doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Ithaca NID?

Bill: I likely stole this from Researcher or Bro. Snyder

There were at least four different versions of the NID Field Grade over the years of production. The early Field Grades just had the dog and the address roll stamped on the sides of the frame. Then somewhere between 1927-29 to 1934 the Field Grades had the stars engraved on the sides, hingepin ends, bottoms, etc. Then around 1935 or 6 Ithaca dropped the cocking indicators from all grades, got rid of the dog and address from the sides of the Field Grade frame and put a wiggly line border around the receiver of the Field Grade with some nice matting on the top of the receiver. Also at that time they went to the Baker style snap-on/off forearm for extractor guns. After WW-II some Field Grades were assembled and sold with no engraving or stampings at all on the frames. This is all covered very well in The Double Gun Journal, Volume Five, Issue 3, by William R. Allen.

Here is a picture of a typical "star" variation Field Grade. This variation first appears in the 1929 catalogues, but may well have been in production earlier then the catalogues show. The boys at Fall Creek were a bit slow on updating some pictures in their catalogues -- the gun pictured on the order blank throughout the NID period is a Grade 7E Flues?!?!

This is a fully Turnbullized .410-bore --

Bill, Do you have the complete serial number? If so, will you post it? I can tell a lot from that. OR--don't worry about it any more, just send me the sellers phone number and perhaps I will remove the temptation.
Best, Walt

Thank you Walt. I did not write the number down, but it was 454XXX. If I decide to pass, I will let you know.
Researcher: Those colors are a almost perfect match to what I was sure had to be a refinish. I was convinced the original blue could not have been that bright. Stars and lettering are the same, I just did not notice any setters. It has a Star on bottom of the action, Star on bottom of triggerguard too. I may have to give this gun a second look. I was pretty excited, and didn't want to seem to interested. 500.00 is a lot of cash. LOL

Except for the redone case colors, all of my "star grades" look just like Researcher's picture, with the stars, the snail horns, and the setter. I thought they all looked like that, but then I've never seen Greg Taggart's gun. Ithaca'd been using that roller stamp of the setter since the beginning of the Flues guns, so maybe some of the stamps began getting pretty lite towards the end of the "star grade" production...Geo

Greg,
Sorry I missed your post somehow. I'm glad to hear another gun exists without the setters I was hesitant to trust my judgement. I thought all the Ithaca's had the dog stamps. I may have to go pick this gun up.

Bill

What sometimes happened is that a few 'early' frames didn't get finished up in the era they were made. Some of these were appearently gathered up, finished and sold much later then the sn would predict. I had a high condition one that had all the post 1935 fixings BUT a 429--- serial numbered frame. No indicators and no indication there ever were. The sn look up indicated the gun was sold well past its sn era. Also, as the NID was being discontinued, even more unorthodox configurations appear.
Bill, You probably have never seen high conditioned NID colors before. They can be quite bright as some of the photos suggested by REVDOCDREW show. Are you in the Laurel Mts.of PA? $500 is too much to waste on a junk gun but cheap for a hi-conditioned NID. (IMHO)

Talk about getting no respect. NID are the Rodney Dangerfield of guns. Let me put your high condition NID in perspective. It is a modern gun capable of handling modern loads which 90 percent of American and almost all British doulbes are not designed to shoot. It has decent stock demensions, that most of us can shoot. There is no major history of problems related to this gun like a Smith with stock cracks. They work well, shoot fine and hold up well in hunting conditions.

Now compare what other double guns you could get for $500.00.

Hugula/CZ --------- No
Fox Sterlingworth --Only if beaten to death.
LC Smith --------- Yes with cracks, no without.
Parker ----------- Get real. Maybe if a parts gun.
Lefever --------- Nitro Special maybe, Sideplate only if wornout.
Winchester 21 ------ No
Crescent, Stevens, other hardware guns. Yes, if in good condition they would be in our $500.00 range. Maybe even less.

Point is that $500.00 for a high condition NID is a steal in my book. And I like bargins.

Jon is right. There is no piece of junk anywhere represented as a functioning doublegun which will not bring 250. For twice that you get a post-1925 gun with stout barrels; so what if it's butt-ugly it's a field grade gun. Or you can wait and get one upon which the cake decoraors have been at work. Your budget; your level of necessity or infatuation.

jack

Hello all,
I didn't have to make a decision on the NID I asked about last week. I told the guy Monday that I neeeeded to get the entire serial number. He told me his wife had sold the gun to her brother for 1/2 the price I had offered since he was family.
Oh well, This aint my first Rodeo. I learned a long time ago when I was in the antque business that an offer to sell usually is just a way to get a free appraisal.

Bill