Especially since it is an L. C. Smith.
KR-----Especially true since L.C. Smith, a.k.a. Hunter Arms, USED SOME LONDON STEEL barrels
I scrolled through Drew's post fairly quickly, but I'm not sure that a name like "London Steel" tells us as much about the quality as when you've got the name of the manufacturer of the steel stamped on the barrel (as in Krupp, Whitworth, Siemens-Martin, etc). Not that "London Steel" is cheap stuff, but given that it was used on 0 Grade guns, it's probably safe to assume that it was not made by someone like Whitworth. Later on, when Hunter switched to names rather than numbers for the various grades, London Steel was used on the Ideal Grade, while Nitro Steel barrels were used on the Specialty and Crown Grades. You didn't get Whitworth Steel until you got to the Monogram Grade. To me, Nitro Steel sounds less prestigious than London Steel, but price would seem to indicate Nitro must have been a step up. Or maybe just a different name for the same stuff.
Last edited by L. Brown; 11/01/11 05:48 PM.
