doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Ithaca sxs sweet 16

OK, OK, you got me. Things got to match.

I just wanted to thank you guys again for helping me with the 1916 flues I picked up (that I thought was a nitro!). As it turned out, 16 was my lucky number. A 1916, 16 gauge! When I got it in 2015 my wife and I had been trying for a child for a few years. In 2016 it happened. I was born on Dec 16th and my wife was born on nov 16th and one year after the post, November 2016, my son was born, and he will get this flues one day! You guys really are a great group and I was fortunate to two into your insight.

Sweet 16. Congrats.

Congratulations indeed.

I have a Flues 4E 20ga that I really enjoy playing around with. 1919 gun . . . but I can't make 9 into a lucky number for me. It's pretty much a specialty tool. 24" barrels with a swamped rib (which Ithaca guru Walt Snyder says is pretty rare.) Nice to carry hunting grouse & woodcock. I gave brief thought to opening at least one of the chokes. It's marked 2 and 4, so M/F. We seemed to miss the woodcock migration for the most part this year. But I picked up some RST spreaders, one of which did put a doodle in the bag for me. The Ithaca records from the Cody Museum don't indicate anything on chamber length. 20ga Ithaca standard back then was 2 1/2". Mine has 2 3/4", so was almost certainly opened later. But I intend to stick with 2 1/2" shells. It's not like I'm going to do a lot of target shooting with it. My first American classic sxs was a Flues Field Grade 16ga. I liked the gun, but it didn't fit me very well. The little 20ga does.

Ithaca marked the chokes on the barrel flats, making it easy to tell how the gun was choked when it left the factory. 0--cylinder; 1--improved cylinder; 2--modified; 3--improved modified; 4-full. You should be able to find a gunsmith who can measure chokes for you because they may have been opened since your gun was made.

I've been shooting 16s since 1973, and ammo isn't as much of a problem as you may think. Once you figure out what you want, try to order it in bulk (a flat at a time--20 boxes.) Cabelas usually has 16ga Herters shells in stock. The hulls reload quite well. 16ga.com will provide guidance on components etc. The 1 oz Remington Game Loads also reload well when you can find them. Finding specific reloading components can be a PITA. But again, 16ga.com will help you out. And there is a 16ga reloaders group. The problem lately has been shortages of a lot of components for various gauges. Certainly worse for 16 than for 12 or 20. But not a show stopper. I usually shoot about half a dozen rounds of skeet with a 16 every week. That does keep me busy reloading and making sure that I have the components I need on hand. Hasn't slowed me down, but I do have to make sure that I don't run out of components. Big box stores that handle hunting and fishing stuff will usually have 16ga shells on hand. Mostly either 1 oz target/light game loads or 1 1/8 oz pheasant loads.

The real problem with 16s is loading the shells lighter to shoot clay targets, like skeet for practice. Talk to other guys with Flues 16s over on 16ga. com. Ask about shooting factory 1 oz loads in the gun. My 16ga Flues was basically a backup gun to a Sauer made between the wars which was about as tough as a tank. Ithaca stopped making the Flues in 1926 when they brought out the NID (New Ithaca Double). The change was as a result of the appearance of the first of the truly modern shotshells which delivered more velocity and higher pressures. (The Super X was the first.) Ithaca more or less previewed some of the NID changes in the Nitro Special, which they introduced in 1921. I did shoot modern pheasant loads in my 16ga Flues without any issues, but I'm not sure I'd do that again.

If you're going to focus on Ithaca sxs, then you really should pick up Walter Snyder's Ithaca book: "The Ithaca Gun Company, From the Beginning" (2nd edition). That's basically the Ithaca Bible.

Good luck.

Amen. I consider my copy a keeper.

Eddy, congratulations on your purchase. I noticed that in an earlier post you referred to an A Grade. Quite a few manufacturers did use letters to indicate different grades of guns. Ithaca did not. The "entry level" of the more modern Ithaca doubles (made since 1900) were called Field Grade guns. Higher grade guns were designated by number rather than letter. And things are also complicated by the fact that--as you've discovered--Ithaca made double barrel guns under other names. After they purchased Lefever Arms, they brought out the Lefever Nitro Special as a less expensive option to the guns that carried the Ithaca name. A bit later than that, they made guns that were still less expensive under the Western Arms name. (Especially when the Depression hit, a difference in price of just $1 or $2 might have been the difference between selling a gun or not. The Lefever A Grade was the "fancy" gun of those made by Ithaca that did not carry the Ithaca name. They're not very common. Only about 2500 of them were made from 1934-39. The Lefever Nitro Special, introduced earlier and less expensive than the A Grade, sold better . . . about 300,000 of them. The Western Arms Model was Ithaca's least expensive double barrel gun, and also sold quite well: 65,000 of them were produced from1929-1942, and about 65,000 more were made in 1946, after WWII ended and most guns made by Ithaca were no longer going to the military and civilian production had begun once again.

Still have a lot of 16 ga paper and plastic hulls if anybody wants them. Along I-94 100 miles west of Fargo ND. 701 252-5639. Been shooting them in my Sauer Model 8 since 1949.