A Special Gun on a Special Day
 

I decided to take a 2 hr walk with my 2 girls on Thanksgiving afternoon. I picked a new to me Crass from my good friend Walt Snyder. It is a special Jay Loy engraved gun with much detail.
I had a partial box of Western shells that I thought fit the gun pretty well, but unfortunately ignition was not dependable and they foiled my attempt to take the lone pheasant pointed by my girls. I’ll have to try again with different shells.

Extreme elegance right there. The vintage shells make for better display than function. Beautiful shotgun. Congratulations!

Wow! Gorgeous gun Stan. Beautiful engraving and checkering. Please bring it to South Dakota.

Yeah Stan. What Jeff said. Gorgeous gun.

Thanks for showing us.

That is a beautiful gun with marvelous barrels. It will be a joy in the field.

A fabulous Ithaca in every respect!

I know of the reputation of Joseph “Joe” Loy but I haven’t hrard of a Jay Loy. Was that a typo?





.

I have used old paper shells often on Grouse hunts with usually great success. I am curious, if you care to enlighten me, what the "fit" issue was? Not igniting? Not fitting the chamber?

What grade?

Beautiful Ithaca!

If I owned that gun I would be looking at it so much I’d miss every bird! The shells are the perfect Autumn color.

Wow Stan that gun is really over the top! It looks to be a 12 so how long are the tubes? Like Jeff said bring it to SD and I'll bring some ammo that should work if we are lucky enough to find a rooster.

Thanks for the correction Dean,
You are correct on the engraving being Joseph Loy's work, I guess I was confusing him with Jay Leech.

Scott, only one of the Western shells fired for me, and that one had what felt like a 1 second delay, the other few that I tried multiple times, failed to go off. I was suspect of light primer strikes, so I tried a few Eley 2 1/2" that I had on hand and they worked just fine.

Thanks for all the kind words everyone, I have a soft spot for these early Crass guns, on the higher grades, the engraving is just beautiful. Animals look natural and detail is just unbelievable.
Stan

Bird bagged or not, I can’t imagine a better outing (unless the pups gave you grief :))

I echo the sentiments of the others on the beauty of your new gun. I am not sure I would get past the engraving to look at the wood, but I am sure others would enjoy seeing pictures of the wood as well.

Congratulations.

What grade is that Stan. A 5 or 6?
I foolishly sold a grade 3 Crass years ago,

Beautiful example of Ithaca Gun Co.'s best work!! Did Walter ever do a The Double Gun Journal article on the gun? Wish there was an index of Ithaca articles like we have of A.H. Fox articles.

Those pre-WW-II non-corrosive primers are pretty iffy. Twenty-two years ago I had a box of about 1939 vintage Winchester Super-Speeds that I took with me on a trip to the heartland. First walk after we crossed into the southeast corner of Nebraska, "Meat in the Pot" went click, click when the first rooster flushed. Tried several more at the parking lot with no success and left the box and shells on a fence post.

Harold and Bill,

I've been away since last evening and will have to check the water table, I believe it is marked as a Grade 6 but need to confirm. What is unique on this one is that Loy signed his work, I'll have to see if I can photograph that area, it is very fine.

Yes Dave,
Walt did an article on this gun, I will look for that reference this evening. I was not aware of the index for A. H. Fox articles, I suppose that is on the Fox Collectors site?

All of Walter's articles are listed in the yearbooks, up to Volume 14, I believe.

Daryl,
It is a 2 barrel set, 28' & 30", both Damascus. It is a 12 gauge, hardly big enough for those SoDak roosters:cool:

Too bad it's not an 8.:):)

I hope to have an 8 gauge Ithaca in the future, time will tell:whistle:

It's a 5 pin Grade 6 Stan. Wow.
Another one of Walt's; a 6 pin with "American Flag" and I believe a Gr. 5

https://photos.smugmug.com/US-Makers...n%20Flag-M.jpg

This is Wayne Owen's Gr. 6 6 pin with 4 Iron "Turkish"

https://photos.smugmug.com/US-Makers...%20Owens-M.jpg

The barrels look to be 3 Iron Crolle, but if you'll post a full size close up of about 8" of barrel where the contrast is most apparent I'll "read' the pattern.

