doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com ...And Sometimes You Win

I recently bid on and won a LeFever F grade on one of the auction sites. Seller listed the condition as poor. Seller showed all the nicks in the wood, and the usual questions were asked by potential buyers about bbl length and type. Seller said lockup was tight and barrels were 27"(cut)steel. She also said bore condition was less than average. People emailed and told her the barrels were damascus. The recoil pad was all crusty and rotted.


When the gun arrived, I wound up with a FE grade in the 53000 range. The stock had a few dents in the wood, but no worse than normal hunting wear for a 104 yr gun. The case coloring is a very conservative 20% on the sideplates, receiver, top of tang, watertable, and the forend too. The barrels are chain damascus with pit free bores. They ring like a bell, too. A small dent on the outside of the left barrel can just barely be seen on the inside halfway down. Barrels are 27", cut from prob. 28" because the barrels still have some choke, but the cut barrels don't bother me, it still goes bang and the "e" even still works. Right - cylinder and left - modified. Lockup is tight and lever is center. The oval escutcheon past the pistol grip may be original or may be added but it is engraved " T.P. Wilkes " in handsome script. I wonder how many birds Mr. Wilkes took with this old gun.

I didn't mean to sound to brag, I was just pleasantly suprised. Anyone else have a similar online experience?

cheers.

You lucky son-of-a-gun!! Can you show us some pictures?

It sounds like a dandy!

Never. Truly underwhelmed, by every single one. Not that I begrudge you your's.

Enjoy it in good health.

Best,
Ted

Excellent. Glad you got a nice gun that you like. It is interesting about the cut barrels. A lot of guys steer clear of those. But, if the gun balances good, shoots a good pattern and a good POI, I think you can get some great values. Its good you like the gun and how do you not like chain damascus.
Enjoy that baby!
Tim

Congrats on your win. I was also bidding on that gun and didn't go higher because of the cut barrels. Dumb, because I have a set of fluid steel 28" barrels in the 55K serial number range. I had also e-mailed the seller and suspected the gun was nicer than the pictures showed. I thought the engraving was pretty cool, especially the flying turnip. Less than an hour later, I regretted not bidding more on the F Lefever when I made a healthy bid on another gun and was high bidder, but didn't meet the hidden reserve.

I've bought a few guns off the internet. A couple were just as described and one was much better. But I still feel better actually being able to examine the gun in hand vs. paying FFL transfer fees and shipping charges both ways in exercising a 3 day inspection. On the other hand, some of the poorly lit gun shows I've been to can throw you. I'd have sworn a Grade 2 L. C. Smith I bought many years ago was fluid steel and not reblued Damascus. I noticed that at home only after closer examination in bright sunlight... after I fired a couple high brass factory field loads through it.

Be honest Teddy...that a 'begruding' post if I ever saw one.

I bought one on the internet that was a little underwhelming, but a good deal at the price. The seller listened to my description and sent me $175 for my trouble. All the others have been just fine. As for shows, once I looked at a dingy GHE Parker with very tarnished Damascus tagged at about $325. I just didn't need another parts gun, so I passed on it. This was a few years ago. A friend made an offer on the gun, and we inspected it in the sunlight. You guessed it, a #1 frame 28" gun with tarnished Parker Special Steel barrels.

Lefever bbls were choked on the "Taper" principal, IE the entire choke section was a taper with no paralell at the end. A full choke normally had a taper of at least 4". I can't prove it but highly suspect that all chokes were cut with the same reamer by simply running it deeper thus giving a shorter taper with less constriction for less than full. Unless the choke was subsequently reamed as well as the bbls being cut, I highly suspect your bbls originated as 30". Either way, while the collector value has been reduced you should have a very useful gun. My FE SN 38,025 also has chain damascus bbls. Though this pattern is more commonly associated with the E grade they do show up on the F's sometimes, but not the most common pattern.
Enjoy it.

Not in exactly the same vein as This Lefever, but a few years back I bought a bullet mold through E-Bay. This was a dis-continued Lyman mold which the seller gave the mold number & correctly stated it was for the .44 cal percussion revolvers. I placed the starting bid of about $25.00 & won it for that. When it arrived an obviously disappointed seller included a note stating he thought it appeared to be NIB as it appeard unused, but as he could not verify that had not listed as such. I was in total agreement.
Funny thing though another auction had ended about two days earlier for a mold of the same number, which from the pic's was obviously well used, but the seller listed it as "A lightweight .45 Colt mold". It had about a half dozen bidders & brought around $75.00. Apparently not a single one of them recognized the one I bought dropped the "Exact" same bullet & was in much better condition, which had been obvious from the pic's.

Here are a few pictures. Just a few as it takes me 7-10 min. to upload one as I am on old-slooow-dialup in a rural area.

Anyway, I'm happy.