Lefever 20 ga

[Larry Stauch]

I found this little E grade 20 gauge Lefever last summer at a gun show. It has 28" Krupp Fluid steel barrels and it is an ejector gun. As far as I can determine it was made around 1905 with the 54XXX serial number. It's a nice shooting gun that functions well. The person that sold it to me said it was a friend of his that owned the gun. Apparently, when the friend's father died the executor of the estate, in another state, sent him the gun in a box. It remained in the box, unopened, for over 10 years until the son opened it last spring. Not being a gun guy he found the seller to represent the gun for him at this little gun show. And I just happened down the aisle. When you do the math, the book indicates there were only around 100 guns made in 20 gauge in the higher grades with engraving.
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[Mike Koneski]

Great gun!! Out of all the manufacturers from the late 19th and early 20th century, Lefever and Parker guns trip my trigger (no pun intended).

[Garry L Gordon]

An elegant bird gun if ever there was one!:bowdown:

[Dave Noreen]

A steel barrel 20-gauge above a DS, the teeth of hens come to mind!!

[Craig Larter]

Larry beautiful gun, great condition and in 20ga, WOW!

[charlie cleveland]

the find of a life time....this is the 2 nd one I ve ever seen....charlie

[Daryl Corona]

Here's #3 Charlie.

Not meaning to hijack your thread Larry, I thought I'd share my 28" steel barrel H grade Lefever 20. It's a non ejector and my photos are not as nice as your but the condition is wonderful with very shootable dimensions. Winner of the 2020 Uncle Dan Cup.

[charlie cleveland]

boy that's a nice one I love those cocking indicators....charlie

[Bruce Hering]

Wow.... now I am going to have more dreams of finding such a gun.... Darn it.

[Harold Lee Pickens]

Wow, that is special. Somewhere in the bowels of my gun safe stands a DS 20 with ejectors that needs to see the light of day, sure not as nice as these 2.

[Bob Decker]

I believe the numbers of higher grade (E grade or better) guns produced was low, but not as low as the original poster claims. Of 3327 guns with full serial numbers we currently have on our list 43 are 20 gauge guns in grade E or higher (1.29%). 20 gauge guns are very rare before serial number 20,000 (and probably out of sequence). If we use 1.29% of 50,000 guns (serial numbers 20,000-70,000) that would equal 645 guns. There are a lot of assumptions built in such as the likelihood of a high grade sub-gauge gun surviving to be counted is probably higher than your average 12 Gauge DS which would make this an over estimate.

[Larry Stauch]

Sorry for the misinterpretation of the numbers, but thanks for the enlighten information.

[Josh Loewensteiner]

Larry - beautiful gun! I have the absolute twin to this gun which may or not make a trip to the Vegas show. I can’t bring myself to offer it for sale, but I’ll have a few other Lefevers there for sure. I hope to see you there!

[Brian Dudley]

That 20g is a screamer!

[Travis Sims]

I’m interested in what book you pulled your info from?

Thanks!

[Larry Stauch]

Mine came from the Elliott book, "Uncle Dan Lefever, Master Gunmaker".
I think when I calculated the number I factored it down to the E grades produced after considering all of the 20 gauges. But I don't recall specifically.