Nice. I prefer yours on the pile of birds, and they've lost their minds on that price. :shock::rotf:

Based on Researcher's choke description above, I broke out the loop and did a close inspection of the muzzles and chokes. With a loop I was able to detect a gap of few thousandths between the barrels where they join and what looks like a thin shim in between in addition to the triangular keels.

This would make it consistent with being shortened from an original 28" barrel that was cataloged and not a factory 26" barrel. Assuming it actually patterns skeet and lite mod it will be perfect for my use and will just be referred to as a period correct depression era modification. Ha Ha :)

There is always the possibility of a difference between what the folks on the factory floor were building and what the folks in the office were putting in the catalogues. We know from the graded gun production cards that the A.H. Fox Gun Co. provided beavertail forearms even though they never appeared in the catalogs or on price lists. The folks on the factory floor at Ithaca were putting stars on the frames of the Field Grade NIDs a couple of years before they appeared on the catalog Field Grade pictures.

The numbers do suggest that 311168 left Ilion with more choke. Whether that choke was in 26-inch barrels and were opened after market or in 28-inch barrels that have been cut is something we can speculate about.

Either way 311168 appears it will be a fine Skeet and upland game gun.

As an FYI for folks that might search this topic in the future. I diagnosed the right ejector issue.

Searching the internet, several people suggested it might be caused by a weak forend attachment spring. The spring did seem sort of wimpy compared to my other shotguns that have such a spring. Close inspection showed a very iffy welded repair.

I wrapped the forend very tightly to the barrels with surgical tubing and bingo, ejectors work perfect. Not only did they work but it launches shells completely across my work room and bangs them off the wall :). Apparently the weak connection doesn't allow the ejector trips to fire reliably.

Bill Schwarz replaced a missing forend spring on my other 1900, so i'm confident he can resolve this quickly and economically when I drop it by for a once over.