The shotgun you see here is one of the rarest of all vintage American double-barrel shotguns. It’s a D.M. Lefever 16g in 9F grade and is on Gunbroker.com now. The listing ends on 3/24/2019 @ 7:51 PM. Even though it’s a No Reserve auction, bidding starts at $5,995.
Daniel Myron Lefever was an American inventor and gunmaker. In his lifetime, he patented a number of gun designs, including the one built by the Lefever Arms Company from 1883 until 1916 (here’s a gun built on that patent).
In 1902, D. M. Lefever formed the D. M. Lefever, Sons & Company. The gun he built with that company is the type of SxS shotgun listed in this auction. Called a Lefever Cross-Bolt, it’s a very different design, and it was very successful for D.M. Lefever. The company only made about a 1,000 of them before going out of business. The one shown here is a 9F grade, one up from D.M. Lefever bottom of the line 0 Excelsior model.
Dan D.M. Lefever Sons 16 Ga 9F SxS double shotgun: You are bidding on a fantastic and rare D.M. Lefever and Sons Co. shotgun! This has its ORIGINAL FACTORY ORDER TAG!!! D.M. Lefever and Sons only made about 1000 guns in the short span of their production, and this one is special in several ways! It is a snappy little 16 Ga. and has factory documented 26″ barrels. VERY EARLY production! It also has a straight grip English style stock, Imperial Steel barrels, 9F grade, and this actual gun was featured in the Double Gun Journal Winter 1992 Issue that has the great article on D.M. Lefever crossbolt guns. It is in beautiful condition with 90% plus original bluing on the barrels and high condition on the action and stock. Original butt plate with unturned screws. Barrels ring true and are plenty thick, bores are excellent. I took the D.M. Lefever to Britannia Sporting Arms in Cape Neddick, Maine and the proprietor Stephan Hutton (worked at Churchill’s in England) thoroughly looked the gun over and gave a glowing condition report! The states that it is a “very clean, solid gun that has seen very little use, and has been well-looked after over the years”, he noted that most of the small amount of wear has been because of handling.
It is completely original, locks up tight, is on face, and functions correctly as it is (the ejector spring was removed from the gun at some point, but is present with the gun and can be re-installed if desired) The chambers are 2 3/4” long and there are no signs of them having been “opened up”, so he believes that it left the factory this way. The stock and forearm are original to the gun and their conditions match nicely. He said that it is possible that the stock was refreshed at some point in the distant past, but that he personally highly doubts, it given the patina of the wood and the high original condition of the rest of the gun. The consensus was that it just remains in pretty amazing condition overall. The Length of Pull is a little over 14” and drop at comb was over 1 1/2”, drop at heel was 2 3/8” with no cast and will fit shooters of modern dimensions. These dimensions are all within 1/8” of the dimensions listed on the original factory tag, which are nominal dimensions. The bores have NO dents, bulges or pits, the ribs are sound, the minimum wall thicknesses on the barrels are healthy at .030 for the left barrel, and .029 for the right barrel. The chokes are listed as Cyl and Modified, and he found that the Cyl barrel had .003 constriction which could be considered Cyl or Skeet 1, other barrel was Modified. There were no signs of the chokes being modified after it left the factory. He noted that there is an almost imperceptible dent in the left barrel choke area at approx the 7 o’clock position, but stated that it was of absolutely no concern. The bore size was .675 in the right barrel and .679 in the left barrel, which is over nominal barrel size for a 16 gauge, but states that given the healthy wall thicknesses, that it most likely left the factory this way and was not polished at a later time. He stated that he does not know the reason that the ejector spring was removed, but that a previous owner may have not wanted the shells to eject or it could have been giving him problems. He said that without re-installing the ejector spring that it was impossible to know if there was a functional reason it was removed. The gun functions properly as it is, but he stated that with the ejector spring not in place, that care must be given when re-attaching the barrels to the action, as if the ejector arms rotate and go over other parts that you will not be able to re-attach the barrels until they are placed back in their proper position where they are normally held in place from the ejector spring. Although he has examined and worked on several D.M Lefevers, he stated that this one has a different action mechanism than the others that he had seen personally. He did not expressly say so, he did give the overall impression that this was the nicest, original D.M. Lefever that he had seen. With its Double Gun Journal provenance, desirable gauge, unusual features, and original hang tag, you probably won’t have many (if any) opportunities to find a nicer, better example of an early D.M Lefever! Buyer to pay actual shipping and INSURANCE costs. Payment by certified funds or cash. FFL or C&R required for shipment.
