[Linked Image from i.imgur.com]

Randy: I looked up that Ithaca "double-thick breech" feature you mentioned here earlier and found this. Look at the guns weights they were advertising then (7 to 10 lb 12-gauge guns). Yousa! That Alexander T. Brown designed rotary bolt rib-extension is on quite prominent display as well here. The incestuous world of New York State gunmaking then, eh?

This Quality A NIG gun is likely to be in the 8lb 12ounce range (from my reading). For a gun used purely for trap or sporting clays applications, all the added-weight they provide is clearly a "plus" (for sopping-up recoil and steadying your swing, much like my specifically designed SKB O/U "Sporting Clays Model" that weighs 10 1/2 lbs) and those truly "monster-thick" tubes make any concern for the use of "modern" smokeless shells in it seem...quite superfluous, but for any other gunning application....not so great.

Lugging this gun into the woods (or even into a duck boat) seems just so impractical now, but I'm sure that is how they were used.

Edit to add: I just saw Drew's earlier post with the similar photographs and even better grade information. Always impressive.

Last edited by Lloyd3; 04/18/25 09:44 AM.