As in, the original factory records are lost to time, so a lot of what is written about the history of sideplate Syracuse Lefevers, and especially the guns finished by Ithaca after the sale of the Lefever name, parts, etc., is sheer conjecture. And a lot of that conjecture makes no sense from the standpoint of Lefever Arms Co. being in frequent financial difficulty.
Much of this has been discussed at length in the past here Ed. I myself have spent hundreds of hours researching it and attempting to figure out the puzzle, even to the extent of studying the actual state of the U.S. and New York State economic conditions during those years, and correlating that to estimated production and sales. Remember, the serial number and dates of production lists found here and in Robert Elliot's books involve a lot of extrapolation based upon surviving hang tags, correspondence, and original sales invoices.
The website of the Lefever Arms Collectors Association continues to state that
"up to 1/3 of LAC guns were produced out of sequence." But there is absolutely no evidence to back up that statement. Too much about this company has been stated as fact when there just is little or no real evidence to prove it. That was one factor that led me to drop out of that organization. Everything Richard Brewster posted above seems accurate. And there is nothing to be gained by repetition of some things as Gospel, that are not based upon facts.
Here are a few old threads that include past discussions on this subject. I haven't seen anything new in recent years that could absolutely answer all of our questions about Syracuse and Ithaca assembled Lefever sideplate guns. People continue to state that any gun with unusual features
MUST have been assembled by Ithaca Gun Co. A number of years ago, there were some hot leads concerning the whereabouts of the lost factory records. But even those stories never panned out, so the questions remain.
https://www.doublegunshop.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=363807&page=1https://www.doublegunshop.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=477432&page=1https://www.doublegunshop.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=500343&page=4
