Hello
I have been collecting Lefever serial numbers for 20+ years. I have close to 5000 guns recorded. The list over the years has told me a great deal about Lefevers and how they were numbered.
For many years we have known that most of the high grades are bunched together. Everyone thought that Lefever built a bunch of nice frames and set them aside to use for high grade guns as orders came in. most of he 8 gauge guns are in two groups so people felt the same way about them. The early run of 8 gauge guns are both thumb push opener and pivot openers.
As the serial number list grew bigger I could see that most all the guns were grouped together. Like you will see 30 or 40 lets say E grade 12 gauge Damascus guns in a group.
Then there are tons of guns that we call out of sequence guns. Like I have a G grade two piece cocker in the sidecocker serial number range and there are others that are out of sequence. There are Ithaca guns built in the 35xxx, 50xxx and other places they shouldn't be.
Ive known this for a number of years and told very few. I believe that Lefever numbered the barrels as they came in the shop. They numbered the frame by the number on the barrel. See with the 8 gauge guns the frames from a thumb push opener to a pivot opener are different and they would have not known that they were going to switch. As for the high grade guns it because they ordered top barrels like Whitworth. The out of sequence guns were guns that were built on a set of barrels that they had for a long time. Barrels with two sets of numbers on them were either guns that went back to the factory to get a second set of barrels or guns that were ordered with two sets of barrels. So the barrels with double numbers on it will have the number assigned to the barrels when they arrived in the shop and the second set of numbers will have the number of the other set of barrels and the number assigned to the gun. It also explains why Ithaca guns were built all over the serial number range. Because they had the barrels that were numbered.
I hope this doesn't rock the Lefever world to bad. I don't get on line a lot so if you have numbers or comments its best to email me at lefeverarms@gmail.com
