This gauge makes it very easy to measure chamber length.

I bought another of my favorite shotgun, the Ithaca Lefever Nitro Special  in an online auction recently.  I now own 4.  One in every length they made 26″, 28″ and 30″.  This particular one was made in  1926.  It is a 20 gauge with 26″ barrels.  It was in pretty good shape.  My only hesitation was the chamber length.  I knew that right around 1926 they switched in the 20 ga. from 2-1/2″ shells to the 2-3/4″.  The listing specifically said 2-3/4″ but I had some doubts.   I asked the person selling it how sure he was about the chamber length.  He told me he was selling it as part of an estate sale and he really wasn’t certain of the length, but an associate of his put in a 2-3/4″ shell and it fit.  I had to explain that a modern 2-3/4″ shell will fit in a 2-1/2″ chamber because in its un-fired state it is 2-1/2″ long. So on this test, the longer shell will fit, it just won’t have room to open up properly when it is fired, which can create a pressure problem and we don’t want that.  The only way to say with any certainty is to measure it with a chamber gauge.  The seller didn’t have one and offered me the chance to back out of my winning bid on the auction.  I told him I appreciated the offer, but would take my chances.

A few days later I had it in my hand and measured it with a very handy shotgun chamber and choke gauge (not sponsored or affiliate).  Sadly it was only 2-1/2″.  I checked with the gunsmith at my FFL gun shop if he could ream out the chamber to 2-3/4″.   He said no, I should ask for another barrel from the company.  I said “The gun is 98 yrs old, there is no replacement barrel.”  The once practiced art of gunsmithing has apparently been reduced to parts replacement for firearms that are the equivalent of lego. I called around and got similar answers from other local gunsmiths.  I knew from watching a 1 minute video of Larry Potterfield lengthening a shotgun chamber that this was a job I could do.  So I set out looking for a reamer.  They were nearly the price of the gun, but I found a place that would rent them for 7 days, so I rented one.

Guide roller on the left, then the forcing cone taper, then the straight chamber walls, followed by the cartridge rim cutter on the right.

The reamer arrived by US mail in a few days. There is a roller guide on the front to keep it aligned with the barrel, along with tapered flutes to cut the shape of the forcing cone ahead of the cartridge shape.It will also cut the recess for the case rim.  I will need to be careful as the recess for the case rim on my gun had already been cut and I did not want that to get any deeper.

Reamer ready for use on the side-by-side barrels in the vise.

I thought I had a tap handle that would fit the end, but the reamer was just too big, so i used a pair of adjustable wrenches.  It really only needs one wrench, but I used two in order to make it more balanced.

A couple turns at a time. Slow and careful.

The process involves, cleaning the chamber first to get rid of any dirt or crud.  Spray some oil in the chamber and some on the reamer. Then insert the reamer and give it a few slow rotations.

Use a brush to sweep away the metal shavings.

Carefully pull the reamer straight out.  Use a small brush to sweep away the chips (metal shavings).  Clean the chamber. Oil again and repeat.  Keep reaming until the chamber length gauge reads 2-3/4″.  That is all there is too it.

The chamber has now been lengthened to 2-3/4″

Q&A about shotgun chamber reaming

• Is it safe to do? – On this gun, yes.  The Lefever Nitro Special is a stout gun, and the dimensions of the barrels on this gun are the same as the later model 20ga that came from the factory with 2-3/4″ chambers.   I can not speak for any other gun. I am also not a professional gunsmith, so do not take my word for it.
• How long did it take?  – It took me less than an hour to ream both chambers on this gun.
• Where did you rent the reamer? – 4D Reamer Rentals (not sponsored or affiliate)
• What did you use for cutting oil? – Copious amounts of WD-40 were used as a cutting oil.  When done, I removed it all with brake cleaner.

Cleaning up the rest of the shotgun

I put blue painters tape down on a cutting mat. Then I hold the stock firmly in place atop the tape. I use a knife to cut around the stock. This leaves me with a piece of tape to act as a template.

The gun had an original butt plate on it, though it was cracked.  Since we shoot sporting clays  with it (~100 shots at a time) it makes sense to put a recoil pad on it even though it is just a 20ga.   So I start by cutting a tape pattern to get the right size.

The tape then fits on top of the recoil pad so that I can trim away most of the excess on my band saw. I have to be careful of two things. The top part of the template is angled down, so I need to leave extra on the top. The bottom tail has to match the angle of the stock, so leave extra there to be trimmed away later.

The wood on the gun was in decent shape. It had a few dings and dents, but nothing major.

This stock unfortunately had been refinished with some kind of polyurethane. It was not put on thick, but I could see a few drips. I could not repair the dents with the poly on it, so it had to come off.

Someone had re-checkered this gun and had obliterated the traditional flat top checkering normally found on Lefever Nitro Specials. It was a pretty good job, definitely hand done. So I will leave that alone.

I used a card scraper to remove as much of the poly as I could without damaging the checkering.

I used a gouge to create some palm relieve on the right side of the shotgun. It gives the tactile illusion of palm swell.

Freezing the recoil pad to make it easier to sand-to-fit

I like the Kick-Eez recoil pads they do a great job reducing recoil.  The problem for installation is that they are kind of soft so the sander leaves a bit of texture on the rubber and recoil pad squishes down with the pressure from sanding, then swells back up, so it  is not easy to get the rubber part of the pad the exact shape of the stock.  To make the rubber a little bit more rigid and easier to work with, I put the whole thing in the freezer for a few hours.

Here is the shotgun stock all sanded and ready to go.

The old walnut often loses some color, so I use a mixture of dyes to bring back the color.

To give the stock some of its original color I use a 4:1 mix of TransTint Dark Walnut dye and TransTint Mahogany dye added to isopropyl alcohol.  I use alcohol because it dries quickly and does not raise the grain.  The dye does a nice job of not hiding the wood, the way a stain does.

Here is the stock, dyed and ready to finish.

The only catch with dye is that the color that dye dries looks lighter than it ends up when you put a finish on it.

Here is the stock with 5 coats of pure Tung Oil on it.

For a finish I use my favorite gun stock finish – 5 coats of pure Tung oil using the same method I used on my other Lefever Nitro Special refinish.

Historical note on the Lefever Nitro Special

1926 circular pattern (top) 1929 parallel line pattern (bottom)

I have noticed that some older model Lefever Nitro Specials have a circular swirl pattern on the rib to eliminate glare.  The pattern is quite different when compared to the parallel lines on the more recent models.  The circular pattern does do a better job at reducing glare.  It looks and feels pretty nice.  The downside I see to it is that is easier to damage and harder to restore/repair.  I am not sure when The Ithaca Gun Company switched over from the one pattern to the other.  All I can say is that it was some time between 1926 and 1929.