I was looking through some guns to find some extras to possibly sell. I pulled out a 410 and a 20 ga. and noticed for the first time that the frames are different. Is this common among the gauges, or from different periods of production ?

Top is 410 and bottom is 20 ga.


410


20 gauge

Daryl there are two different length frames.Bobby

1922 introduction



1935 same frame



1937 A grade-ish frame



1940

Actually three. The long frame, 4.27”, from ‘21 to ‘26 +/-. Then the short frame, .39” shorter, from ‘26 - ‘37 +/-.
And finally, the “A” frame similar to the NID with slight dimensional differences ‘37 - ‘47.

A quick look has serial numbers prefaced with S and A. Was this a mark of the production period?

Daryl,

Here's another .410 with the same style frame as your 410. It has serial number 356464 which I believe was made in 1946.

26 inch barrels choked Mod (#2) in the right barrel and Full (#4) in the left barrel. Weighs 5 pounds and 12 ounces, just about what Dr. Drew's pictured Lefever brochure says.

I bought the gun 54 years ago next month for $150.00. It has accounted for many, many cottontail rabbits and some grouse. In fact, on one grouse hunting expedition walking thru some tall cover, some stuff came drifting down from above. It was grouse poop and some of it got on the stock. That grouse got away. Probably with a big smile on its face!

And I shot the gun this past Thursday on the 5 stand.

There were differences in NID frames from beginning to end. Not surprising that the same would be true of Nitros.

I have an extremely small sample, but see the 410s with an A serial number prefix. I see the S prefix on 16 and 20 gauge guns.

All that anyone would ever want to know about Ithaca Gun Co.'s Lefever Nitro Special frames is spelled out in Walter Snyder's article in The Double Gun Journal, Volume Thirty, Issue 1, pages 101 to 115.

Researcher, thanks for the reminder.

I think you may be onto something here. In the pictures I've saved of Lefever Nitro Specials the .410-bore forearm irons have the A, the 16- and 20-gauge forearm irons have an S and the 12-gauges don't have a letter. The same seems to be generally true for NID extractor forearm irons -- A on .410-bores, S on 20- & 16-gauge, none on 12- & 10-gauge, and 28 on 28-gauges. Pretty hit or miss on ejector forearm irons.

The earliest Nitro Special 410 I have jotted down is A 267,220 and it has the contoured frame. Then the flat sided 410s seem to be in the 340,000-360,000 range. Again , it is an extremely small sampling.

The earliest .410-bore I've recorded is 205001.