Smallish beavertail

[Cold Spring]

For those looking to do a smallish beavertail on a custom small bore, here’s an unusual one on a rare Ithaca/Lefever A Grade Model 6 Skeet gun. This one is a 20-bore and has factory Mod & Full chokes (2 & 4) rather than typical Skeet & Skeet. It's an unusual beavertail even for a Model 6 and the contour feels good with palm on the fuller part and fingers wrapped around. Gun came out of Ithaca NY from the family of a long ago factory employee. The gun was probably made up for hunting instead of skeet ..... ?

Cell pic taken today at Mountain Mike's Rock Mountain

[Dean Romig]

Pretty interesting Frank.

Here's an original Grade 2, 20 ga. skeet gun with the standard beavertail simply as a conparison.


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[B. Dudley]

The Lefever A grade btfes have a good feel. They are about as slender as they can be in any of the gauges.

[Twoatlow8]

The problem with the Lefever A grade beaver tails is there is no recoil support. They get loose quick.

[Researcher]

Originally Posted by Dean Romig

Pretty interesting Frank.

Here's an original Grade 2, 20 ga. skeet gun with the standard beavertail simply as a conparison.


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I can't buy that, Dean. None of the wood on that gun looks original Ithaca to my eye. Skeet was introduced to the public in 1926 and the Flues Model Ithaca was discontinued in 1925. In the late years of the Flues era, Ithaca only offered beavertail forearms on No. 4 and above. While many of our gun companies listed specs they believed suitable for Skeet, they didn't actually begin cataloging "Skeet Guns" until the early 1930s.

That doesn't look like any original Ithaca beavertail forearm I've seen. Here are NID No. 4E beavertails 1926 to 1934 style above --



1935 and later below.

[Dean Romig]

I can accept that Dave. I was apparently misinformed... not being a student of Ithaca guns I went along with the description I was given. Apologies for misleading anyone.




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[Cold Spring]

Originally Posted by Scott Janowski

The problem with the Lefever A grade beaver tails is there is no recoil support. They get loose quick.

Huh? The front forend screw threads into the latch mechanism that sits in a hole bored though the forend wood, and the latch plate is inletted into the outside of the beavertail. No it's not a front pull screw like on an Ithaca NID beavertail or on a later Model 21, but the total bearing surface looks good to me. It's certainly way better than a simple wood screw. frank

[Twoatlow8]

It may be ok for the small bores, but every one in 12 with the beaver tail that I have seen has had some type of repair for it. These were just a deluxe machine made nitro special.

[Steve Hodges]

Originally Posted by Scott Janowski

It may be ok for the small bores, but every one in 12 with the beaver tail that I have seen has had some type of repair for it. These were just a deluxe machine made nitro special.

Well, they may be, but I dearly love my Lefever A Grade Skeet gun in 20 Gauge. Balanced well, light and great chokes.

[Cold Spring]

Thanks to help from Researcher (Dave) on the Fox forum, this Lefever seems to be a fully optioned Model 5 A-Grade, not the Model 6 with Skeet & Skeet choking that didn't hit the catalog until 1936. The subject gun's serial no dates to 1935 as per the list in Walt's Ithaca book.