Lefever Shotguns

I recently took in a Lefever Nitro Special double shotgun for some much needed attention. Although these shotguns can sometimes take on a life of their own when working on them, I knew the customer well and reluctantly decided to have ago at it. The complaints about this gun were that the left firing pin was broken, the barrels were loose fitting, and that my customer wanted me to go through it to determine if it was worth saving. This gun had been in his family the past 80 years or so I was told. The gun itself?

It celebrated its 96th birthday as of this writing! Doing some research on this specific model didn’t turn up very much at all. I found no schematic that shows and lists every part for this shotgun. I did, however, find partial parts listings for the gun with drawings of the parts listed and some names associated with those parts. In the end, I found all of the naming conventions for each part on the Numrich Gun Parts website and used those to identify each part for this article.

There are a few writeups I ran across about the Lefever guns, some accurate and some not so accurate. It seems if there is a lack of factual information about a company or a specific line of firearms, it opens the door to assumptions and sometimes unsupported facts. So, I was reluctant to insert that information here. However, I did see one book about the Lefever for sale on Amazon.com; listed for $5,000, if anyone is interested.

That being said, it seems clear that Daniel Myron Lefever was born in Hopewell, New York in 1835 and he passed on in 1906 while living in Syracuse, New York. In between that time, he essentially established This shotgun was produced in 1923 according to serial number information found. himself as a gun maker around 1869, later received a Lefever patent for one of his designs, and around 1879 becomes D. M. Lefever, concentrating on hammerless cocking lever guns.

A year later, he received a patent for the first successful hammerless shotgun manufactured in the United States. A few years after that, he was bought out and the Lefever Arms Company was then created. Later still, he formed the D. M. Lefever Arms Company. Sometime after that, Ithaca came into the picture and produced Lefever shotguns. Without going into any more detail about that, the serial number of the shotgun on my bench dates it at being produced in 1923.

Again, there are questions about serial number dating all Lefever guns, so this is a best-estimate for this shotgun and seems reasonable. The serial number on it is 124,xxx and this serial number was found on the receiver, barrels, forend iron, and on the bottom of the top lever, so they all matched. Looking at the barrels, I found "Lefever Nitro Special" imprinted on the right barrel and "Lefever Arms Co., Ithaca, NY" on the left barrel.

The gun is a 12 gauge, and, of course, the barrels were cut down shorter (20 5/8") most likely due to a bulged or badly dented barrel in the past. It seems cutting the barrels down on these old guns is less of an exception. At least they kept the barrel length legal! Since the barrels were cut down, the chokes are as open as the bore is (no choke). The chambers were measured with gauges and found to be 2 3/4" long.

Inspection of the stock set this gun is now sporting found that it probably did not come on it when it left the factory in 1923. The forend is a wide beavertail and both the buttstock and forend appear to have been "fitted" to this gun in a rather crude fashion. The butt plate is a Fajen and the stock bolt was a hardware store galvanized screw bolt with a galvanized washer. Other than that, the gun was in rather decent shape for its age.

A quick check of parts house resources found that many of the parts are still available but not all of them. Numrich Gun Parts Corporation was the leader in having the most available parts that I could find. Since this gun was only in need of a firing pin, I ordered one up. Just know that the firing pin you receive is an aftermarket made product and not as stout as the one that the gun originally came with. But it did fit and work.

With shotgun in hand at the bench, I ran through all of my inspection, function, and safety checks and the gun pretty much operated as it should. I did find that the left side hammer sounded super sluggish when the trigger was pulled for that barrel. But the whole gun was sluggish. After measuring the barrels, I did find one small ding on the right barrel approximately 17

The safety is in the ON position here. 1/8" down from the breech but nothing else wrong with the gun jumped out at me or was found during that inspection. So, the gun was prepped for disassembly and a much needed deep cleaning.

Detailed Disassembly Before we start, I must add that if you contemplate taking one of these (or any firearm) completely apart, make sure you have and use quality hollow ground screwdriver bits and an ample supply of tooling, including starter pin punches and drift punches that are longer in length that the typical punches out there. You will need a punch that can drift You can clearly see the sears; the mainspring plungers, the trip "bar" and the top lever retention screw head down in the middle of the receiver.

