Frank Lefever

[B. Dudley]

over the summer time I finished up a pretty extensive project in bringing back a special Lefever from the scrap heap. The gun was found in Utica, NY where it had been in the same family for at least 60+ years. And the state of the gun was as they had always knew it. Poor. The barrels had been cut to 26" from the assumed original length of 32". The ribs were loose. The buttstock was hacked up and scarfed together from a few different pieces of wood. The trigger guard was cut, drilled and mangled. The engraving was dirty, worn and there were some mechanical issues as well as bent up trigger shoes. The gun was passed on by a few people before the current owner saw its potential and decided to rescue it. As well as being very dedicated to bringing it back to its rightful state.

The gun is odd in that instead of is being marked "Lefever Arms Co.", the side plates are engraved "Frank Lefever". Frank was one of Uncle Dan Lefevers Sons, he worked in the Lefever factory, and later on for Hollenbeck/3 barrel/Royal, Hunter Arms and Remington. And after that opening his own gunsmithing operation, also named the Lefever Arms Co. First in Ilion, then Frankfort and then carried on by his son in Lee Center.

It is a real curiosity as to why the gun bears his name. Was it a personal gun? Was it a presentation gun? An apprenticeship gun? Who knows. The gun is not unique in that one other gun has been found with the name "Frank Lefever" on it. That gun was about 10,000 serial numbers ahead of this one. both are a curiosity for sure.

Below are summaries of some of the work done on the gun as well as finished photos of the project. The gun was being displayed in Vegas last weekend by the owner, maybe some of you saw it?



The gun when it was found.


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installation and shaping of a new horn forend tip. As well as refinishing the original forend and recutting its checkering.


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The original trigger guard strap had to be cut off and another one welded on. Along with some light reshaping of the new scrap to match the Lefever style. The guard is shown below next to an original Lefever straight grip guard. Geoffroy Engraved the strap and I finished it for an aged look.


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The stock blank chosen to be put on the gun.


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And some photos of the finished gun. Breck Gorman also stripped and relayed the ribs and refinished the barrel finish. There is nothing that could be done about the cut barrels. in the long run, 26" is not all that bad. At least they were not shorter. Or else we would have been looking for replacement barrels too.
I replaced all of the screws on the gun as well, also engraved by Geoffroy.


Enjoy.


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