Thanks Nudge. However, I did mention the chronic financial difficulties of the Lefever Arms Co. as perhaps the biggest reason why I find it hard to believe most of what I have read concerning the number of Lefever shotguns assembled by Ithaca.
In the years after Dan Lefever's departure, leading up to the sale of the Lefever Arms Co. and inventory by the Durston family, sales averaged only around 2500 guns per year. It wouldn't make any economic sense for a gun company in those times and circumstances to tie up several years worth of production in parts inventory. But a lot of things about Lefever guns are hard to explain, so I guess it is just easy to suggest that any guns with unusual features are the result of Ithaca production. That might wash if we saw the same sort of thing with a goodly number of Ithaca's own doubles. From what I have observed, a good number of Lefevers will have barrels or other features from higher grade guns than what is stamped on the frame. I think some of this may result from customer special requests, and some of it might be simply using parts on hand to fill orders... but only if the change was a slight upgrade. This practice of never giving a customer anything less than he paid for might explain the existence of this small number of DS grade guns that have many H grade features. And I mentioned the possibility that there may have been a temporary shortage of non-dollshead DS frames... but that is also only a guess. In many cases, Lefever guns seem to be almost semi-custom, versus the cookie-cutter production seen from their competition.
