Lefever Arms upland gun - first outing

[Frank Srebro]

While at the Northeast SxS I saw a gent coming down the tent aisle with what looked to be a short-barreled Lefever double gun in a push carriage. A small note in one muzzle showed it was for sale. I asked and got a really good, almost unbelievably low price and of course I was skeptical, that the barrels were cut or it had serious issues. It checked out as an H Grade/12-gauge in upland configuration with 26-inch tubes each with a choke taper out to the muzzle. Keels were in place with the tubes touching and the fancy scallop cut was intact on the rib. Chokes: 14 and 32 points. I'm told that original 26 inch Lefevers are quite rare; this one has twist steel barrels with nice bright bores, no dents, barrels ring clearly, no wood cracks etc. Ivory bead front sight. Needless to say I scarfed the gun. The Lefever Collectors were across from me in the tent and after inspection their comments were: "buy of the show" and did I want to make a quick profit. :cool:

Today was the first I was able to shoot her. I only had 65 shells loaded (PB powder/1 ounce of 7-1/2's at about 1170 speed) and I shot the woods course at Rock Mtn that some of you are familiar with. Also did 3 stations on the main course. I didn't look at the view birds, just at the menu flight paths on the station show boards and had at it with the clicker set for following pairs. The old Lefever pointed and shot like a dream with score 61 ex 65.

How I love these honest old upland guns. This one a 12-bore weighing would you believe a tad under 6-10 on my digital scale, with 2-3/4" drop and 13-7/8" LOP. Someone knew what s/he wanted when the gun was ordered in 1904. Right now I'd match her against anything on a woodsy clays course, and of course grouse season will be here in a few months but meanwhile I'm not giving the summer away. :)

Thought I'd share this story with my friends.

frank

[Dean Romig]

Holy WOW! What a great little grouse gun!






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[Sara LeFever]

Awesome find, Frank! Glad she shot well!

Sara

[Brian Dudley]

By the photo, i would think barrels to be shorter than 26”.

[Pete Lester]

Congrats Frank. Will you be pattern testing this gun? You may find that .014 barrel shoots tighter than you think. Please share the results if you do.

[Frank Cronin]

Original short barreled Lefevers are indeed a rare find. Congrats Frank on your new acquisition and sharing photos with us. Looks like a really nice and well cared for Lefever.

[Frank Srebro]

Thanks everyone. Brian, the barrels are indeed 26" on the nose; the cell camera effect does make them look shorter in that pic. Pete, yes I will pattern test with my regular shotcup handloads and also with bare shot/Alcan fiber wads in paper hulls. I'll be doing extensive patterning for something else when I get time and will work in this Lefever and report then.

[Frank Srebro]

Pete, I saw your post on the Lefever forum and thought you and others might be interested in the profile of that right barrel choke. It starts a slow taper at 4" aft of the muzzle with 4 thou diameter reduction in the first two inches of run, then 4 thou in the next inch, and 6 thou in the last inch out to the muzzle. Total constriction is 14 points. That's with my Baker bore mike.

Some of this Lefever bore and choke technology still seems to be mysterious and that's why I'm particularly interested.

frank

[Pete Lester]

Pete, I saw your post on the Lefever forum and thought you and others might be interested in the profile of that right barrel choke. It starts a slow taper at 4" aft of the muzzle with 4 thou in the first two inches of run, then 4 thou in the next inch, and 6 thou in the last inch out to the muzzle. Total constriction is 14 points. That's with my Stan Baker bore mike.

Some of this Lefever bore and choke technology still seems to be mysterious and that's why I'm particularly interested.

frank

As I understand the process a reamer that gives a tapered choke of .040 in four inches would produce a choke of .020 in two inches and .010 in 1 inch etc. It would seem to me a very small amount of constriction will have a very short amount of taper. The 10ga I just got has .018 in the left and the taper is about 3.5 to 4 inches long to the muzzle and the right barrel with .003 which is continuous to the muzzle is very short, 1/2" or so. Barrels are not cut. It patterned very well and I was surprised .003 delivered 53% at 40 yards and .018 delivered 85%. It's not a lot of constriction for a 10. That's why I think you may be surprised by the pattern your .014 constriction shoots.

[Dean Romig]

Depends if you are using a choke reamer or an adjustable cutter.





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[Frank Srebro]

Pete, what you described is correct if the choke reamer has an uniform taper of 10 thou per inch of run. A choking reamer could also be made up with several different tapers (though such a reamer would much be more difficult to grind). A choke can also be cut using multiple reamers, each with a different taper. All of these used by inserting the piloted push reamer(s) into the breech end of the barrel.

