doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com "New manufactured" Lefever project

Okay guys, give me a chance and I'll try and explain the project.

I have wanted to re make the Lefever shotgun but better than the original. To this end, I have arranged to have Steve Earle machine the action & ejector forend. Another friend of Antolio Zolli will be checking with him in the next few days re. 20 ga. bbl's.--- 28 ga. will be available if there is a demand and will be fitted to clients gun on return of same. The idea is to have the bbl action made here using Italian made bbl's.

The action will be made of the best steels available and the machining will be of a level not seen one any American gun ever made --- period ! Our own Doug Mann and Glenn Fewless have seen and handles actions made by Steve Earle and can testify to their high quality. Steve will duplicate the action and improve it by tightening up the tolerances as well as using different steels that are best for their intended purposes. IE -- D2 steel will be used for the sears, hammer and triggers. 8620 will be used for the frame, forarm, trigger guard and top break lever. Steve never sends any of his action or any of their parts for normal heat treating, rather, he sends them to a specialty hest treat shop for best possible quality.

My idea is to offer this bbl action in a way that it will be a bespoken gun. The idea is to eliminate the middle man in order to make the project more affordable. A client would pay Steve directly for the action, another man for the bbl and fitting charges. At the same time he would order either 26" or 28 " bbl and indicate the choke desired. On receiving metal, the new owner could personally select/furnish his wood to stocker with desired diamentions for completion of stock as well as deciding on checkering pattern, finish and type of recoil pad, skeleton butt plate & etc. On completion of these steps, the metal can be sent out for engraving if desired as well as type finish required.

All these steps can be paid for on their completion and time between various steps can be allowed to fit clients budget ( saving a little money for following step).

This is just a rough outline of my perposal and I fully admit to be lacking in this arena. To this end I would appreciate any thought, replys, suggestions or rejections. If there is a lawyer who would like to contribute a few minutes of his time for a few questions, please advise via my email (kenhurst@suddenlink.net). We could certainly use some advice and would appreciate gearing from you.

Okay guys, as Frazier said " I'm listening." Ken

So Ken what ballpark number would it be for a completed gun?

Ken, This sounds terrific. I am growing tired of looking at trashed Lefevers that are said to be in fine condition. To have a classic American shotgun made with quality steels would be great. I sure hope the details can be worked out. It may not be an "original" Lefever, but the ability to shoot modern ammunition would sell me.

Bill

There isn't any figure yet for the action & forend but would be able to give estimate after Steve receives an action to measure & make a protype. Cost of bbl's , wood and stockwork will varie depending on what the client wants. My main concern is to put together a few top line guys to do the work ( finished metal in the white). I will arrange to help with the other sources if neede. Mostly , my concern is for this wonderful lightweight bbl action be made available at the least cost for you guys. I won't be making any money for these efforts. The bottom line will be determined by how much you want to spend for the extras such as grade of wood & engraving. You will pay each man directly for his services. You can take as much time as you wish between steps so the total cost can be spred out over as much time as you may wish. I WILL get you the guestimated cost after the first proto is run. Right now I just fishing for opinioms & your thoughts.

Steve tells me it will require approx. 2-3 mon. for him to totally measure all the diamentions of the entire gun inside & out. These have to be transfered to a program and then he has to build.machine parts fixtures before he can start work. In all this rambling, I sincerely hope i have imparted some more info even tho I can't give figures at the moment. I need to see if there is as much interest available. Ken

I am sure you will get many suggestions so I will start, the actions should all be cnc machined so as to all be identical so that the stock machining could be done in the same manner by who ever you find able to handle the wood machining for each customer. A Lefever is not a easy action to hand inlet with the curvy stepped safety tang , sideplates and all. Just a thought.....

RGSO22 ---- Steve was upset when I made him increase the gap between the breech block from a 1/2 thousand to 1 1/2 thound --- said I was making him make a sloppy action. Ken

Thank you dblfever --- Steve has some of the finest CNC mills & lath in his shop. He only buys the best programs available. When I suggested he let me have the external hammer shown on the Wesson action pictureed on the Wesson thread, he refused --- it had to be completed.

Foe anyone interested, Steve lives in Plypton , Mass. close to Boston. You would be made to feel at home if you'd like to visit & see his set-up. Let me know and I will arrange it for you. Ken

Ken,

It is a great idea if it can be pulled off. A few questions.

How long will the whole process take? Bottom line for the action and fitted barrels? I assume the sky is the limit regarding the stock work and engraving as everyone will be taking care of that individually if I understand correctly. What other if any choices are there? Extractors, ejectors, double triggers, single trigger, barrel lengths, finish of the metal, etc?

Finally, how will the gun be stamped? As a Lefever or something else? Does Ithaca still retain the Lefever name?

Pete

PeteM --- I'm kicking the idea of remaking the infowlable singe trigger made in the 20's. There is one available to me to measure for duplicating. otherwise, the idea is to have dbl triggers and auto ejectors --- I wasn't sure if extracters would be acceptabl to y'all. The matal will be left in the ehite as I felt in foolish to charge a client for color case if he wanted to have it engraved. This way, he doesn't have to bear the extra expense of having the frame annealed too. The bbl lengths will be 26 & 28" so we won't have to carry a large inventory of bbl's. This too could change if indicated by response from y'all. The name may be for sale But we won't know until we can get a lawyer to check for us or do the calling ourselves. The gun itself hasn't been made in almost 100 years and therfore is out of patent as I understand. ken

Dt, I had a really nice response prepared and the the internet world lost it somewhere.

I was going to say that I've seen a number of Steve Earle Wesson actions now and they are wonderful right out of the box. They are a "tour de "force" of machining IMHO and I would be willing to compare them to other actions at more than twice the price.

I think it's difficult to put a hard number on a price only because of the other variables involved i.e engraving, stock work etc.