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

Gentlemens:

Thank you for the information. I appreciate it and any more you may have. I gather it is of late teens early twenty's vintage?

The comb has been modified (it is, after all, a trap gun <g>) and the recoil pad probably replaced. It is an orange "Supreme" pad, something of a double trestle design. Too much life left in the rubber for it to be original. And, alas, no white line spacer...

I bought it without any real knowledge of the gun because I found it intriguing and thought it modestly priced. It was obviously used but locks up tight and the bore looks perfect. That 34 inch barrel is something to look down. I will shoot it and who knows, it might be a candidate for restoration. I know someone who works cheap...

Ken, any good will I may have accrued will be used up real soon. I have a couple pieces coming your way before long...

Best to all,

Glenn

Glenn,
Your gun was shipped to a J.J. Sinclair, Frenchtown, NJ on 12/30/20.
The issue with the Flues SBT is breaking the cocking hook. I have not experienced it but it a hard part to replace, but for a skilled metal man....may not be a big deal.
I hope you enjoy your american classic!

Glenn,

You really have gone over to the "Dark Side"! A single barrel trap gun?

Examining my bare 5E receiver #306991, I find that it isn't identical to the pictured receiver in several ways. Mine does have the crossbolt and the two unequal extension ribs. However, mine has a hole in the right front water table and it does not have the crossmember at the point where Glenn's water table is chipped. I was going to offer my nicely engraved receiver to Glenn to replace the chipped one, but I'm afraid it just won't work. So it goes back to being a fancy paperweight. Murphy

Glenn: Darned shame about the whiteline spacer shortage! I read an article in Gun World back in the '70's detailing the necessary work to cut such a spacer from a Clorox bottle. Wouldn't share that information with just anyone but your work as posted here shows you are advancing to the level of skill necessary to take on such an advanced project. Besides- you run with a pretty good bunch.

Cary

Walter:

Thank you very much for that information. Knowing when, where and to who the gun was sold adds a bit of romance to an old gun. The world is recovering from the Great War and there is a special present under the Christmas tree. I'll be 1921 opened with a lot of promise for Mr. Sinclair.

Are there sources of information on these guns, particularly mechanical drawings? This one has some extractor issues that need to be addressed.


Mr. Murphy:

Thanks for the thought. But all in all if one is going to have an Ithaca paper weight it might just as well be a pretty engraved one.


Cary:

I was indeed bummed about the spacer. It was almost a deal breaker. Howsomever, your idea of a Clorox bottle spacer is great. I will take a lot of photos when I do it and maybe submit and article to the Guild magazine.


Mr. Mann, I'll deal with you later...


Glenn

By the way, Glenn, apparently Mr. Sinclair was not a competitor. He is not mentioned as a member or shooter of registered Interstate Association or American Trapshooting Association birds from the time he bought the gun until the early thirties. Maybe Mr. Sinclair was a dealer in guns or sporting good and not the ultimate purchaser of the gun. Murphy

By coincidence, I grew up in Frenchtown, NJ. Its a pretty small place, and even smaller in 1920. The local paper, The Delaware Valley News, should have town archives. If Mr. Sinclair ran a hardware store, he was probably the only one back then.

Would Ithaca ship to private individuals, or only to commercial dealers back then?

In my experience, gun manufacturers in those times dealt quite regularly with individual customers as well as hardware stores who only sporadically placed an order. They did what they had to do to sell a gun. Murphy

I have another old Ithaca SBT with a similar chunk gone on the other side. In fact, if you look closely at the photo, you will see a crack where the other side is about to let go.

The water table at this point is paper thin because it is deeply cut from the bottom to allow for clearance of the cocking arm (?) for the hammer. If you let the barrel simply drop open after shooting, the cocking arm gives the water table a teriffi whack at this point. Eventually it just cracks and pops a piece out. The one I have had been weakly patched by a bad weld which broke out too. I have been thinking for years of machining a slight recess along the top at that point and silver soldering in a thin patch of metal with a temper that might hold. Bottom line is that the chunk is missing by someone who let the barrel fall open instead of supporting it. It is caused by the design.