A tapered choke could be also cut from the muzzle end with one or more tapered DRAW reamers as I've seen done at a noted modern barrelsmith's shop. This setup is particularly useful for correcting an off-shooting barrel by offsetting the axis of the choke relative to the bore.

Net, full tapered shotgun chokes can have different profiles from leade-in to muzzle, and can be reamed in one or many passes and with one or more reamers.

[Pete Lester]

Depends if you are using a choke reamer or an adjustable cutter.






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I wonder what kind of tooling Lefever used in the 1890's for putting a tapered choke into a barrel. This bore is also very light for a ten, 8 lbs 2 oz with 30" barrels. I think it may have been ordered as an upland gun rather than a fowler and the chokes go with it's weight.

[Pete Lester]

Thanks everyone. Brian, the barrels are indeed 26" on the nose; the cell camera effect does make them look shorter in that pic. Pete, yes I will pattern test with my regular shotcup handloads and also with bare shot/Alcan fiber wads in paper hulls. I'll be doing extensive patterning for something else when I get time and will work in this Lefever and report then.

Frank I have a Remington 1900 12ga that is choked .014 and .024, it shoots, 72% and 86%. So I am curious to see what your new Lefever will do.

[todd allen]

Beautiful gun, Frank. I'm kinda surprised that in all my years of buying, shooting, hunting, and collecting of side by side guns, the Lefever has alluded me. I've always heard, from those more knowledgeable than I, that the Lefever is/was the finest American made double. I don't know, and don't want to get in the weeds here, but I would love to spend some time with a specimen, and find out for myself.
BTW, good shooting, Frank! Wish we lived close enough to give you a challenge. I've got an underlifter (with Perazzi dimensions) that I occasionally shoot lights out with.

[Bill Murphy]

The 30" Lefever that Pete mentioned is truly light for a ten. However, my 28" 7 pound, 4 ounce ten probably sets the record for a light Lefever. It also has original fluid steel barrels, the only Lefever of that configuration to surface. Very high grade Lefevers with fluid steel are known, but only a very few. My 28" gun measures out a very common modified and full.

[Frank Srebro]

The more I study Lefevers, particularly the later "large single cocking hook" variation, the more I'm impressed with the design genius of Uncle Dan Lefever. Here's a scan showing features from the 1912-13 Lefever catalog.

One innovation I'll add to this list is the ejector design on guns so equipped. There are NO ejector parts in the forend. The frame mounted ejector mechanism consists of only two parts - no additional springs are used for the ejectors, and believe it or not each one is actuated by its respective mainspring (hammer spring). Yup, the mainsprings are V springs - same as my MX2000 Perazzi that finished 30,000 rounds a couple of years ago and with its V mainsprings as snappy as when made and never a breakage of either one. Lefever wrote that it took particular pains in making theirs.

[Nick de Guerre]

Cold Spring,

Your comments on Lefever frame ejectors are spot on. They are very robust and reliable, in large part because they have few parts, and because forend ejector parts can only be made so stout.

This was Dan's final ejector design, which emerged in 1895 and was on all ejector guns from then until the end of the company 2 decades later. So, we're talking roughly the 23k serial range all the way until the end in the 73k range.

The first 2 patents Dan had on ejectors were from 1892 and 1894, and both were forend ejector designs. Both are quite rare, the 2nd being more so, because they incorporated a feature allowing the owner to turn the ejectors "on and off" by way of turning two screws on the end of the forearm.

In addition to these two patented forearm mechanisms, collectors have noted one or two other variations which appear experimental in nature...all in the 17k range, if memory serves.

While the forend ejector guns are very rare and collectible, the frame ejector mechanism is a far better design...hence its use for most of the company's life.

Among American gun makers, only John Browning has more patents than Dan Lefever. I think his failure as a business man, coupled with Ithaca's late acquisition of Lefever Arms, and subsequent pimping of the name on guns of their own design, have served to obfuscate history somewhat.

In my opinion, Parker, Smith and several others made wonderful guns. But in terms of design, fit and finish, Dan Lefever's best are in a league of their own. There are some Special Order Lefever's in the 16k-21k serial range which exceed Optimus grades in their opulence.

In their day they really were as good as ANY gun made in the world...including Purdey, Boss, etc.

Its a shame we dont have more of them.

NDG