Ithaca's Economy Doubles

The Lefever Nitro Special & Western Long Range

Of all the American makers of quality doubles, the Ithaca Gun Co. was by far the most prolific. From 1883 to 1948, Ithaca produced some 700,000 side-by-side shotguns. (There were another 60,000 or so made for them by SKB and imported from the mid-'60s to the mid-'70s.) To put this total in perspective, if you add up all of the Parkers and A.H. Foxes ever made and add that to all of the Hunter Arms (L.C. Smith) doubles made from 1918 to 1950, you'd still fall a bit short of Ithaca's total. However, about 300,000 of the guns included in Ithaca's production numbers were not "real" Ithacas.

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