Lefever D grade

[Frank Cronin]

For all those Lefever lovers out there.

A not often seen Lefever D grade with 28" Krupp Steel barrels choked cylinder and full. Equipped with the clam shell style forend release, ejectors, wings on the barrels, and ebony inlay drop points.

Frank

[Sara LeFever]

Very nice, Frank! :)

[Brian Dudley]

That is a nice gun. You do not see many D grades out there.

[Frank Srebro]

Frank, a super nice Lefever! Love to see her at Hausmann's this year …..

[Daryl Corona]

Wow Frank she is really nice. Please bring her to Ernie's as I've never handled a D grade. The more I see these Lefevers the more I like them. Is she a recent addition to the Cronin collection?

[Frank Cronin]

I've had this one for nine years. I've brought her to Ernie's but never posted pics online. D grades are one of those in between grades with embellishments of a little of an E and a some found on a C grade.

[Shawn Wayment]

I like it!!

[Bill Murphy]

How about posting a picture of the scarce clamshell forend release. The last one of those I saw was an EE Grade that Mr. Durston brought into the gun store where I was working. We had a Durston Special on the shelf and he asked me if I knew what Durston had to do with that gun. We ended up in a long winded conversation about his family and Lefever shotguns. His "family" E Grade was the best I had ever seen.

[Mark Ray]

I have a question for you LeFever experts. I have a Durston Special 12 bore, that has a straight English stock....The only one I have ever seen, and to me the stock appears original.. My question is this...it has a short trigger tang. Has anyone seen another?

[Frank Srebro]

Syracuse Lefevers with straight grip stocks aren't too common and all (of the few) I've seen had the long strap trigger guard. Also, Lefever catalogues show the DS Grade was available with "Half-pistol grip only" whereas H Grade and better could be had with straight, one-half or Full pistol grip. We all know the saying, never say never, but offhand I'd say your DS may have been converted to its present stock configuration.

[Mark Ray]

Thanks Frank...I have always suspicioned that it was a replacement. If so,, it was done a loooong time ago, by a good stock guy. It has an age and wear appropriate Hawkins pad also. Checkering wear, finish color etc. are consistent for and aft.

[Harold Lee Pickens]

See what Dr. Bob says. Frank, I had a DS 20 with a pistol grip and fluted Lefever grip cap, An LAC buttplate( not supposed to have those either), twin beads on the rib, and the fore arm had the Lefever escucheon and metal forearm tip. Always figured it was put together after being bought out by Ithaca.

[Nick de Guerre]

TxHuntermn,

The short answer is..."anything is possible." While I dont think any of us have seen one, oddities do exist, particularly if a gun was assembled by Ithaca.

A dead giveaway wwould be the trigger guard, as ColdSping pointed out. Lefever straight grips came with a very long guard that extended way down the bottom of the buttstock.

As an aside, and as a separare matter, I would say that if it were an Ithaca assembled gun, it would be very uncommon. My personal belief is that the generational variations in Lefevers have drawn some people into way over-stating the likely number of Ithaca assembled guns. The topic has been debated at length by us LACA guys, and I wont hijack the thread and/or bore people by going in why I think this. I just thought it worth pointing out.

If the trigger guard is right, the best "guess" is your DS came original that way, and the gun is a unique oddity. Secondarily, finding an original "donor" straight grip stock WITH its correct trigger guard would be about as unlikely as yhe gun having been originally made that way.

NDG

[Nick de Guerre]

Of course a possible 3rd alternative could be that someone found an original trigger guard, and then had a straight grip stock made to fit. In that case, unless they perfectly recreated the known contours of original stocks, it might be apparent from the looks of it.

If you post picks of that gun we might be able to come to a solid crowd guess.

NDG

[Dave Noreen]

It has an age and wear appropriate Hawkins pad also.

The Hawkins recoil pad didn't come out until well after the last side-plate Lefever was assembled.

[Brian Dudley]

I have owned an original 20g DS with straight grip.

There were not many made, that is for sure.

[Frank Cronin]

I have owned an original 20g DS with straight grip.

There were not many made, that is for sure.

Brian, did it have a long trigger guard?

[Brian Dudley]

Yes. It did.

[charlie cleveland]

i too have a lefever ds 20 ga with straight stock and long trigger guard looks original to me...charlie

[Nick de Guerre]

Charlie,

Wow, that's great! If you could share some pics it would be much appreciated!

- NDG