Stan's gun is shown on page 37 in volume 1, issue 3 of the Double Gun Journal, written by Walt Snyder. Walt describes the gun as " a beautiful old Ithaca Crass with Grade 7 quality engraving. Most likely a custom gun as there is no grade designation and the checkering pattern is style 4".

Thanks Drew & Wayne,

Drew,
I will try to post some pictures of the barrels tomorrow in natural light or perhaps I can get some decent pictures this evening.
The engraving on that gun in your second picture is amazing, do you know perhaps what year gun that may be?

You beat me to it Wayne, thanks for hunting that up. The water table is marked as a Grade 1

Stan, the gun in the second picture was made in 1898.

Thanks Wayne. Walt obviously knows, but my Crass catalog only shows Grade 6 as the top of the line. Grade 7 may mean Special Order. Lewis models had Grade 7. Researcher should know.

So you’re thinking of adding a set of 8 gauge barrels to one of your NID 10 mags ?

Murphy/Harold,

the water table is marked with a 1 over 12, Walt described it as Grade 7 engraving in his article with grade 4 checkering on the stock. This gun was obviously a custom order.
I looked over his Crass article that Wayne referenced, the article was not specifically about this gun, but he did include 3 pictures of this gun.

I did notice that in the article, the gold setter on the trigger guard is (upside down) or not situated as it is now. I'm scratching my head, it is definitely the same gun, but why the difference on the dog???

Stan

Not sure Craig if I can make it happen, but a few of my Magnum 10 barrels sets OD measurements are very similar to the 8 gauge barrels. Now obviously the 7 frame Parker barrels are much larger.
If it's possible, not sure.
Stan

Apparently somebody wasn’t fond of the original orientation of the gold setter…





.

The bird on the trigger plate is also facing the other direction on the page 37 picture. A case of the printers having the Kodachrome or negative flipped.

Thanks for confirming what I suspected Dave, I just wasn’t sure how that could be flipped.

As I understand, Crass extractor frames have 5 pins, ejector guns have 6 pins

As I understand, Crass extractor frames have 5 pins, ejector guns have 6 pins





Yes Stan that is correct. Notice Drew's pictures. Those are ejector guns with 6 pins.

Stan, I hope to see the gun at the Southern or Northeast at Ernie's. Stop by the Lefever tables. Bob

Thanks Bob,

I will bring it to Sanford, Lord willing and the creeks don’t rise!

Stan

Maybe Stan will have that at the Northern SxS in July shooting for Team Ithaca? Team Ithaca is poised to win the Manufacturer's Cup. Vegas odds are 3-1 and leading the pack.

The Crass guns can be the prettiest of all the Ithacas. Here's a fine Grade 5 in super high condition.
[IMG]https://i.imgur.com/4kTrRRY.jpg[/IMG]

https://i.imgur.com/KRJBaTS.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/M3wucQZ.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/QNhV7zU.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/S349VjS.jpg

I finally was able to take some pictures of the barrels, the upper barrels in the pictures being the 28” barrels, the 30” barrels on the lower side. In my earlier pictures, I had the. 28” barrels on the gun.

Try this again!

The barrels have slightly different patterns, but are both a nice 3 Iron "Oxford"
I was hoping the tube maker's initials would be forward of the flats but don't see any.
This might be Daryl's, or maybe Walt's :(

2 wavy 'zipper' welds between the straight ribband edge welds. OR viewed another way, 2 full size 'scrolls' between 2 smaller scrolls compressed when the ribband edge was 'jumped'

https://photos.smugmug.com/US-Makers...3%20Iron-L.jpg