Well, after the high dollar bids the past few weeks. This one sold cheap.
Rock Island Auction, Lot 841, Engraved D.M. Lefever Co. 7D Grade.

John, what did it sell for ? They would do better if they didn't have such crappy out of focus pictures. That gun looked like a restock to me. Comb, grip, and butt were unlike Lefevers I have seen.

Daryl,
it sold for $2750 plus the 21.5% buyers premium.
The D.M. Lefever that recently sold on another auction was over$6000.
John

Greeners went cheap too

For anyone interested, I recently visited Redding Auction and they will have a D.M. Lefever up for auction soon. It was a low serial number 12-bore and I don't recall if barrels were steel or Damascus, but it was an unrestored original; and as I recall was a 7D. This gun also had the screw in the forearm to disable the auto-ejectors; the only example of the few D.M. Lefevers I've seen with that feature. There was also a side-cocker that'd be in the same auction.

There are 3 DM Lefevers listed on GI by Cabelas Ft Worth. 2) 12ga grade O and a 20ga grade O.
All look like wood shed guns. A shame.

John

Rare guns get abused like all the rest sometimes. I would love to have seen that 20 as a new gun with 26 or 28" barrels. That would have been a very rare gun indeed, even in such a basic grade. DM Lefevers are very rare even around here which is very close to where they started life.

Oh boy those Cabelas crossbolts are all "Pam Anderson" guns. Once they were beautiful, but way too many unskilled men have had have their hands all over them, and each left his mark. No amount of lipstick can make these not look like ongoing 100 year old projects.

I really do wonder how Cabelas makes money on their Gun Room endeavor. They must just pay very little when they buy.

NDG

I wonder who buy these guns from Cabellas? I would like to show them $500,000 of my "projects" for a quick sale. Local Cabellas had a economy Ithaca .410 in shooters/beater condition, no finish remaining, dents, scratches with a hot blue job on barrels, a $300.00 value which they had $3,999.00 price on. Lord know which fool bought that one. Not this one.

Then they would have a gun on the sales rack for one third of its real value because they did not know what it was. Like Remington Gallery Special for $200.00 in near mint condition that was cheap because it only shot .22 shorts. Or the same gun in Remington Special because the ammo was not listed available anymore even though it the the same as a Winchester Special which is sold. Nobody can understand everything in the gun business, but every seller and or buyer ought to understand what basic conditions of a gun are, and not be fooled by cheap makeup or shine. Shiny pitting is still pitting. The information is out there on the internet if you look most of the times.

LOL..."shiny pitting." I have seen that, too funny. But more often it's an "original" gun with no remaining case color...but excellent bluing, and a weep hole in the bottom rib.

I used to think they all knew the truth, but after enough conversation with very confused sellers, I think it's as much idiocy and shadiness.

I met a friend at a show years ago who insisted on introducing me around to all these really old guys who suppossedly had like 'Jedi-level' knowledge of American doubleguns.

Three minutes into a conversation with one guy...a supposed collector of like 50 years, and he starts telling me how Lefever was just a brand name of Charles Daly (which is itself, actually just a brand name)...and that the guns were made overseas (Austria, as I recall).

I listened attentively, wished him well, and walked on.

NDG

The levels of informed idiocy, with some dealers, sellers and collectors is beyond Jedi level. If you can stand and listen to them, with a complete and sincere expression, you pass the DC BS test and that is saying a lot. Ernest stupidity, is a truly impressive thing sometimes.

It is indeed a shame what has happened to these D.M. Lefever guns that Cabelas is selling. They are all quite rare, considering that only a total of around 1200 were produced. It is unusual that there would be
six D.M. Lefever box lock guns for sale on one site at the same time. I wonder how they determined the grade on the one that is listed as a 9F grade? Considering the amount of the engraving including game scenes, the checkered stock cheeks, and the Krupp fluid steel barrels, it looks more like it would be an 8E.

John- 2 Cabela 's/Bass-Ackwards Gun Library true stories-both witnessed in person by friends I know as reliable: (1) Gent is looking at used 1911-1911-A1 pistols in the case, asks the young clerk what is the difference between them? Clerk tells him:" The 1911 came out in 1905, as was designed for black powder ammo only, in the later 1911-A1 revision Colt used stronger steel and it would then handle smokeless powder loads-he tried to use an analogy between the Colt 1861 Army and the later Colt 1973 "Peacemaker".. (!) saw a redone 12 DHE at the Grandville GL a few years ago- 28", DT, AE, PG, SSB-BT-PG 90% blue and wood- tag noted: Redone by Del Greco-- Misspelling perhaps, but it is spelled DelGrego-- I asked him for a notarized copy of the invoice to validate this work by the ParkerMeister- he said that they didn't have such a invoice copy, so I asked him where did he get the idea it was done there-? His reply- "well Sir, the man we bought it from told us so."" In case you are wondering, tag asking price was $7250. Buyer Beware.. RWTF

I see that there is another D.M. Lefever Crossbolt currently listed on Gunbroker.

https://www.gunbroker.com/item/925489294

It has also seen better days, and has had wood and metal refinished. In addition, the horn forend tip has been replaced with a piece of walnut, and it has a non-original grip cap and recoil pad.

