Lefever G grade 10 gauge
 

A new gun followed me home from the shoot at Hausman's this past weekend. My first Lefever (thanks to Frank Cronin for his evaluation and encouragement). It is a G grade from 1903, all original, and screws don't appear to have been ever turned. Solid wood with no cracks or repairs, butt plate is in great shape. It weighs 9 1/2 pounds, 30" damascus barrels with a faded pattern, perfect bores at .775 and .777 with .037 and .040 chokes. The barrel walls at breach and muzzle are stout. It has good dimensions at 1 3/4" x 2 3/4" x 14 1/16". It fits me really well, a broke a 24x25 with it tonight on my first round of trap with it. I am very pleased and look forward to knocking down some crows, ducks and geese with it this fall. I forgot to bring my gun vise to club tonight so I will see what I can get it to do on the pattern board tomorrow. Scott took a couple of shots tonight resting his arms on a big wooden bin and we got about 77% with 1 1/8 #6. I am pretty sure it will do better when we can dead center the pattern in the circle. I am very happy with my first Lefever, especially since it is a short ten with 30" barrels and a good fit. :clap:

Fantastic gun. I have a 12 g grade and shoot quite well with it. Thick barrels on that 10!

pete it looks like you have a keeper...i too like the lefevers i have my dads old lefever e grade 10 ga all it knows was ducks and turkeys now just turkey...i have a ds grade 20 also i really like..i wish i had a 8 ga lefever but there scarse.....charlie

Pete

Great looking gun

Sorry I missed meeting you in person at Hausmann's

I have appreciated your advice with the short tens

Awesome Lefever! I owned four Lefevers and regret selling them. My ca1903 'G' Grade 12 was my favorite. Cheers!

Congrats and nice shooting Pete! You got a real nice and honest Lefever. You have to be careful because just like Parkers, Lefevers are just as addicting too....:cool:

Thanks Rick, sorry we missed touching base at the shoot. I think it might be a good idea in the future if before the shoot everyone agrees to stop at the PGCA display at a predesignated time and we take a roll call. Then everyone would know who else was there.

Nice addition Pete. I've always admired Lefevers and that ten looks like a good one. I'm going to have to pick Frank's brain to learn more about them. It's the only other American SxS I think is worth adding to the flock. Enjoy.

Looks like all the weight is in the barrels! Lefever 10s are not seen all that often. Especially later ones like yours.

Thanks Brian, I think it is hard to find a hammerless short ten by any maker that is in good original condition with good/modern dimensions these days. This one points very naturally and each person who shot it last night was breaking all their targets.

Relative to your last sentence, you know better than that, but keep repeating it over and over as part of a 12 step program to stop buying double guns. But if you hang around Frank you will fall off that wagon again and again. :rotf:

I know Pete, is'nt it a curse?

You're absolutely correct about modern dimensions. I had never really shouldered a lefever before I found this one and it fit just like a glove. I thought I would show you what the barrels look like after I had them done a few years ago. this truly is one of my favorite guns to take to the field.

The 10 ga Lefevers are really tough to find. Again, congrats on a great find.

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I took the gun back to the range tonight for pattern testing and this time I had my gun vise. I went through my notes and loaded up two shells of 1 1/8 of magnum #6. Federal hull 2 7/8". W-W 209 primer, 22.5 gr of Green Dot, SP10 wad, 1/2 fiber filler wad, fold crimp. The gun shot a little bit high and to the left. The right barrel with .037 gave a pattern 77.2% in a 30" circle at 40 yards, the left barrel with .040 produced a pattern of 87.4%. The tag on the gun said it was full and X-full. Seems like that is about right.

Well, looks like you just have to limit yourself to birds going right to left so you don't shoot behind them. What a nice gun. Those barrels are hell for stout!