doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com A ghost of Lefever?

http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/ViewItem.asp?Item=116075026

From the pictures this gun looks like it has a large hook cocking system and a Lefever screw adjustment ball. So was this just a company which used up the old Lefever parts or someone who tried to make a gun, using Lefever features, after the Lefever Co. folded? Note the location where it was made, Defiance, Ohio USA. Almost worth buying just to have a good look at it.

Great eye KY Jon. You're right, it does look like a Lefever clone, although it appears to be a true sidelock, no? I still don't understand why no one has taken that design in the modern era and run with it.

Carders shows Waverly bought out LeFever's manufacturing facilities when when Uncle Dan moved to Bowling Green. They manufactured a sidelock on what looks much like an "I" grade frame. Frank LeFever worked for Waverly between 1904-1907, the year the "I" grade was discontinued. I wonder how many excess rough forged frames were lying about and if they were sold with the facility? One jus neveh do know, do one?

Cary

Way cool!!! Waverly is not on Joe Vorisek's list of Crescent trade names, and this gun appears to be a step up from H&D Folsom's work! And, Waverly Arms Corp. is not in the index for Joe's Shotgun Research Newsletter. Actually Joe does show Waverly Arms Co. with a date of 1905 as an off shoot of D.M. Lefever Arms Co. in Defiance, Ohio, in 1905 with a question mark and only connected by a dashed line. Where is R.R. when we need him? Sure looks to be the product of some short lived venture one of Uncle Dan's sons may have been involved in after the demise of Uncle Dan and the various iterations of D.M. Lefevers struggling attempt to build his box-frame guns.

Now I got it! In Robert W. Elliot's book Uncle Dan Lefever -- Master Gunmaker in his chronology of the family on page 119 he lists Frank as working at Waverly Arms Co. before he goes to Moundsville, West Virginia, to be plant superintendant for the Three-Barrel Gun Co.

Dave- I found the same reference (page 119) you did and thought about the same thing. Good way to use up left over "I" frame forgings without deminishing the reputation of D.M. LeFever.

R2 mentioned Waverly at some time in the past; remembering that is what got me started on this tangent.

Cary

Cary, The problem with what you quote from Carder is that those I-Grade frames would have been back at Lefever Arms Co. in Syracuse and would be perfectly usable as DS-Grade frames.

Buy it KYJon so we can know more!!!

Let's say Uncle Dan had a few action bars on the boat/on the wagon when he arrived in Bowling Green and Favorite Son punted them to Waverly. Would they have been raw forgings? Looks like Waverly chose to machine the seat for their particular shape of lockplate reminiscent of Crescent's so they couldn't possibly have been LAC frames in progress, could they? Do the location of pins/screws tell anything about the sear arrangement inside?

jack

Gun has Lefever type grip cap.

KY Jon,

Very nice find. I would have missed it. From what I can tell, the matting on the rib does not match my G which was made about 1904.

At first pass, I could not find any census info on Waverly. Was he a gunsmith or are we looking at a firm? I do not find him in Sellers.

Pete

This gun has some similarities to a Lefever, but nothing close enough to say it would have been made from leftover parts. As I & DS guns seem to be virtually identical except for the grade stamp I seriously doubt many were allowed to leave the Syracuse plant. Elliot's book pictures an I grade bearing a 44K serial number which should be well after Uncle Dan left, so there would seem to be no real indication the I was dropped immediately upon his departure. Total shape of both frame & plates are different from Lefevers.