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Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 256
Sidelock
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Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 256
Acquired an Ithaca NID a coupla years ago. I related the tale of the purchase on this forum. And to paraphrase Paul Harvey; "and now, the rest of the story."
My sons and I shoot in a winter trap league up here in Minnesota.....Yeah, it's cold sometimes. My 26 year-old claimed the NID for himself shortly after I bought it. He's kinda husky, and has a round face; the dims. on the old NID fit him perfectly. Matter of fact he broke his first 25 straight, registered targets with it.
Serial no. range 4309xx. It's from the cocking indicator era. Halfway through the winter league, we noticed the top lever was bending to the left! And I mean real bent.......About a forty five degree bend. Seems when the young fella would extract a shell, and reload at the next station, he would snap the gun closed like the Citori shooter next to him......Kinda flashy! Well, I guess the inertia of snapping the action closed, and the fact that the toplever was never hardened properly at the Ithaca factory, and the lever ahead of the thumb piece was extremely thin, and the thumb pad was large and heavy, was causing the lever to bend to the left in a semi-circle. We bent it back straight a few times; but worried about how many times we could do that without it breaking off!
After one night shoot, we decided to give the old gun a good cleaning, and inspection, prior to dismantling the action and sending the toplever to someone to have it re-hardened.
Well, sh**! Here we discovered the left barrel was separted from the ribs, at the muzzle for about 18 inches! Could easily spring it apart over an eighth of an inch! And examining it closely revealed a real poor solder job.....hardly tinned, and just the slimmest little partial line of solder....... And this supposedly, from the height of Ithaca craftsmanship.....
(By the way, that 'ringing the barrels' B.S. is worthless.... These rang like the "Bells of St. Marys" in the gunshop, prior to purchase......)
So.....Mr Merrington will fix 'er up for around a grand.... That makes me feel real warm inside......I only paid 6 bills for it!
Got several old "cornsheller" Model 12 traps........The young guy can slam them shut after reloading, all he wants.... Ain't gonna' hurt nothin'.
So I now have another "closet queen" to rile the old lady with.
Any prospective NID buyers out there....Be careful! Look it over very well, and don't figure on shooting it much.......
Let the flames begin.........! Grant.

Joined: Apr 2005
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eeb Offline
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Joined: Apr 2005
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Sounds like you got taken, because NIDs are good guns. That gun was probably used up/abused way before you got it and some jackleg gunsmith did the least he could do to pretty it up and move it along.

Joined: Jan 2002
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Joined: Jan 2002
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Like to see some pics of that bent toplever.


My problem lies in reconciling my gross habits with my net income.
- Errol Flynn
Joined: Dec 2005
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Joined: Dec 2005
Posts: 37
Grant,
Don't take this as a flame but it sounds like there is something else going on with the toplever.
I don't understand how the lever could be so soft that the inertia of snapping the gun closed could cause it to bend to the left and yet opening the gun by pushing the lever to the right didn't seem to affect it.
Dan

Joined: Jan 2002
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Grant,
An old double, is just that. While it might be possible to use a late 1920s car to drive in the winter (hard use) it likely would be easier on the car and the driver to use a more modern design automobile for that.
The model 12 of which you speak is a more modern design, inspite of the fact it could actually be older than the NID-how often does one hear of solder failures in a model 12, a model 37 Ithaca, a model 31 Remington, etc? It can't fail if it isn't there, you know. My last trip out grouse hunting was in a cold drizzle, and my two doubles sat in the heated comfort of my safe. I used a model 37 to get my bird, that day.
Regular shooting of registered trap is pretty tough use on an old gun. A husky kid who slams the old girl shut isn't helping matters, either. ANY old double can be affected by the problems you have described.
Kirk is one of the best, and priced accordingly. If I had an English "Best" (keep in mind that the word best is used only to define a gun designed for a very narrow set of specifications, and typical, American "rough shooting" conditions fall outside of those specifications) he would do the work, but, an NID would go to someone else. There are other 'smiths who will hem those tubes back up, and figure out the top lever issue for a bit less folding green.
Instruct the kid on proper use of the old double, have it repaired, and use it about like you would use a car of the same vintage. That is, just for fun.
Best,
Ted

Joined: Oct 2006
Posts: 879
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Slam shutting a double isn't good on any gun - old or new. The factory recall for Remington 3200's was to correct the potential problem of hot dogs flip shutting them.

Joined: Feb 2008
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Joined: Feb 2008
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Without seeing it, it doesn't sound like a factory-original gun. The top levers on the NID are on the stout side compared to, say, a Parker and I shouldn't think they would require any hardening at all to do service. The barrels - they do come apart and I would suspect that most of the folks visiting this site have had a set resoldered at one time or another. Keep in mind, too, that it is not wall-to-wall solder under the ribs. Beyond that, it's not like the guys at Ithaca never soldered barrels; Ithaca's reputation was sufficient enough that they sold upwards of a half million doubles - might you have a set of (semi) resoldered barrels. Still, you might have inherited a perfect storm of inattention.

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Post deleted by treblig1958

Joined: Dec 2001
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Kinda warms mah ol heart. Ithica bashin was in effect when I first visited this site at about post 500 which was approximately 150,000 posts ago. I'll forgo any comments in respect of the moment.

Tell yer kid NOT to show off his stupidity by slamming any double closed.

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Joined: Jan 2002
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Pete, ignorance is correctable. Stupidity is forever. Until such time said ignorance is corrected, call it what it is.

If he does it again, after correction, that is stupidity.

He's a kid, Pete. We all did an ignorant thing or three, back in the day.

Best,
Ted

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