I remember seeing that goofy J E M gouged into another mid-level gun a few years ago. I'm thinking it may become an affordable speciality collecter biche. Winston Churchill moved completely out of my price range years ago, but maybe a "JEM" group? They are apparently out there. He must have died young before he rose to prominence. THat could ultimately work to a collecter's advantage.

Just one correction to the OP posting. All Flues have weep holes in the bottom rib.

This isn't added engraving it's ground with a dremel grinding tool.tool being the operative word

I have absolutely no problem with LSB and how this gun is presented. They are one of the best sellers on GunBroker. They give a reasonable description with lots of good photos and unlike other sellers never seem to crop them to hide things.

What I do hate is what has happened to this gun. Why the childish engraved initials,with skid mark gouges for flowers? I have a 20 Flues with 30” barrels and it is a trim delight to carry and shoot. I bet this 28 started out the same. Restock it, get rid of the beaver tail fore end, get the engraving abortion filled in, re case color and this gun could be nice again. But to do correctly you are going to spend a lot of money to do it well. Had they done it to a much more common 20 gauge Flues it would not bother me nearly as much. Rare guns should be conserved not used as a drawing board for bad work.

The man that altered the gun to his tastes, probably used it with joy for decades.

A foreign concept, I know.

An Ithaca Flues is/was always a cheap canvas to paint on.

Made an ugly gun uglier

Sounds to me like you are already in the whiskey....

What'd he say what'd he say ?

Get over it Ky life is not your rodeo....

Ky Jon,
In my "pile", I have a small Ithaca action, you might be able to skip welding up the engraving. If you are any of the others are interested, I will let it go. If you send measurements of a 28 ga. action, I will check to confirm frame size. It looks 20 "gaugeish" to me, but I'm not an Ithaca guy.
Mike

This talk about Ithaca guns makes me want to go pull my daughters Ithaca 20 gauge double out and check to see what model it is. Might as well as ice storm will keep us from doing much outdoors today.

The gun in question was my wife’s uncles gun. I don’t know if he had the work done or his dad. I do know he was a lifelong collector and shooter before he passed a few years ago and had a number of classic arms in his collection in beautiful original condition. I don’t like what was done to it. And it clearly destroyed its value now. But it was done to make someone happy decades ago. And it served that purpose. Different times.

What's the auction number?

I listed the auction number in the for sale section (and sent Dave $).

Are those his initials on the floor plate? CJF I doubt your wife’s uncle did this to this gun as a collector. Most likely he bought it as is. I wonder what the original stock ended up looking like before it was replaced. I saw a Parker with tacks driven into the stock to decorate it and a compass inlet in the stock. Not a good look for a graded Parker. At least it’s not touched.

I see this like a person finding a 65 Mustang in nice condition and having fins added to the rear end or plush carpet on the dash. But what becomes a rare gun at some point in time was just a old used gun. I hope this gun sells to person willing and interested in restoring it a bit more like original.

I dont see it listed in for sale section?

Well at least someone will know who they are not bidding against.

It's listed in here: https://www.doublegunshop.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=611536#Post611536

Hi Jon, I share your hope about gun finding someone who will put it right, or at less wrong.

I had thought about undertaking restoration but decided it was a bigger investment then I wanted to make. And I already have a grade 2 20gauge Flues I was lucky enough to be given by an uncle on my mom's side. While I love the 28ga chambering, I much prefer the grade 2 to grade 1 engraving (even before someone 'customizes' it) so I am good for small gauge Flues.