Lefever 16 bore I've named "Florence"

[Cold Spring]

So almost a month ago a friend gave me a heads up on a Lefever DS Grade 16 bore for possible sale by an older gent in NC. I called to chat and he told me he’d bought her in the 1970’s from a dealer there in-state and used it for occasional woodcock hunting. He sent me some pics. The pics looked good but the gun had 26-inch tubes and he didn’t know what the chokes were, and had no way to check the bore diameters nor chamber length. The serial number dated to about 1912.

Now, many of you know that original 26-inch Lefevers are quite rare. Most were cut from longer tubes and owing to the shorter tapered chokes on a smallbore even a 2 inch cut would result in a pretty open choked gun. That lined up with the owner using it for woodcock. But his one pic showed the tubes were touching at the muzzle which is usually the case with an uncut Lefever. Huh?

Anyway, he said he'd send me the Lefever on approval (nice trusting man) and just as I was driving home from the post office after mailing my FFL, he called to say Hurricane Florence was bearing in, power was being proactively cut in his area, and it might be some time before he could receive mail and ship the gun. Waiting period started, floor pacing, sweaty palms ….. Then about ten days later he called to say mail delivery had resumed, he’d received my FFL and would be shipping after his post office started accepting shipments in a few days. I finally got her on last Friday and she was worth the wait.

This Lefever 16 is all original and built on the lightweight XX frame. Weight 6^1. Bores have .667/668” diameters and would you believe heavy Full chokes at 34 and 35 points of constriction. Choke tapers are 1-3/4 and 2" long respectively. Nice dimensions: 1-1/2 by 2-3/4 by 14” LOP to its HRBP. Chambers are 2-9/16”. No wood cracks and unmolested screw slots. An honest gun.

Why this gun was ordered with 26-inch tubes and both heavy Full chokes is a real question. Any ideas on why a NC gun would be configured that way would be appreciated.

I was after a Lefever smallbore for grouse hunting here in PA ….. but now I’d rather not open those chokes. Plan is to pattern with RST spreaders. Oh yeah, when I called the gent to tell him about my inspection and that I’d be sending payment, I asked how he did with it on woodcock? He answered, not too well and now he knows why.

frank