Ithaca Gun Company- Is there more than one ??

D

D. Thomas

Guest

• Aug 10, 2003

• #1

Saw an interesting feature on The Shotgun Journal TV show today, which went thru most of the manuf. and assembly processes at Ithaca Guns. So I was inspired to look at their website, and yet the only one I come up with is www.ithacagun.com which just doesn't seem like the same company somehow. For one thing, say's they are located in an old elementry school building, whereas the company featured in the show was in an old railway station building. None of the craftsmen featured in the show are featured on the ithacagun.com website, the guns on the website don't seem as high end, and there is no mention of the Shotgun Journal segment in their "news" section.

Have I slipped into a parallel universe here or what ??



[This message has been edited by D. Thomas (edited 08-10-2003).]

 

C

CBlair

Diamond

Joined

Sep 23, 2002

Location

Lawrenceville GA USA

• Aug 10, 2003

• #2

Don;

There are two companies, The Ithaca Gun company makes a copy of the model 37 pump gun and a few accessories. The double barrel shotguns were/are being made by S.R Lamboy and Co. Inc. of Old Station Railroad street in Victor NY. Their website is unavailable right now on my system, www.ithacadoubles.com .

I also found an article that it appears that they have just declared bankruptcy. Their advertisements in Double Gun Journal Have stopped, the last one I saw was in the Winter 2002 issue.

Here is a link to the article in question...

http://www.shootingsportsman.com/news.html

Charles

 

D

D. Thomas

Guest

• Aug 10, 2003

• #3

Yep, the Shotgun Journal website was just flat out wrong in referring to them as Ithaca Gun Company, whereas their actual name is Ithaca Classic Doubles. By inputing "classic doubles" at search engine I came up with this site

www.gunshop.com/ithaca_classic.htm

which is indeed them. Sad about the bankruptcy, I was curious about their prices for guns with so many hours of handwork involved....must not have been high enough, huh ?

The show segment was about 20 minutes long, only machine tool I saw was a round arm Bridgeport, but there were indications a VMC was hidden away there somewhere. But it was mostly showing the hand work...checkering, engraving, etc.

 

C

CBlair

Diamond

Joined

Sep 23, 2002

Location

Lawrenceville GA USA

• Aug 10, 2003

• #4

Yes it is to bad, the show comes out just in time for them to close. Of course from the article it seems that getting new customers was not the problem. It was getting the envestors needed to fund the building of the guns already ordered that they couldn't get. Hopefully this wont mean that a cheaper Italian copy will soon flood the market. I hope the craftsmen who worked there will be able to find work. This sort of trade it is very hard to find long term employment and even harder to make money on your own.

Charles

 

G

gamachinist

Aluminum

Joined

Apr 19, 2003

Location

Locust Grove Ga USA

• Aug 10, 2003

• #5

Hi Charles,
Ithaca Classic Doubles is trying to regroup but they may well be selling some foreign made guns.If you are interested go to http://www.gunshop.com/cgi-bin/ubbcgi/ultimatebb.cgi
and look in the double gun forum.You'll even see my name there in some threads.
Of course all the info there is second hand at best and you never know what will happen given the current state of the economy etc.
Robert.

[This message has been edited by gamachinist (edited 08-10-2003).]

 

D

D. Thomas

Guest

• Aug 10, 2003

• #6

It's curious to me they went straight into Chapter 7 bankruptcy, a complete liquidation situation, rather than the more common Chaper 11, from which recovery is possible.

The owner seemed very articulate about every aspect of the doubles and quite enthused about the business. Perhaps he was just on his best behaviour for the TV cameras, but if genuine, the bankruptcy must be painful indeed.

 

S

Schulze

Aluminum

Joined

Aug 2, 2003

Location

Atlanta, Ga

• Aug 10, 2003

• #7

this is bad news. I was hoping to get their little 28 gauge double

 

D

D. Thomas

Guest

• Aug 10, 2003

• #8

The $6,000 skeet shooter or the $18,000 Sousa Special ?

 

C

CBlair

Diamond

Joined

Sep 23, 2002

Location

Lawrenceville GA USA

• Aug 10, 2003

• #9

Robert;

Thanks for the link, I was not aware of that one but I will watch it now. If you look at the article that I posted a link to on my earlier post it mentions that most of the actions and metal work was done in Italy and that the cost of tranfering that work to the US was a main contributer of the current situation. At least thats how I read it anyway. There are some very nice Italian guns avaialable and I only hope that whoever was makeing the Ithaca guns does not try to unload a lot of poorly made versions.

I am not really very interested in double barrel shotguns myself but I do appreciate the artistry and beauty of the lines of the guns themselves. I am more into single shot rifles than shotguns.

Charles

 

S

Schulze

Aluminum

Joined

Aug 2, 2003

Location

Atlanta, Ga

• Aug 10, 2003

• #10

holy crap, I thought Ithica was the 350 dollar ones. Crap looks like I will drag my 9 pound mossbergg around a few more years

 

G

gamachinist

Aluminum

Joined

Apr 19, 2003

Location

Locust Grove Ga USA

• Aug 11, 2003

• #11

Schulze,you must have seen the thread on the double gun forum where the guy said he couldn't make a double in America for less than $4000.00(and yes that is the right place for the decimal point!)
There is another company making new Fox Shotguns but they are expensive too.
Keep in mind,these aren't your average feild gun as represented by a '60's built Savage.These guns have perfect wood to metal fit and the higher grades are decorated and have highly figured wood.

Robert.

 

S

Schulze

Aluminum

Joined

Aug 2, 2003

Location

Atlanta, Ga

• Aug 11, 2003

• #12

I think I got the old ithica gun company mixed up with the actual one that makes the shotguns on that TV show. I see old ithica gun co. all the time cheap.

 

D

D. Thomas

Guest

• Aug 11, 2003

• #13

These guns have perfect wood to metal fit and the higher grades are decorated and have highly figured wood

Click to expand...

Yes, they talked about, and demonstrated somewhat, the precision fit of the buttstock to the action body.

I stumbled across a photo of their VMC on the website. Looks like an "antique" early 80's model of some sort...don't recognize it...maybe it's really a photo from an Italian shop ?

 

doug925

Titanium

Joined

Nov 21, 2002

Location

Houston

• Aug 11, 2003

• #14

Did you all get a chance to see American Shooter where they spotlighted Benelli? An amazing factory. Brand new state of the art horizontals making the reciever for the new shotgun for the US Marines. Very cool production line. I wish more shows showed how things were made in the machine shop. That is my biggest gripe with machine mags....(and motorcycle shows) they show a snapshot or two of a machine doing something, but never show the full process. Oh well...