It Followed Me Home
 

I made a separate post a couple of weeks ago about this gun after I saw it a local gun shop.

Based on the excellent coaching here I went ahead and bought it.

Please enjoy the pics that follow and feel free to make any comments about the gun; good or bad. :)

I would love to hear advice concerning how to best care for it gun along with do’s and don’ts. Lots of wisdom and experience here to learn from!

LeFever 16 gage
Grade CE
Mfg 1903 (one of approximately 120 made)

Weight 6lb.
28” barrels, F/F, 2 9/16 chambers, 0.026 min wall thickness
14in LOP, 1 5/16 DAC, 2 DAH

Glad you got that gun! It's a beauty...in that gauge, somewhat of a miracle.

Beautiful gun! Great find, you'll be very happy. :bowdown:

Darn nice, for sure.

It’s a grand shotgun! Keep it clean and lubricated and shoot it often with the proper low pressure shot shells!

Thanks guys! I ordered a couple of flats of RST 2 1/2 in. shells that happened to be in stock about the time I bought the gun.

The stars seemed to be aligned on this one. :)

You can shoot regular 16g shells in that gun. No heavy field loads, that's bad for the wood. I shoot RST and Fiocchi out of mine.

Mike, do you mean 2 3/4, low pressure shells? If so, can you recommend specific brands/loads?

Congratulations on a great gun, enjoy. I never appreciated Lefevers until recently, great underappreciated guns. I have been able to add a C,D. two E;s and a G to my collection. I recently sold a H and F to make room for my recent D purchase.

I shoot Fiocchi SD, RST factory and reloads in 2 1/2 and 2 3/4. I'll shoot Winchester too if I have any. Mainly Fiocchi and RST. I'll shoot 1 oz 16g loads or 7/8 oz interchangeably. Nothing wrong with the Factory RST shells, but if they're not available there are options. Plus, save your empties and buy a 16g press. You won't have to worry about it again.

That’s very good news! I AM going to buy a 16ga press to make non-toxic upland loads. We are forced to use non-toxic in CA for everything. Haven’t been able to find a bismuth or similar load with small shot and low pressure.

Great gun!! Gotta get a more appropriate box of shells to go in the case with it.

Attachment 114073

Attachment 114074

I’ll be on the lookout!

Brett:

Thanks for sharing photos of this stunning gun.

I had to rotate two photos to best appreciate the side-plate engraving.

What a beauty Brett. I shoot my handloads of 3/4oz, low pressure out of my 20 and 12ga Lefevers. Handloading has become almost a necessity these days to feed these old guns. Enjoy.

TTT for Larry. :)

Sweet!

I feel cheated! My CE-Grade Lefever only has one dog on each side plate!

Attachment 134339

Another CE-Grade eleven digits higher serial number than mine has two dogs --

Attachment 134340

Dave, your gun is just stunning! I love that the engraving on each gun is truly individual.

Lefever truly has the best engraving for guns in that era of American made guns. Wonderful Dave.

Looks to me like Joseph Loy engraved those guns. Simply beautiful dogs!





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Dean, are there tell-tails that say “Loy” to you? Do you suspect that he may have done my 16ga also?

Brett

The dogs’ heads and especially the eyes say “Joe Loy” to me, and yes, your sixteen too.





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In 1895, Joe Loy left Ithaca and took up the position as head of the engraving department at Ilion, a position he held for the next 45 years.

Several of the best engravers took private engraving orders from some of the major gun companies. Gough comes to mind as does Joe Loy and others.





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