Removal of that screw will allow you to remove the top lever. a pin all the way out of a receiver that is 2 1/2" wide, more or less. If you don’t have the right tools or are not familiar with taking these guns apart, stop right here and take it to a qualified gunsmith that works on double guns. Just some words of advice… Now let’s get started. Begin by removing the forend by pulling downward and away from the barrels at the end of the forend, as it is held in place by a spring catch.

Open the barrels with the top lever and pivot the barrels off of the receiver. This typically suffices for routine cleaning and inspection. Continuing with full disassembly of the shotgun, remove the two buttplate screws and the buttplate itself. This shotgun did not have the original wood on it and the buttplate was a Fajen, so it too was not original. Before we remove the buttstock, use the appropriate sized (thin) screw driver bits to loosen the top rear tang screw and the rear trigger guard/plate screw.

Loosen them only at this point; you will see why as we continue disassembly. Now, with the buttplate removed and the two screws loosened, insert along flat-bladed screwdriver into the stock bolt hole and unscrew the stock bolt. The bolt removed from this gun was a hardware store bolt with a washer, so I am not certain if the original Lefever stock bolt has a lock washer with it or not. Anyway, remove the buttstock from the receiver by pulling rearward. You will now be able to see the inner receiver parts.

If you notice, you will see the tang spacer at the rear of the receiver. This spacer fits between the rear trigger plate screw hole and the rear top tang screw hole. The spacer has been relieved on each end. The end with the longer relieved area fits into the hole in the trigger plate and the shorter relieved end of the spacer fits into the top receiver tang screw hole during reassembly. Remove both screws that you previously loosened as they hold the spacer.

The reason you loosened them prior to removing the buttstock bolt is because the stock bolt screws into this spacer. If the stock bolt has been removed prior to trying to remove the two screws that secure it, the spacer can (and will) rotate while trying to loosen those screws. If you are already at this point, however, you can thread the stock bolt into the spacer and hold that secure while trying to loosen both screws.

When you remove these two screws, you will see that the bottom screw has a longer shank on it than does the top screw, so make note of this for reassembly. Next up, remove the trigger guard. With the bottom spacer

This screw/stud captures the top lever coil spring. screw removed, rotate the trigger guard to the right a quarter turn and lift it out of the receiver hole that secures it forward of the triggers. Turning your attention to the two remaining screws located on the bottom of the trigger plate (these hold the trigger plate to the action), first remove the most rearward screw, then the front screw. As you loosen it, you will feel the trigger plate move upward as it is under spring pressure.

You will also see the rear spacer fall out. During reassembly, first position that spacer between the trigger plate and the top tang, holding it in place while replacing this screw you just removed. With the final screw out of the trigger plate, the trigger plate assem- These parts are secured in the receiver as one assembly. bly pulls right off. The spring pressure felt earlier where the two sear coil springs that are affixed to the trigger plate, so don’t let these two springs get away.

All of the associated parts are attached to this trigger plate. Since we just removed it, let’s disassemble it completely here. Begin by pulling the two small sear coil springs out of their seats in the trigger plate. Next, remove the safety lever from the post pinned to the trigger plate. Drift the single pin out that retains the safety lever to the post, then dump out the safety lever cap, followed by the safety lever cap coil spring. Don’t pull the post off of the plate as it is affixed.

To remove the triggers, first remove the two small set screws found on each trigger. These screws serve to prevent the triggers from falling down too far below the receiver line and also serve as resting posts for both sears. Once the two small trigger screws are removed, simply drift out the one trigger pin that retains both triggers to the trigger bridge. Under that bridge, you will see a wire spring (rectangular shaped) that is secured under the trigger bridge itself.

Back out the trigger bridge screw and remove both the wire trigger spring and the bridge. This completes disassembly of the trigger plate assembly. Moving back to the receiver, begin by removing the safety button by pulling the hooked end of the safety rod away just enough to get it out of the hole in the safety button, then pull the safety button out of the receiver from the top. Pull the safety rod out of the receiver.

