doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Anybody want to buy a Lefever g Grade for 7K?

Slow, hot day here. Thought a few laughs might be appropriate.

I guess PT Barnum was right.....

http://www.gunbroker.com/item/671355412

Here is an even stranger listing. A hallucinogenic stock job on a Lefever Arms Co Long Range Field and Trap Gun. It must have been part of Timothy Leary's estate.

http://www.gunbroker.com/item/670092163

I'm sure we'll see this gun in the Letterman single barrel competition at Ernie Hausemann's shoot next spring.

If that G grade was built in 1917 that would make it an Ithaca built gun. It was definitely sent back for an upgrade or built totally out of sequence. A gun in the 19K SN range should have two hook cocking, not the single hook of this gun. No picture of the action flat area was shown so one could see if it is a small hook or large hook, though I feel pretty sure it is a large hook gun. Probably that cross pin in the frame bar has had its center section cut out. A large hook gun would not normally be expected to have plate mounted sears which this one apparently does, at least it has the screws in the plate for them. It also has the internally adjusted sear engagement adjusters.
none of the above is a serious distraction to value, just makes Lefever's interesting, one sees so many variations. 7K is however a pretty stiff price for a G grade, even a two barrel set (With one set Cut) with Bachelder restoration.

Wonder if that is a project that got out of hand or they just did it and did not consider the cost. Hard to recover that much work on a g grade. You might on a much higher grade.

No. Much better gun can be found rather easily for 7K.

What's up with the "strong defined rifling" on the cut barrels?

SRH

Stan;
I missed that one, description of both barrels read like shotguns not rifles. Lefever did make some double rifles, but all I have ever heard of were in regular rifle calibers of the day, have never seen a reference to a rifled barrel in a shotgun size. Likewise I do not see any signs of sights on these barrels.
Also if I didn't get the barrels mixed up I believe it is this set of cut barrels which has a 2nd SN stamped @, 31,224.
As best as I can make out the patent dates it has a last date of '87, does not carry the 1907 date which one would expect on a gun built in 1917.

He certainly knows how to finish barrels. Wow! Nice work.

It's a weird listing. This gun has odd characteristics, like an early frame, which would have gone with a rod or 2-hook cocker. But the barrels look like single hook cocking. Also, the trigger guard is of the later style than the one that would have come with that frame and forarm. So, as suggested by others, it might have been made out of sequence.

The oddest thing is, what are the 2 screws in the bottom of the frame even doing if it's a single cocking hook gun? I own, and have seen, many frames with "ghosts" of those two screw holes. I always assumed it was because of some part of Lefever's machining process that left a remnant of the older style that required 2 screws in the bottom. But this gun HAS the screws. This makes me think it was converted later, at the factory, rather than out of sequence. Spit-balling...

Anyway, even if it had some very unique combination of original factors, I still can't see $7k.

There is an E grade for sale on GB for well over a year, formerly owned by a well known, long time LACA member. The "buy it now" price is $8,700, and THAT gun is probably the nicest original condition E grade i have ever seen.

So... $7k for 2 grades lower...and non-original? To put it in perspective, for half that price you can get a G grade restored by THE Lefever guy.

Bachelder does fine work, for sure, but it's hard to even guess how he might have gotten so off track cost-wise with this gun.

- Nudge

Not to troll Brad, who indeed does beautiful work, but only in the interest of exactitude

The barrels are "Washington" which is commonly found on F & H grade Lefevers



"American Flag" has stars within the scrolls; Etoile' has tiny stars



And I have never seen vintage literature describe "3 Wire" damascus