I just bought a Lefever 12 ga double barrel and the safety is stuck on fire.It cocks and fires but wont go on safe. There is a screw missing under the lever to open the shotgun might be the problem no telling.This this is like new made in 1901 except for this and dang slither of wood missing on top of tang !

Does the safety itself move? If it does it is probably unhooked from it's rod or lever inside the action. Not a big deal if that is what it is.

The original Lefever had a 3 position safety,'
Middle postion was SAFE,

Forward was FIRE but was also an auto-safe postion,,so upon opening the gun the safety was pushed back automaticly from the forward FIRE position to the middle SAFE position.

Rear position is also FIRE but with out auto-safe feature. The safety will remain in the rear FIRE position when the gun is opened and then closed again. This feature was popular for use during Trap shooting and other shooting events such as live pigeon shoots.

The small screw hole just ahead of the safety and under the top lever is for a headless set screw that has a small point on the bottom end.
It's function was to 'lock' the safety into the rear FIRE position if wanted so there would be no chance of it being pushed forward to the SAFE position during a shoot,,possibly loosing a bird or points.
To do that the safety is pulled to the extreme rear Fire position and the small set screw is carefully turned in/down. There is a small hole in the safety bar under the tang that the point of the screw must engage to lock the bar and the safety into position. A bit of back a forth movement on the safety button at the same time you are turning the screw in helps to engage the two.

If the safety is stuck in the forward position,,then the auto-safe bar is either missing of positioned wrong under the tang, It works off the top lever movement to push it rearwards and so the safety to the sAFE position. No movement would seem it is missing and the safety itself may be jammed forward into some wood/wood repair perhaps.

If the safety is jammed in the rear SAFE position,,the small set screw may be in place and turned very deeply down in it's hole in the tang,,just doing it's job but out of sight.

A carefull examination and perhaps removal of the butt stock is necessary.
They are fairly simple as they are not thru side lock guns,,the side plates are just that,,false plates hiding a box lox action.

Hope this helps..

That may be exactly whats wrong .This gun is like new Its a 1901 h grade and the case coloring on the receiver looks like new .I was wondering what loads you can shoot in these Damascus barrels in this lefever .I wanted to reload some but couldn't find the low pressure loads.I like this shotgun my Grandfather loved these guns they are well made .I guess I need to fix the sliver of wood missing at the tang ,It probally wouldn't matter but don't want to bust this pretty stock.My favorite gunsmith just quit with this new oboma crap !

Yeah thanks the safety works again .Now to fix the sliver of wood missing on the tang and its like new again! Is this a low pressure only shotgun ?I wish i could find data for low pressure loads and just load them myself!

For real fun get yourself some brass cartridges and load black powder or substitute like I do for my ancient double hammer gun. Tons of fun.

Go here and sign up
http://www.doublegunshop.com/f...tlist&Board=1&page=1

Plenty of damascus bbl shotgun shooters and many discussions about different smokeless loads for vintage shotguns.
Lots of Lefever knowledge there too.

RST makes loads that will be fine in this gun