Take a good, long look at this 16g BE-grade Lefever. Chances are good you’ll never see another one again.
Over its short history (XXXX-XXXX) the Lefever Arms Company made far fewer guns than the other major American SxS makers — Parker, Fox, L.C. Smith, and Ithaca. And as was the case with most gunmakers, most of the SxSs Lefever built were in their lower grades: I, DS, H, G, F. Very few of the company’s top-tier guns – the One Thousand Dollar Grade, the Optimus, the AA, A, & Bs – were made and most of these were 12 gauges.
So any B-grade Lefever is a scarce gun (a BE is a B-grade with Ejectors), and a 16 gauge BE is, well, super ‘friggin rare. In 20 years of following Lefevers, this is the first one I’ve seen on the open market.
BTW: If you own an old Lefever and would like to know more about it or sell it, please let me know. I would be happy to help out. Gregg@DogsandDoubles.com
Fantastic and Extremely Rare Original Lefever BE Grade 16ga SxS Shotgun: Offered here is the holy grail of Lefever collecting – an original Lefever BE Grade 16ga. Made with original 28″ Krupp Steel Barrels, splinter forend with the rare clamshell release. Original Lefever single selective trigger with selector in the safety slide. Round knob pistol grip buttstock with gorgeous grain and fine checkering through the wrist. The gun weighs 5lbs 14oz and was made on the Lefever “XX” frame size as marked on the watertable. The gun has original 2-1/2″ original chambers, bright shiny bores. The barrels measure .670 in both tubes (perfect for a 16ga Lefever) and have .020 choke (mod) in the right barrel and .028 (full) in the left barrel. Minimum wall thickness is .027 in both barrels. The LOP is 12-3/4″ over a thick Lefever monogrammed buttplate (would be 13-3/4″ with double triggers) from the rear position single trigger with drops of 2″ at the comb and 2-7/8″ at the heel. Barrels retain about 90% of the original blue. Action retains more than 1/3 of the original case color with nice crisp engraving. Stocks are sound and retain most of their original finish with a few minors. Price: $18,500