You will see that this safety rod rides up against the top lever post assembly, so each time you open the gun or turn the lever, it will push this safety rod rearward and engage the safety to the ON position. With the safety button and rod now removed, remove the sears. Begin by pressing each sear lever upward to fire the hammers. Using along drift punch, drift the receiver pin out that holds the sears in place from left to right. Identify both the right and left sear by marking them now and before removal.

With both sears and the sear pin removed, turn your attention to the hammer assemblies. Begin by drifting the receiver pin that holds both hammer assemblies in place from left to right. As you drift out the pin, the first hammer will be under strong spring pressure. When you feel the hammer move onto your drift punch, place aboard at the rear of the receiver, then pull the drift punch out. This releases the hammer, mainspring plunger, and mainspring all at once, slamming into the board without getting lost.

Re-insert

Remove this screw to allow the extractors to be pulled out from the rear of the barrels. the long drift punch into the receiver and finish pushing out the hammer pin for the right side hammer assembly. Same thing here, once the frame pin is removed, place the board up against the back of the receiver and then pull the drift punch out which will release the final hammer, mainspring, and mainspring plunger. You should always mark the hammers and mainspring plungers as left or right.

You can now dump the two hammer cocking rods out. Mark these as right and left and which end goes into the receiver first. With the hammer assemblies now out, turn the receiver upside down on the bench. In the center is a large headed screw down inside the receiver. This is the top lever screw and it secures the top lever to the action. Remove this screw completely and set aside.

Just behind this hole in the receiver is a small post-type screw called the top lever spring retaining screw with a coil spring up against it. Remove both this screw and the spring as this is your top lever spring assembly. I used a screwdriver bit that I bent at 90 degrees years ago to depress this coil spring back while using my other hand to unscrew the set screw from the receiver. I used this same bit to reinstall this assembly, too.

Now just pull the top lever coil spring out and on the other end of that spring you will find atop lever coil spring cap attached. To remove the top lever, first turn the receiver upright on the bench with the breech face facing you. Turn the top lever to the left (as if opening the gun up) to expose the edge of the top lever post that is still connected to the top lever. Use a small punch to reach in the top of the action and place it on top of the top lever post edge.

Tap downward to free the top lever post from the top lever. Once you do this, pull the top lever out from the top of the receiver. With the top lever out of the way, you can see the top lever post has two small pins sticking up and those pins lock into the holes for them located in the top lever. Using a wood dowel or punch, tap the top lever post downward and remove it from the bottom of the action. During reassembly, you will insert this top lever post with the mill cut facing towards the rear of the action.

Insert the two pins into the bottom of the top lever to connect them. Remember the safety rod? The mill cut in the top lever post is where the safety rod rides when assembled into the frame. Remove the trip by pressing down on one end that is visible on the receiver where the barrels lock into place. Push down on that small pin and that will release the trip which is a rectangular-shaped pin that has a short leg and along leg. You actually pull the trip out from the bottom of the receiver.

The short leg is inserted in the front hole and the longer leg goes into the rear hole for it. You will also find the trip spring in that same assembly, so remove it now. Remove the firing pins. Using a very small flatbladed screwdriver bit, unscrew each firing pin retaining screw from inside the receiver. The firing pins can be dumped out and they do not have a firing pin spring nested with them. Mark the firing pins with an Land Rto reassemble them in the same firing pin hole.

Finally, the only thing left to remove are the two cocking cams located at the front of the receiver. To remove these, drift the receiver pin out that retains them from left to right. Again, mark these as left and right side before removal and note how they fit in the receiver. With the receiver now stripped, turn your attention to the forend iron assembly. Remove the two wood screws that secure it to the forend and lift the assembly out.

To disassemble, remove the forend fastener screw, then the forend fastener bolt, and forend fastener coil spring. Turning our attention to the barrels, the only part left to remove is the extractor. It is held in place at the back of the barrels with a small set screw called the extractor retaining screw. This completes the disassembly of the shotgun. Reassemble in reverse. Here area couple of tips for reassembly.

When installing the top lever coil spring and top lever spring retaining screw, place the receiver in a padded vise breech face downward, insert the top lever spring, then use the screwdriver bit bent at 90 degrees (if you have one) to compress the coil spring fully with your weak hand. Use your other hand with a screwdriver with the small retaining screw in place and install the small screw while applying pressure on the coil spring.

