Lefever trivia

[Cold Spring]

First pic shows how little rotation of the "compensating screw" it took to put these Lefever barrels back on the face. Barrels were .003" off as measured with a steel feeler gauge. That black mark on the knuckle shows the center of the screw slot before turning it to tightening the barrels. GREAT DESIGN by Uncle Dan! So much easier than getting into a rejointing. Yeah I know .003" isn't that much and I've seen gents shooting double guns with way more than that, but for me the barrels are on the face or they I'll get them there.

Second one shows the tubes on a really nice 1908 Lefever G Grade. Kind of a neat story. The gun was found by a plumber doing work in a home. He made an offer and left with the old unsafe Damascus gun. ….

Can anyone please identify this pattern?

[Dean Romig]

I've seen that pattern called both "stars & stripes" and "American Flag Bunting" or just "American Flag".





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[Kevin McCormack]

Frank, there is a high incidence of "Plumber's Luck" in finding great guns. Years ago a local plumber in MD sent his helper upstairs in an old house whose hot air heating system they had just upgraded, with instructions for the helper to check the airflow through the vents in all the rooms on the second and third floor.

The helper reported "all good" except for a bedroom on the third floor, where the floor register was blocked by a long cardboard box that the helper was afraid to move because "it had some kind of gun in it." Our plumber friend went upstairs and found a Parker VHE .410 in the box that had a rubber recoil pad that had been literally melted into a puddle from years of heated air under it.

Out friend displayed the gun for years at shows, primarily for the oddity of the melted pad, which looked like something in a Dali painting. He finally sold the gun at the Allentown PA show in a package deal along with a very nice DHE 20 gauge to a man who turned out to be a DuPont executive from Wilmington DE and was on the hunt for "good Parkers."

[OH Osthaus]

Originally Posted by Dean Romig

I've seen that pattern called both "stars & stripes" and "American Flag Bunting" or just "American Flag".

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agreed -

if you search for "flag pattern damascus barrels" you find several examples

i am in awe of the skill it must have taken to make that design show up so evenly


what a great find

[Researcher]

That pattern is called ETOILE 3.B.P. on the Remington Arms Co.'s Damascus salesman's sample and appeared quite regularly on C-/CE-Grade Remington Hammerless Doubles.

That pattern was used on B-Grade Baltimore Arms Co. guns. Lefever Arms Co. bought a load of pairs of rough tubes at the receiver's sale of Baltimore Arms Co. in late 1904.

[StubTwist]

Frank, how was the effort to turn the screw? I never had to do anything to my Lefevers (yet) so I'm just curious. I also see no buggered slot so you definitely used a perfect fitting screw driver.

Also sweet barrels. Not uncommon to see higher grade Damascus pattern and sometimes higher grade wood on lower grade Lefever's.

Frank

[Cold Spring]

Frank, I heated the slot end of the screw using a very small brazing tip on an oxyacetylene torch. Careful to just turn it a hint of light straw (< 300 deg F). The frame was held horizontal in hardwood padded bench vice. After cooling, the screw turned quite easily using a #6 Brownells driver tip in an extension, pushed in with body weight and turned with an 18" double end tap wrench.