POTD: The Ithaca NID – The Underrated American Double

Welcome to today’s Photo of the Day! Here we have a high-grade trap gun from a company that built its name on giving the working man more gun than he paid for. This is an Ithaca New Ithaca Double, the NID, in Grade 5. Ithaca got started in 1880 in a water-powered shop on a gorge outside Ithaca, New York, and made its fortune building doubles on expired patents.

The gun that put them on the map was the earlier Flues model, designed by Emil Flues with only three moving parts per barrel. It was so cheap and so good that it became the best-selling American double of all time and pretty much shoved Remington out of the double-gun business. The NID, designed by Frank Knickerbocker, replaced the Flues in the mid-1920s and ran until 1948, when Ithaca gave up doubles for the Model 37 pump.

Ithacas were known for being strong and for lightning-fast lock time. The company loved to brag that their hammers fell in 1/625 of a second, quick enough that a bird flying 60 miles an hour moved barely an inch before the shot left. As Jack O’Connor put it, an Ithaca was a lot of gun for the money, selling for about half what a comparable Parker or Fox cost. This one is a Grade 5 trap gun, one of roughly 155 made, dressed in scroll and game-bird engraving with a long vent-rib barrel set up for the trap line.

Most of our POTDs utilize images from our friends at Rock Island Auction Company, the premier firearms auction in the United States. Take some time to browse their current auctions – who knows, maybe you’ll find a piece of history to take home!

“Factory Engraved and Silver Inlaid Ithaca New Ithaca Double Grade 5 Double Barrel Trap Shotgun.” Rock Island Auction, www.rockislandauction.com/detail/5032/628/factory-engraved-ithaca-new-ithaca-double-grade-5-trap-shotgun. Accessed 3 July 2026.

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