Ithaca
 

Question to all the double gun collectors
Why are Ithaca shotguns so cheap compared to Parker, LC Smith, Lefever and Fox
I have had a few of them over the years and they are usually well used.
I recently picked one up because it was so cheap and after looking it over could not figure out why they more valued.

They were made in the highest numbers compared to other american doubles. By a lot!

It has been my ecperience that an inordinate number of Ithaca doubles have, or have had, rib problems where the rib has separated to a greater or lesser degree from the barrels.





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Ithaca guns were not very well fitted and finished. For a long while, Ithacas were some of the cheapest field guns out there. And the other makers were having to try and match their price point to compete.

Regarding the numbers of production. Their main line of doubles exceeded 400,000 guns built in the different variations. That is twice what parker built. But when you also factor in the Lefever Nitro Special and the Western Arms guns, they built a crap ton of guns. I dont have the numbers in front of me, but they built more lefever nitro specials than Dan lefever ever built “real” lefevers.

In my opinion, Ithaca guns are the last great value in today’s market place. Some of the high grade small bore guns are incredibly rare!

The far and away most common Ithaca double is the Flues Model, some 223000, which has a bad reputation for frame cracking, and many were made very light and are found with thin barrels.

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I use to think the frame cracking was only in the very light smallbores, but then I picked up a series of letters concerning a 1921 vintage No. 4 10-gauge --

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For 1926, Ithaca Gun Co. introduced the New Ithaca Double (NID) with a stronger frame, new lock work and a rotary bolt, some not fitted as well as they should be. The Field Grade NID was introduced at $37.50 retail.

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That same year the Godshalks moved the A.H. Fox Gun Co. into a new more efficient factory and dropped the price of a Sterlingworth from $48 to $36.50 a dollar cheaper than a Field Grade NID.

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The price of the Sterlingworth remained $36.50 until June 1932 when Savage upped it to $39.50.

Dean what is your data base?

Just looked at my tech spreadsheet and I've owned 18 Ithaca double-guns mostly NID's and some Nitros/A-Grades and Flues (nothing earlier). I shot most of them regularly and never had a loose top, bottom or short rib or forend lug. I also owned several Ithacas before using Excel to document tech specs of each gun and again, don’t remember having a rib problem with any of them. I’m not saying it can’t happen but ime it’s got to be relatively infrequent.

The only rib issue that I have noticed on a few Ithacas/Ithaca Lefever seems to be very back of the top rib lifting up where it meets the extension. But I have personally seen more cracked frames on flues guns than I have with rib issues.

Not that the frames cracking was a real issue if people would have just used the loads that the guns were designed for.

I don't have any data Frank, just personal experience with a number of Ithacas belonging to friends and acquaintances. They were all fairly well used guns in average condition otherwise. As I think back I can recall six that had rib separations to one degree or another.
My experience with Ithacas is very small compared to my experience with Parkers and of the many hundreds of Parkers I have handled or examined I can think of only two that had rib issues and both of those were limited to the forend loop, or lug, having come loose.





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This isn’t exactly a piece of junk…or is it?