doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Advantages of a Lefever over a Smith?

This will teach me to snoop around out-of-town gun stores. I was buying some ammo last week and ran across a clean old F-grade Lefever. Another heavy, American 12-gauge double (& I already have plenty) but....this one seems to be better than average. Damascus tubes, decent wood, clean and unabused. G-grades tend to be pretty common in my experience, this is probably the 1st F-grade I've ever seen up close or handled. What says the cognoscenti here?

If I had to choose, I would take the Lefever. I think the locking, and cocking, mechanisms are much simpler than the L.C. Smith. I have owned a few of each, and really appreciated the overall simplicity of the Lefever when disassembling/reassembling.

Per Dewey Vicknair :

DeweyDecember 16, 2020 at 5:04 PM

“ Almost anything is a better double than a Smith.”

But if you want a real expert’s bona fide ( best George Clooney “ soggy bottom boys voice) take on a Smith - go consult Pine Creek Dave!

Better than either:

https://www.gunsinternational.com/g...r-sidelock-12-gauge.cfm?gun_id=102654622


https://www.gunsinternational.com/g...intage-firearms-inc.cfm?gun_id=102593611

Best,
Ted

The head of the Lefever stock has more wood surface to transmit recoil, so finding this is not common



Smith

LeFever wins, hands down. No contest, etc.

Chief

Now Ted, you know I already have a good Spanish gun.

What started all this silliness was the beating my Arrieta was giving me on clays. These heavier American guns (8-lbs versus 6 1/2-lbs) are far-more comfortable to shoot high-volumes with and then... thanks to all of the insidious "gun-snobbery" here (& Mr. Vicknair of-course), I was able to obtain some very nice examples to shoot for a very reasonable outlay. I actually funded my last two guns by selling some classic American bamboo rods and some old American fly reels.

Are you noticing a theme here? "Classic American" stuff is still popular in this country and that includes many of our own doubles. Call it nostalgia, call it jingoistic, call me obtuse(!) but any gun that is still doing the job it was designed to do after 125-years is just fine with me (& frankly, it's got pretty good karma at that point too). For years, I couldn't afford any of the better American stuff (especially when I was younger) because it was massively popular with the generations that preceded mine. But now, after all the bad press it's been getting in the gun blogs for the last several years, the prices are quite reasonable. That Grade 2 Syracuse Smith I just got is very dramatic to look at(!) and it shoots just dandy on clays. I wouldn't want to lug it over hill & dale for upland stuff, but for waterfowl and even turkey it would be just the ticket.

To close here: I'll grant you... Pine Creek Dave is rather enthusiastic about his guns of choice, as is his prerogative. I promise you this: he's having a great time with them. As a Pennsylvania boy myself, I've been to his part of the world and it's downright lovely. I only wish I could just step out my door and have a gorgeous trout stream to fish and then almost endless wilderness to chase game in. We should all be so lucky.

21 Advantages and Improvements! 1903

I have been inside field grade Smiths but never a Lefever. I can say that on the field grade guns ( maybe higher grade interiors are better) that they are very roughly made. Surprisingly they work

John
Quality Arms

Lloyd

I have an Arrieta that I shoot at clays extensively
I like 2 3/4 dram loads
Can shoot no issues
When I shoot trap I shoot by myself and shoot 50 non stop

Maybe you are using 3 dram loads. I have some 3 dram loads but do not like them, so reserve for other shotgun

Stay well

John
ARRIETA