A Few Doubles

[Bruce Day]

The third is a pair of Syracuse Lefever Arms Company guns. Both are E Grade, the top a light 12 ( 7lbs 2oz) on the smaller 12 frame and with 30" chain Damascus barrels. .028 choke boring which starts almost 8 inches back. An extractor gun with all compensation features. This is a 1900 gun that came with its original leg of mutton case. It was in the same family until a few years ago, when it passed to a dealer then to me.

The other is a 16 ga E with ejectors, 28" Krupp barrels, .033 choke boring both barrels. Fully compensated. 6 lbs, 8 oz on the small frame. This is a 1905 gun , history not known.

Both have an interesting issue, they are each overbored by .010. Yet the chokes seem original, they are 60-70 percent guns, and have no indicators of excessive use that would require honing the bores. I think the bores are original diameter and Dr Bob Decker says overboring ( backboring) is common in factory original Lefevers. These old masters knew a lot about the science of gun making. I even read the other day about a company making screw in choke tubes in 1870.