https://www.gunbroker.com/item/1030326305looks too nice to be on a field grade gun...
watt do you think?
Asking about your own gun?
Loosen the trigger guard and look and see if the serial number is stamped there.
Looks to me like the patina on the wood is old enough to be original. Sometimes you just break lucky on factory wood...Geo
Ed, I went on Gun Broker and looked at that gun. Replaced forend wood with big chunk missing,
Stock could have been replaced at one time, as the fore plate screws are cocked.
If you are thing of Buying that gun, I would not offer more than $400 to $500.
That's all its Worth.
Old guns are always a conundrum, yes the wood is better than it would normally be.
Given that it really does not matter, what is the value of the gun to the eventual buyer is all, that matters.
I think the Butt Stock is factory wood, and Field grade, They put some nice pieces of wood on some of the NID's.
I don't think it's the stock that orig came on that gun, however.
Lots of chipped finish and small damage all around the wood right at the edges where the metal fits.
In pic#4/10 you can see how low the wood is to the edge of the Top Tang on the LH side.
Same is true on the RH side but not nearly as bad. Pic #1/10
You can also see in #1/10 the RH flat edge of the Frame and the Stock abutment don't fit tight w/a gap towards the top.
The pics enlarge if you leave the cursor on the pic for amoment
The butt plate is universally smaller than the stock wood edge by a 1/32 or so. At least on the LH edge in the pic.
Maybe this nice piece of wood had a recoil pad on it but was uncut. To make it 'original', the pad removed
and an Ithaca plate simply put in place and a very close fit.
The top Butt Plate Screw has what appears to be it's Painted blued finish chipping off.
The bottom screw is still blued. But that top screw has black paint on it for a finish I'd say.
The Top Lever scrapes the Top Tang when closed,,not necessarily an uncommon trait on these and an easy fix.
The Forend is a replacement I believe and probably not an Ithaca FE at that.
Nice wood, but the 'Deluxe' style checkering pattern doesn't go with the Field grade pattern on the Butt Stock. At least it doesn't appear right to me.
The FE checkering is crude compared to the Butt Stock work.
The diamond aspect is way off, being almost square 'diamonds'.
Diamonds not sharp at all, and the work still in the raw state. No finish, stock oil, or plain dirt & grime from handling in chr'g at all. Looks like
it was just done when compared to the butt stock checkering.
Just what I see...
thanks for input
ah like them ithaca stars...
Ed, I agree with Kutter's comments about the wood on your 20 ga. NID.
I have a 16 ga. Ithaca NID that is also the earlier version with the star engraving and cocking indicators. It has wood with very similar figure in the butt stock, but it has the original splinter forend. The NID's were very solid guns, and even field grades were not hard to look at.