A Few Doubles

[Bruce Day]

Sometimes people want to see guns, so in the interest of keeping interest alive, here goes.

The first is an 1883 Quality C top action hammer gun with Bernard barrels. 12 ga. This was a Parker Bros New York Salesroom gun and made several trips back to Meridan, one to have rib matting added when that was developed in 1885.

Shown with a reproduction of an original Parker provided leather shell top case.

[Bruce Day]

The second is a 1910 Parker DHE 20 ga , 0 frame, original 24 " Titanic barrels and checkered butt. This was a Christmas present to a man's fiancée in North Carolina.

It is open choked and I use it for ruffed grouse and quail .

[Bruce Day]

The third is a pair of Syracuse Lefever Arms Company guns. Both are E Grade, the top a light 12 ( 7lbs 2oz) on the smaller 12 frame and with 30" chain Damascus barrels. .028 choke boring which starts almost 8 inches back. An extractor gun with all compensation features. This is a 1900 gun that came with its original leg of mutton case. It was in the same family until a few years ago, when it passed to a dealer then to me.

The other is a 16 ga E with ejectors, 28" Krupp barrels, .033 choke boring both barrels. Fully compensated. 6 lbs, 8 oz on the small frame. This is a 1905 gun , history not known.

Both have an interesting issue, they are each overbored by .010. Yet the chokes seem original, they are 60-70 percent guns, and have no indicators of excessive use that would require honing the bores. I think the bores are original diameter and Dr Bob Decker says overboring ( backboring) is common in factory original Lefevers. These old masters knew a lot about the science of gun making. I even read the other day about a company making screw in choke tubes in 1870.

[Bill Davis]

Thank you for sharing. Always a pleasure to look at fine guns!

[Daniel G Rainey]

nice guns. The wood in the DH 20 with the 1/2 grip or round nob is out of site. thanks for shareing.

[Frank Cronin]

The Lefever on the top is really nice. You don't see too many Lefever E grades with round knob POW grip.

[Mark Garrett]

Bruce , thanks again for sharing photos of great guns . I am partial to Lefevers , and chain damascus , do you have any close ups of the engraving on those guns ?

[Josh Loewensteiner]

Here's a CHE 16ga 30" Acme gun that found me...

[Craig Larter]

Josh a few more pictures please. What scent do you use so a great gun follows you home?

[John Dallas]

I think its called "eau de Benjamines"

[Josh Loewensteiner]

More photos forthcoming.

[Mike Franzen]

Just wondering what the term "fully compensated" means. I assume it means all factory options but not sure. Thank you.

[George Lang]

Mike, "fully compensated" means the gun has all the features that allow you to take up wear and or make adjustments to the gun.

[Bruce Day]

Lefever used the terms "fully compensated" to include:

Forend adjustment slide
Main hinge adjustment ball screw
Trigger sear adjustment screws
Safety auto/manual


They all had the hinge ball screw but E grades and above had the others as standard features. I understand all Lefevers above the lowest grades DS, H or I were built on customer order so the adjustment features could be ordered in grades that would not normally have them.

Other features such as the lever rotary bolt were compensating by design and included on all lefevers but are not adjustable by the owner. They compensate for wear, either automatically or by adjustment, allow the shooter to control trigger sear engagement, or change between safety automatic or manual for field or match uses.

[Dave Noreen]

Other features such as the lever rotary bolt were compensating by design and included on all lefevers but are not adjustable by the owner.

I've never seen a Lefever with a rotary bolt.

[Bruce Day]

Really? Need a photo?

[Dave Noreen]

I'd like to see a picture of a Lefever with a rotary bolt.

All the Lefever Arms Co. doubles I've seen were bolted by a wedge into a notch in the dollshead rib extention. Part C in this diagram --

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v316/Ansleyone/Lefever%20Arms%20Co/Lefever%20Compensated%20Action_zpsxjc6yjma.jpeg

L.C. Smith, Philadelphia Arms Co., A.H. Fox Gun Co., some J. Stevens Arms & Tool Co. doubles and NID model Ithacas are the guns I know of using the rotary bolt.

[Bruce Day]

I've never seen a Lefever with a rotary bolt.


Dave , my apologies. I apparently used the wrong terminology.

Below I have posted several photographs showing the bolt/ rib extension interface. Looking at the Lefever catalog drawings , which I have and you posted, it is easy to assume that the locking bolt moves longitudinally and engaged a bite or notch in the rib extension , like a Parker. I certainly do not claim to have seen all Lefevers and I admit to having closely studied less than 15 or 20. Of those , none have a bolt that simply moves longitudinally. I used the term "rotate" to describe the movement and perhaps that was in error.

The below series of photos show the bolt/bite interface . We will start with the rib extension. Note that it is angled . The angle of 15 degrees in combination with the bolt provides self compensation.