I see that it was sold by Shoverling Daly & Gales (SD&G), and it has a pretty low serial number that would suggest Syracuse production. But it is said that all of the O Excelsior grade guns were only built in Ohio, and were never cataloged in Syracuse. I have a D.M. Lefever gun with no grade mark that appears to be about 7d or 8E grade, but mine has a semi-pistol grip, so naturally, the grade can't be found under the grip cap. It also has the SD&G stamp under the barrels. But I notice that this O Excelsior gun also has the grade stamped at the rear of the forend wood, so I will have to look there on mine. I have never seen it stated that the D.M. Lefever guns had a grade and serial number stamped into the rear of the forend wood, so this was very interesting to see. It is also very unusual that the seller would pull the grip cap and forend iron to show photos of the grade and serial number stamps in the wood. The serial number on this O Excelsior is only about 50 numbers higher than my unmarked grade D.M. Lefever, but mine is made in Syracuse, and it also has the "Not Connected With Lefever Arms Co." engraved on the trigger plate. In addition, this one is marked D.M. Lefever & Sons Co., while my Syracuse gun is marked D.M. Lefever & Sons & Co.

It's great to see all of these popping up since there are no factory records, and so little is known about them. And unfortunately, much of what is written about them appears to be a lot of speculation.

The DM Lefever listed on GB was owned for years by a collector friend in NM, Gene Sandlin; and if my memory is correct, he got that gun from Bob Elliott. The original barrels have been cut and I don't recall what else may have been done aftermarket besides the white line rubber pad. It was listed for sale on GB previously. I find the DM Lefever guns interesting and owned a Grade 8E for several years, which was one of my all-time favorite dove guns. This gun was #1622 and had 28" Imperial Steel barrels, auto-ejectors, and single trigger. The stock featured a capped pistol grip, which the Elliott book says was a rare feature. The barrels and frame were not grade stamped, but beneath the grip cap was the stamped letter "E", which is why I determined the gun to be an 8E. But the rarest feature of that gun was the safety slide; it was a true slide and not the roller type typical of DM Lefever guns. I've not seen another example with a sliding safety. Seems I purchased the gun in the mid-'90's from New England Arms; dealer said he had 3 examples in stock at the time and that #1622 didn't work at all. But it was $1K cheaper than the others and he didn't know if it'd ever work; still it was the perfect example for a budget minded collector, so it became mine. I immediately sent the gun to Buck Hamlin; Buck got the gun in working order and sent it back was the understanding that he was guaranteeing nothing. It was dove season so away we went, and lo and behold it doubled on the first shot. It never doubled again, but the auto-ejectors never worked at all; still, there was something about how well I could shoot that gun and oft is the time I wish it were still mine in spite of its quirks.

I always enjoyed chatting with Gene Sandlin at the Colorado collectors show. I bought a 12ga straight stocked G grade from him one year. His wife was a sweet lady as well.

Probably related to the schmuck who had a few older Winchesters on his table this past Saturday at a local area show- (1) clearly a Model 25-- my son-in-law was with me, he looked it over (after asking permission) as he has one that his late father bought new right after the Korean War-- 28" Mod 75-80 % finish, smallish chip in the butt plate- tag said- Winchester Model 12 Featherweight- very scarce, as only made for 2 years-- I had my Schwing's pocket book on Winchesters-serial nos. and yom-- and opened it to the pages on the Model 12 and its variants-and it showed plain as daylight the Model 12 Featherweight- the sn ranges , the extra interchangeable barrels offered, the whole details- He asked me if I could see my book, and I told him-"sure" and he opened it to the front cover page-- "Well Mister, he told me, "this book is out of date- it was published in 1981, and this is is 2022--". I took back my Schwing pocket book, shook my head, and walked away-leaving him and his $1750 Winchester M25 behind. Later that day at the same show, a dealer/seller- had a M54 in 30-06 he was asking $3500 for- it was a Super Grade- as stamped on the forged steel drop magazine plate someone had "borrowed" from a Model 70, and stamped to pull off a counterfeit job- I looked it over, and just shook my head- as the sn showed it was an early production year M54- 1929- WRA had not yet offered the M54 in a "deluxe" version. The $125 I paid for my copy of the Roger Rule "Bible" was worth every penny-- RWTF

RWTF, knowledge is worth everything it cost because lack of knowledge is ten times as expensive. I too just politely walk away these days from ill informed or miss informed sellers. Was not always that smart but I have learned that no matter how hard you try you can not fix stupid if stupid does not want to be fixed. So I don’t try anymore.

I also owed a 8E DM Lefever at one time and sent it to Buck for work on the the triggers and ejectors. He got it working but also said he promised nothing. I don't think he liked working on them much! I have a side plate 20 ga. Lefever with him now for some work.

Here's a nice one in the rare 16 ga. A little pricy though.
https://www.gunsinternational.com/g...ns/d-m-lefever-16ga.cfm?gun_id=101853537

William, IMO- Everything listed for sale at Kevin's is Pricey--RWTF