You don’t want to allow the spring to push against this fragile screw during reassembly as you could cross thread it. Go slow and be careful here.

When reinstalling the firing pins, don’t bottom out the retaining screws. Insert the screws and move the firing pins to make sure they can move freely. Stop the screw once it fully captures the firing pins without binding against them. When installing the hammers, insert the cocking rods first, then the mainsprings with the mainspring plunger in place. Place the receiver in a padded vice and secure it breech face downward in the vice.

Next, use your weak hand to push up against the side of the mainspring and mainspring plunger while using your strong hand to place the hammer over the mainspring plunger tip and into the receiver slot. Using your strong hand and a screwdriver with a flat tip, press downward on the hammer and keep your weak hand thumb over the side of the mainspring so it doesn’t jump out of the receiver while pressing the hammer downward to align it with the hole in the receiver.

Once you get the hammer pressed almost down, you can take away your weak hand and use it to pick up a drift punch. Work the punch into the receiver until you capture the hammer with it. Then tap the receiver pin in to dislodge the pin punch until the receiver pin captures the hammer assembly. Do the same thing on for the next hammer assembly and finish drifting the hammer pin into the frame.

When you are ready to install the trigger plate assembly, turn the receiver upside down on the bench and start laying the trigger plate down into place. Make sure the short leg of the safety lever gets located in the safety button notch while getting the tang spacer in place.

Once you have captured these two items with the trigger plate, install the front trigger plate screw first and secure it while insuring the safety lever stays in the notch in the safety button and the spacer aligns with the two holes for it (bottom of spacer seats in the trigger plate hole and the top of the spacer seats in the top tang hole). If everything is correct, tighten that front trigger plate screw, then install the second trigger plate screw just behind it. Check the safety to make sure it works.

If it does, reinstall the trigger guard and then the two spacer screws (longer screw goes into the bottom of the spacer and the shorter one goes into the top of the spacer through the top tang hole). The rest of the reassembly goes pretty much like it did during removal. As mentioned earlier, the stock set on this shotgun does not appear to be the original. If you get one of these guns with loose barrels, first remove the buttstock and trigger plate and insure the top lever screw is tight.

In this case, the top lever screw was loose by a full turn. When I reinstalled the buttstock, the grip area prevented the top lever from turning fully, so whoever installed this buttstock did so without tightening the top lever screw first or the lever would have cleared the stock when rotated. Once the top lever screw was tightened fully, the barrels locked up just fine, so there was no need to re-work the barrel lugs or top lever/locking bolt.

When inspecting light firing pin hits, it is more than likely to be a deformed hammer. Inspect the hammers when out of the receiver. On this gun, the hammers were deformed in the area that makes contact with the firing pins and inner receiver area. You can use a ball peen hammer to take a lot of the deformed area out, shaping the hammer in that area for better firing pin contact when reassembled.

If the triggers seem sloppy or floppy in the trigger plate, bend the rectangular-shaped wire trigger spring legs so that more pressure is applied on the triggers when the plate is reassembled. If you take one of these in for a simple firing pin replacement, let your customer know that the entire receiver assembly must be disassembled to reach the firing pins. Quote your labor charges for disassembling the entire gun.

Finally, always check chamber lengths on the barrels, especially on guns that do not specifically say what the chambers lengths are. And don’t forget to check the barrels for dings, dents, and heavy rust pitting in the bores and cracks. I realize that most customers feel the need to take these old guns out and fire them. And at times, I feel the same way too.

But you really need to communicate to the customer that these old guns were produced back in a time period where safety was not always the driving factor on whether a gun can or should be released for sale. That, coupled with the steels used way back then makes shooting these old guns questionable. In the case of this shotgun, the sears are vulnerable to breaking or slipping when closing the gun to cock it.

Although the safety works quite well when the shotgun is cocked, it is when the sear fails that the hammer(s) can drop when closing the action, hitting the firing pins—accidental discharge. So be extra safe if you do end up having to shoot one of these. When in doubt, don’t fire the gun again and let your customer know he or she shouldn’t either. It’s just not worth it! AG