doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Ithaca Lewis info

I am having a hard time finding info on-line about Ithacas' Lewis model shotguns. I was hoping to find info on the stamping on the watertable along with details over cosmetic variations of the Lewis. I know there is a book out there about the history of Ithaca shotguns.
I see some labeled as a 1 1/2 Lewis. Where the 12ga Lewis the only ones with the window on the safety? Some have Damascus some steel, who made the Damascus barrels and how long where they offered. Choke markings? Any help would be appreciated.

I've got a Lewis but it is in sad, sad shape. 12ga. Barrels are marked Smokess Powder Steel on top. On the J-Hook lug there is a P stamped. The top rib is concave and machined in arcs. The water table has the serial number plus an S over 12. The saftey has a window. The bores are in pretty good shape but the action is missing most of the internals (hammers, mainsprings, and firing pins) and the buttstock is broke in several places. Whoever cannibalized and otherwise abused the thing should have both barrels wrapped around his neck.

J.R.B
What are you going to do with it? Rebuild?
I know many Department stores ordered Ithacas through the years. I just wonder if there is a record anywhere on them. My Lewis has a 1P over top of the gauge mark on the watertable. Any idea what that means?

The Lewis Model replaced the earlier Crass Model hammerless Ithaca in 1901 with serial numbers beginning at 55000. The Lewis was made in all grades from the Field Grade with "Smokeless Powder Steel" barrels, through No. 1 with Twist barrels, No. 1 1/2 with Damascus barrels and No. 2 to No. 7 with increasingly finer Damascus barrels or Krupp barrels and increasingly finer engraving, stock wood and checkering. The Lewis Model was replaced by the even shorter lived Minier Model in 1906.

J.R.B.
I suspect the person who cannibalized the gun was not the person who abused it in the first place. You often see guns as described being used as a source of parts for repairs for other guns. Not every '56 Chevy was restored and those which were had to get parts from somewhere. Same thing in guns. Old guns needing repairs, with parts no longer made have to either find used parts or someone who can make new ones. One junker like yours may have saved half a dozen other guns. You have the remaining bones that have been picked clean for firing pins, springs, and other desperately needed parts. I think of these type of guns as the organ donors in the gun world. One dead gun gets stripped so many others live. You see the loss and I see the hope for other guns.

The gun was given to my by one of my uncles. Initially I was going to try and find the parts to fix it but that search has turned up a big zero. When and if I do find the parts there will be a lot of other work to do like tightening up the hinge and barrel lug. I did find a place where I can get a stock. The project is on the back burner now as I'm getting pumped up for pheasant season. I'm also suffering from Remington shotgun fever and Spanish shotgun fever.

It would be more palatable for me if I owned one of the recipiant guns of those organs.

Project guns are always fun. Just wait for the dead of winter, when you don't want to be outdoors and that is the time to work on them.

J.R.B.

Here is a good "parts" gun and will save you money on getting
an new stock

http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/ViewItem.aspx?Item=304054024

The problem for me KWill is that outdoor time never ends for me even in the dead of winter. Even if I have to put on a pair of snowshoes.