May 28 & 29, 2020 Extraordinary, Sporting, & Collector Firearms
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 5/29/2020
Beautiful and well done 16 bore upgrade with special serial number of 60,000. This gun now sports fluid steel barrels with matted rib with large white front bead and tops of barrels marked "LEFEVER ARMS CO. / WHITWORTH FLUID STEEL" on tops by breech ends. Breech ends of barrels are engraved with 1-1/2" wedge, butterflies sculpted on sides, and thin gold barrel bands. Splinter forend is beautifully checkered with fleur-de-lis and scrolls. Clamshell opener is near fully engraved in scroll and geometric border pattern and the forend has a carved and wave pattern triangular tip. Action is beautifully engraved very much like a real mid-serial number range Optimus would be with a gold dog on each side and gold bird on each side, large flying goose on the bottom, gold pigeon in the top lever, and a resting gold dog in the trigger guard all surrounded by well executed scroll engraving and geometric patterns as you would expect on a real Lefever Optimus grade gun. The capped pistol grip buttstock with two white inserts behind the action inside of an ebony inlay is finely checkered with wave border pattern, scrolls carved in near grip and a fine panel behind the grip. Made with gold plated single selective trigger, auto ejectors, and auto safety. The buttstock terminates with horn heel and toe plates and is checkered at center. Fences are finely sculpted with clover leaves. CONDITION: Excellent as custom finished. Barrels retain about 98% of their custom blued finish. Action retains more than 85% of its proper custom case color. Trigger guard retains about 1/3 of its custom case color. Stocks are excellent with minor handling marks though there is a grain separation on the top right stock finger which will remedy easily. Bores are brilliant and shiny. Mechanics are crisp. An authentic 16 bore Optimus (virtually impossible to source) would easily be in the $75,000 plus range today and this cataloger does not know of one changing hands for less than that in the last decade; this gun is a bargain as it is almost indistinguishable from a real Optimus Grade Gun. JSL
Barrel Wall Thickness
(BOTH) .030
Internal Bore Diameter
(L) . 667 (R) .666