doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com LC Smith

I think Marlin's mistake may have been making the gun in 12ga. Back then, there were bunches of 12ga Elsies on the market for not a lot of money. If they'd brought it out as a 20--far fewer of those produced, compared to 12's, in any of the old American classics--it might have sold better.

By 1968, the sxs market in the States had started to revive somewhat. The Ithaca SKB's were selling well. There were decent European imports again, from Beretta, Bernardelli, Sauer, etc. And Browning wasn't long from making the plunge with its Miroku-made BSS.

Re prices, I bought an Ithaca SKB 150 in 1972, new, for $162. That was a military rod and gun club price, so I'm sure normal retail was somewhat higher. My other option at the same club was a 101 for $190.

Larry, I bought my 20ga SKB 500 about that time for $180 from wholesale distributer. Use it a lot.

I worked at Marlin in '71 when they were still putting those LCS shotguns together. They were a source of problems to them then and shortly there after they stopped assembling them.

The stocks were glass bedded with a brown epoxy mixture. The brand name on the epoxy was 'Walter Kidde',,I can still see the box,,,a hardware brand that still sells everything from nuts and bolts to sweaters & gloves.
The same epoxy was used to bed the stock head, lock plates and bbl rib.
Once the stock & metal parts were in place,,the assembler used the same stuff to glue the vent rib to the bbls.
If needed, the forend assembly was glass bedded to the forend wood for a better fit also.
Ribs were from PolyChoke if I remember right.
The bbl assembly w/o the ribs was polished and hot-salt blued first after it was fit to the frame. Then the aluminum rib was glued in place. Modern time saving methods at work.

The actual assembly of the shotgun parts was done by the same person. Might sound a bit odd,,but all the other firearms are done in sub assemblys,,then those are sent along to a final assembler who puts those together.

There was a problem with the bbls,,the chambers would blow out on occasion during proof.
We had a secure/ locked area in the parts loft over the repair and range that contained those that had met that fate. The area was mearly a chain link fenced off section so you could plainly see the shotguns lined up there,,some lying on the floor.
I never heard of one coming back from a customer like that. Perhaps they did and went directly to their 'room'. Not something for show and tell around the office.

Only 2 people assembled the LCS when I was there. I can't recall their names. They along with a few others also assembled centerfire lever action rifles,,doing that was considered the top job of the assemblers.

Working on the LCS's was an extra project, so they were scheduled separate work time for the shotguns. The fact that the epoxy needed to cure made it so that a few guns were started (glued up!) and set aside untill the next time they'd be scheduled to work on them. Could be the next day,,might be a couple days later. It was not a continuous assembly line.

Many assembled guns would come back from the range with problems of doubling, misfires, won't fire, ect. Those were worked on by the same 2 assemblers to make right. They were not brought into the repair dept where I worked that I recall though we had a complete inventory of parts for them except the bbls and frames.
Those parts were for warrantee work.

No original LCS were accepted for work anymore either. Originals were returned to their owners with a note stating 'no parts available' though there were thousands of parts in stock from the smallest screw to complete bbl sets and frames.

Just as well really. A request to restore would get the customers shotgun disassembled and the metal sent to the polishing room then off to the bluing room,,the stock and forend over to the 'wood room'. The parts were sent through the factory processes that the 336 and model 60 got. Machine polish metal, machine sanded wood, hot salt blue, spray finished wood. Then back to Repair for reassembly.
I remember well one sorry looking Crown grade.
Col. Brophy put a stop to 'repairing and restoring' original LCS shotguns at Marlin. If it's not going to be done right, then don't do them.
The people that ran Marlin were strictly business people and there was no time for restoring collector guns. It didn't make money.

In truth there were only 2 people there at the time that really knew the old LCS. John Miller and Larry Sisson. John was in his early 60's then. Larry was 74 but kept working dispite emphysema that cut his work days in half some of the time . He'd always worked in the CT gun industry and his first 'gun' job was with Winchester in 1914. Pretty neat guys to have a bench next to.
If any of the new LCS's came back in for work (warrantee), it was John Miller that generally worked on them in the Repair Dept.
He still had his set of LCS tools from the first time Marlin made the 'Smith.

Sorry for the long post,,just rambling.

I thought your post was very interesting Kutter. Could have been longer yet.

Thanks Kutter for the post, I remember you posting this information a few years back about the "glue gun" that Marlin built in the 70's under the guise of an L.C. Smith.......

I for one was hoping you would pop up and post this story again, first hand experience is always best, seeing is believing.......

Thanks Again and Merry Christmas to You and Yours,