doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Lefever DS

Here are a few images in a Google directory. Perhaps that helps.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1-NlKoVTagnSY_3_eG51N1k3kL8gzDO6W

I�m a little confused on one thing. I had a G grade at one point, extractor gun, and it did not have those levers embedded in the frame. If this gun is an extractor gun, refit for ejectors at a later date, why would the frame have ejector parts in it? In the G, the cocking hook pushed the extractors out to raise the hulls.

Naturally, a former extractor gun that was refitted for ejectors at a later date would have to have the frame machined to install the in-frame ejector levers. Evidence of this can sometimes be seen when the machining removes part of the serial number or grade that was stamped into the water table. I don't know that anyone could say for certain whether your gun had been returned to have ejectors installed. I couldn't make out the first digit in the serial number on the left barrel, and that 5 near the forend hanger is very odd.

I've wondered whether at least some of these DS guns with H grade characteristics were early prototypes for a lower grade gun. It is claimed that Dan Lefever and the Durstons had disagreements over the introduction of the cheaper DS and I grades, and those disagreements may have been part of the reason for his departure from his own company in 1902. A lower percentage of DS grade guns had ejectors because the DS grade was built to a price point as a more affordable field grade gun. Ejectors are much less common in I grades, but a few are known to exist.

Thank you. I would not have thought it all the economical to send a gun back for that work: new barrel, extractors, machining, other parts. Hadn�t thought it through before, having not owned a gun who went through that process.

For the rogue �5�, I�d think it identified a person who might have helped do the work, or perhaps it numbered one of a set of �product development� guns.

I have see both DS and I grades as described. I have a number of them listed. I've always felt they were the first ones built.

Thank you, Bob. What it is or isn't usually doesn't matter to me either way, I just enjoy knowing whatever I can about the gun and the history around how it came to be as it is. Would you say then that in this particular case that this is an early DS that they used an H barrel for?

I was also curious about how the compensating screw for the top lever works, which is mentioned in one of the "expanded history" images on the Lefever Collectors site. Under the dolls head on mine, there is a separate wedge that the tiny screw holds in place. The G I once owned does not have this wedge, but the screw simply threads into the extension. To what degree is this screw used for adjustment, and is the wedge replaced to compensate for wear?

Thank you.