Old Ithaca Double - what do I have?

J

jaughtman

New member
Yeah, I know - "An old Ithaca Double", silly! Really, other than that, anyone know much about this gun or just the model in general? My dad bought it off an old country grocery store owner back in the 70's and it looked really OLD even then. Tell me what you think about it.

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J
 
Yikes....

According to the Ithaca website, it could be from the late 1800's or around 1910 depending on if it is a "Flues" model or a "Crass" model - can anyone out there tell me if it is one or the other?

J
 
According to the site, 185400 to 214399 were made in 1925. Your serial number 201465 seems to fall in that range. I have one that my grandfather owned and the numbers are slightly higher putting it in the 1926 year. Hope this helps. Also looks to be a New Ithaca Double Lefever Nitro Special. When I called Ithaca, that's what they told me.
 
Old

Great old guns. I have two Ithaca Flues (334XXX and 354XXX) and an old Lefever (501XX). I hunt with the Lefever regularly and use it for Sporting Clays.
Pete
 
Also looks to be a New Ithaca Double Lefever Nitro Special. When I called Ithaca, that's what they told me.
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I thought about that, but nowhere on the gun does it have the Lefever name - just Ithaca Gun Company and the common "dog pointing birds" engraving that is prevalent on old Ithaca's. Wouldn't it have the Lefever name if it were so? That is why I was assuming it was an older Crass of Flues model. Regardless, it was out in the field just a few months ago knocking down doves!

J
 
I have a Lefever Nitro Special and it was manufactured by Ithaca, from what I can tell. That gun looks very, very similar.
 
You're probably right jaughtman. It would say the Lefever Nitro Special on it. You can email www.wsnyder@pinehurst.net he is an expert on Ithaca doubles. He wrote a couple of books on them. Tell him what you have and he will certainly clear things up for you.
 
The Ithaca SxS in the OP is a Flues Model, made in about the 3rd quarter of 1910.

Please refrain from shooting modern ammo in it, as the steels are not up to it, and can fail w/o warning.

After having a gunsmith measure the chambers with the proper measuring tool, in case they are the older/short chambers (long/unfired shells will chamber in a short chamber) - special, low-powered ammo made for those type guns is commercially available from the likes of RST, PolyWad, etc.

Modern "low brass" ammo & "field" loads do not equate with "low powered".

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ithaca sxs

my brother had one like that and he looked up the serial number, i don't remember the exact number but it was in the 20 thousands and a collector told him it was one of the earliest models that would safely use modern ammo, i think it was made around 1926. i think the blue book has the exact serial number when they were safe for modern ammo. also the collector told my brother you can't tell if these shotguns can use todays ammo just by looking at them, its because of the hardness of the steel.
 
The Ithaca SN tells the tale, as to year & model.

The Flues Model was made from 1908 to 1926, starting at SN 175000 in 1908 to SN 398365 in 1926 - after which the NID Models were started.

The 1910 Ithaca Flues Model production's SN's went from 192500 to 205399 - almost 13,000 shotguns that year.

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