Lefevers remind me of Forest Gump: they are like a box of chocolate--you never know what you're going to get. I took the lockplates off my little GE Damascus barreled 20 gauge and found their first serial numbers had been struck over, being replaced by new ones. Undoubtably done at the factory. Wonder if they were just using up parts? But why would new plates have had a number on them if they hadn't been mated to a gun? Tis a mystery to me. Oh, all numbers on the gun match.

Were both side plate strike overs?

Very interesting find. Lefevers are truely an always surprising make of shotgun.

Yup, both of 'em

Sounds like 65818 was made up as a G grade and was already on hand. Then an order came in for F or E grade and two new side plates were fit and finished to make the gun in stock an F or E grade to fill the order. Not wanting to waste anything the take off side plates were returned to stock (bin). Later they were used to finish 69767 as a G grade.

We often say that if these guns could only talk the stories they could tell would be interesting. I had a H grade that had blued barrels. Factory I am positive. But when the gun was refinished we found one barrel was twist and one was damascus. Now I wish that I had kept that gun just for the odd feature. I saw another DS grade, clearly marked as DS, that had damascus barrels and dolls head rib extension but no indicators. It was not a late parts clearing gun but one of the very early ones. I figured it was run up from stock parts before the features of the grade were firmly set. I passed on that gun because the owner wanted more than a grand for it when mint DS guns did not bring half that much.

Isn't it a bit odd to find damascus barrels on a G grade gun with such a high serial number?

I pulled the sideplates off my 66xxx h grade 20 ga recently. Numbers match the rest of the gun but are stamped over some older numbers on both plates. Old numbers still somewhat visible but not well with the overstamped ones. I like your strikethrough better. Guess it was a different guy that day.

I have a very late H grade on which the SN's on both frame & barrels have been over stamped. @ # 73,138 & # 73142 though they got them 4 numbers apart. SN's on other parts match one of the two numbers, but offhand I forget which. Quite certain this is an Ithaca assembled gun. Has twist barrels & only weighs 6½ lbs, 12 ga-28". Also is fitted with an Infallible SST, quite possibly done when new by Ithaca.
Damascus barrels were available on the G grade all the way up to the end, not really unusual to find them. The 20ga though is most often found in the DS grade. The higher the grade the less common it is to find a 20.

Joe, can you check the numbers behind the ejectors and other hidden places ? I wonder what numbers you'll find.

Daryl, most of the gun seems to have stamped over numbers or whatever and they seems to be different numbers. The ejectors have the correct serial number. Is that a "F" following the number on the barrel? Seems to be awfully high quality damascus for a G grade. And the stamping dies all seem to be different! Could it be such an unusual configuration that many parts were just scavenged from others?

Just as a footnote, all these pictures were taken with an iPhone. Incredible macro quality for such a basic camera! Photos were taken about 6" away and then heavily cropped on the phone itself.

2-Piper, I'd like to see pictures of your Infallible triggered gun. I have 2 L.C. Smiths - one a 00 grade 12 and the other a field grade 20 with Infallibles installed.

The 00 grade was my first double and also the reason I signed up on this board back in '99 (I think). Many hours were spent trying to figure out what it was, as it is unmarked inside and out. My 20ga is marked "Infallible" on the trigger blade just below the frame.

I also have a copy of an early Infallible catalog. I will start a new thread with pictures if anyone cares.

I should apologize for a mild hijack of this thread...

Bryndon

That looks like a parts cleanup gun. Scraping the parts bin to finish up the last of the inventory bought from Lefever. I wonder if Ithaca ever intended continuing to make Lefevers after the purchase or just wanted to eliminate another maker and use their name later on the special.

One thing I just noticed--the struckout/struckover numbers on the sideplates and action are the same....65818....hmmm.....if you had almost all the makings of a gun why change the numbers?

Joe, could it be an apprentice was just practicing his numbers ? Look on the backside of the ejector hammers ?

Just a theory, but I suppose that the over-stamped number 69818 could have been discovered to have already been used on another gun in the production process. After all, they are only 51 numbers apart. Quite likely that they were built during the same week. Two mixed up work orders, perhaps, and a little steel erasing to correct the error. Perhaps the error occurred with one being started in Syracuse, and the other started during the transition to Ithaca. We'll likely never know. Maybe an employee even got to purchase the over-stamped gun at a discount.

The F on the barrels is no surprise. There are many Lefevers that have barrels which are stamped a grade higher than the gun. But I have never seen one with a barrel stamp of a lower grade. It seems they would occasionally use higher grade parts to complete an order, but never do the same using lower grade parts. This may also explain some of the DS grades that are seen with dolls head barrels, cocking indicators, and LACo. monogram buttplates. You might get more than you paid for... but never less.

Some may recall that several years ago, an Optimus and a G grade both appeared for sale on Gunbroker at the same time, and both had identical serial numbers. What are the odds of it happening in the first place, and what would the odds be of both showing up on the same internet auction site, at the same time 100 years later? This anomaly caused some to question the authenticity of the Optimus, but experts who examined it agree that it was legitimate. The same guy wisely bought both guns. Hopefully, they will never be parted because they make for a most interesting Lefever mystery.

I think the Optimus you are talking about was sold last week. I don't know if the G went with it.

Keith, they're 3,949 apart

Holy crap Joe, I glanced at the numbers and read 69818 instead of 65818. 69818 minus 69767 would be 51 numbers apart. My math was OK... but my eyes put my foot in my mouth. So much for that theory. Thanks for the correction.