[Bruce Day]

Next I show the action with the opening lever in the straight back position and the bolt fully extended. This is the bolt that swings into the angled slot when the barrels are attached.

[Bruce Day]

Next I show the lever pushed to the right and the bolt start to swing to the left as it would start to disengage from the slot upon opening

[Bruce Day]

Now we push the lever further to the right and the bolt swings left and further out of the slot.

[Bruce Day]

Finally we push the lever all the way right and the bolt swings all the way left and fully disengages from the slot, now allowing the barrels to be opened.

It was this swinging movement that I mistermed rotary. I suppose there is a difference between swinging into a slot and rotating into a slot.

I trust this is clearer now. This Lefever was made in Syracuse in 1900 and the catalog from where you took the diagram would be of this gun


See the small screw head at left toward the end of the top tang and by my hand. That is interesting. That is a safety selector . you screw that one way or the other and select either manual safety or automatic safety. Neat.

[Bruce Day]

As requested by Mark Garrett.

[Bruce Day]

Other side. See the small screw head on the bottom left corner of the photo. Each side has one of these. That is a trigger sear engagement screw. You adjust it to have more or less contact with the sear arm, which means the trigger has more or less pressure on it to move to disengage from the sear and release the hammer to drive a firing pin. Very simple and ingenious I think.

[Gary Laudermilch]

I'm not a student of engraving. I like what I like and the engraving I have seen on Lefever's is certainly more to my liking than most Parkers. The dogs, especially, are more lifelike while, to my eye, Parkers are more abstract.

Thanks for posting!

[Dave Noreen]

Ahhh... Lawyer Day has made the case that the Lefever bolt does in fact "rotate" but still not the generally accepted idea of the Alexander T. Brown designed "rotary bolt."

Thanks for the great Lefever pictures.

[Dean Romig]

Those dogs on that Lefever look an awful lot like Joseph Loy's work. The "tell-tale" is the dog's faces looking more realistic and he always included eyelashes.





.

[Daniel G Rainey]

Thanks for lessons in fine doubles and look at great gun.

[Bruce Day]

I am no expert on guns and know nothing about any Alexander Brown rotary bolt. My knowledge and understanding is very limited, I will be the first to admit. You guys are the experts.

I don't know who the Lefever engravers were. I've heard that many of these companies used engravers who worked for one then another or who freelanced.

[Mark Garrett]

Thanks Bruce for posting those , To me the Lefevers are most beautiful and tastefully engraved of all guns , with LC Smiths running a close second . I think they used the same engravers . And that one with Chain Damascus WOW!

[Dave Noreen]

I would think that a lot of the Lefever engraving was done by various members of the Glahn family. Here is some similar design work by two different companies --

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v316/Ansleyone/Lefever%20Arms%20Co/3074911_zps6c554b6d.jpg

CE-Grade Lefever.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v316/Ansleyone/Tobin%20Arms%20Mfg%20Co/7574%2010_zps9przij48.jpg

Tobin Arms Mfg. Co. No. 55E Model Grade.

[Bruce Day]

Julia Auctions has an E Lefever in the next offering that is a twin to mine above, but I was surprised when I saw how high the estimate was.

Thanks for the kind words, Mark. I have high respect for graded Lefevers.

Dave , so do you think mine is a Glahn gun? I can't tell.

[Dave Noreen]

I'd lean towards Glahn, but you need somebody better than an old Forestry major to make that call!! No Art Appreciation in the curriculum of any of my schooling!!

Here is a link to some Glahn signed work on the L.C. Smith forum --

http://members.boardhost.com/lcsmith/msg/1436963856.html

[Bruce Day]

It's going to take somebody who knows a lot more about Lefevers than me . Just the frame sizes can be boggling. The 16 is on the small XX frame , 1" spacing. But the 12 is not marked and is 1 3/32 " c to c . I understand there are 12 ga frames at 1 , 1 1/8 " , 1 1/4 " and so these 12 gauge gun weights vary widely and the frame sizes are not marked except for XX.

[Bruce Day]

Montana last season. L to R
Dick Dow
Russ Lindsay
Bruce Day.

[Josh Loewensteiner]

A buddy of mine nudged me that I didn't post additional photos as promised...CHE 16ga. 1 Frame 30" Barrels. DT, Skeleton BP.

Shipped on a leap year - 2/29/1928. Nice gun for 88 years young.

[Todd Kaltenbach]

I feel left out.

[Daniel G Rainey]

great eye candy.

[Richard Dow]

:cheers: Todd: Your the one on my left. Bruce was just being kind. JUST KIDDING BUDDY. Couldn't resist.

[Bruce Day]

Corrected it.

L to r

Dick
Bruce
Russ
Todd

[Richard Dow]

Can't be. No cowboy hat.

[Todd Kaltenbach]

I feel better now!