Nice old ithaca but...............

[Brent Francis]

Found this on the web. Look at bottom picture. I have one that looks just like it (minus the blown barrel) Maybe I should get it checked out before I shoot it again.

[Bill Murphy]

Anything that is that rusty on the outside is probably quite rusty on the inside also. The only way to tell is to lift the ribs, an expensive project if you plan to put it all back together again.

[Brent Francis]

Looks like it had seen little use. the wood and case color look good and original to me. May have been been the rust but it may have rusted after the accident. maybe someone left a cleaning cloth in the barrel who knows.

[Dean Romig]

Is that a sidelock or a boxlock or some combination of both?

[Brent Francis]

Id call it a box lock. Baker designed it and Ithaca kept the basic Idea when they bought out Baker. The hammers are attached to the very back of the frame. The only things in the wood are the triggers and sears. It seems to have worked well since they continued selling them well after hammerless models were being sold. discontinued around 1910 or so

[Steve McCarty]

Wow, all of that rust....I would be concerned. I have seen amazing pictures of guns brought back by experts. Cost is at least $2,000. You want to make sure that the final product is worth the investment, unless the gun is a family heirloom or you love the project.

[Brent Francis]

Steve, Ive always been amazed at how much of the rust will come off with a good soak in Hoppe's number 9 and 0000 steel wool. Pits are another matter that takes another level of effort and expertise. I have read about a product "Frontier pads" that are supposed to take off rust and leave the blueing. Anyone have any experience with these?

[Dean Romig]

Yes Brent, I have experience with Frontier pads and am a proponent of them.

[Researcher]

All three Ithaca Gun Co. hammer doubles were boxframe guns. That is not the Baker Model Ithaca. The Baker Model Ithaca only had one tiny pin showing in the side of the frame, just below the hammer. That is a New Ithaca Gun (NIG) that replaced the Baker Model in mid-1887. The three screws in the side of the frame identify the NIG. The NIG continued in production until about 1914 or early 1915. Here is one from 1910 that didn't get out much --





From 1915 to WW-I Ithaca produced a very few hammer guns that they called the "two bolt" model which was essentially a hammer version of their Flues Model hammerless gun, using coil springs

By the time the NIG was introduced, W.H. Baker had returned to Syracuse and was working at his brother's, Dr. Ellis Baker, Syracuse Forging & Gun Co. building a a trigger-plate hammer double called the "New Baker" but actually the design of A.C. McFarland.

[Brent Francis]

Thanks, Dean and thanks Reseacher. I will order some frontier pads for my next project. a W and C Scott with more than its share of surface rust. I wonder why some guns develop pits and others seem to have just a superficial layer of oxidation.