Mission Accomplished - 1926 Lefever Gobbler

[cuppednlocked]

I've always wanted to kill a turkey with an old SxS. For this project I bought an inexpensive 12ga Lefever Nitro Special off GB last year. The price was right because the forearm was splitting. If my memory serves me correctly the serial number puts the gun at 1926. I made the repair and waited for turkey season.

My buddies and I drew a gameland permit several weeks ago and made it happen that Fri evening.

The first evening (Thursday) was uneventful. The WRC had a significant portion of the property logged at the start of the week. It appeared that the loggers had turned the machines off right before we arrived that afternoon.  All of the spots I planned to hunt were void of standing trees.

The next morning (Friday) I headed to a different section that had been logged and planted 5-6 years ago. I got this bird fired up and gobbling ~6:30am but he worked off deeper in the swamp after giving me a farewell gobble. Based on the layout I knew almost exactly where he was roosted.

After dodging some thunderstorms early afternoon, I snuck in ~4:30pm and got tucked back into the swamp close to his roost. Sometime close to 6:30pm I thought I heard a gobble reply to my calling. 30 min later he was standing in front of me at 25 yards.

Triple beards (11", 9", 8")
Spurs 1-7/16", 1-3/8"
An ounce shy of 22#

I believe I will hunt exclusively with this SxS in 2026 to celebrate the century mark. In the meantime I need to decide what the next project/mission will be.

[Greg Massey]

Congrats on your gobbler with the old side x side ...

[Bill]

Congratulations on that nice bird.

Maybe the picture is deceptive, but it looks like your nitro has good, straight stock dimensions?  So many old shotguns, especially American doubles, are impractical to shoot as-is due to excessive comb drop.


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[cuppednlocked]

it looks like your nitro has good, straight stock dimensions?

This Lefever fits nicely in regards to drop.  It shoulders really well.

[Tclipse01]

Congrats on a great bird, them some spurs.

[Tom007]

Wow, a real dandy with that Vintage beauty...Congrats

[JeffC]

Congrats on a great Tom with your project gun!

[10th Legionaire]

Pretty darn cool!

[GregGwaltney]

Very cool old gun and beautiful turkey, congrats!

[crow]

Very cool, good job with your old gun.  Nice hooks too

[backforty]

Great bird with a cool old gun. Sounds like the next step is a percussion double.

[cuppednlocked]

Great bird with a cool old gun. Sounds like the next step is a percussion double.

I've been following those on GB for some time.  Just haven't made that leap yet.

[YoungGobbler]

Nice and awesome spurs on that!

[Gobbler428]

Great bird with a great old SxS. Congratulations.