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

I am not a huge Elsie fan, but do have a Specialty which was set up as a trap gun and is one which I use on box birds. Mine has excellent wood as well (though not quite as spectacular as yours), and like yours, none of the usual stress cracks behind side plates. That seems to be typical of a lot of Specialties and I wonder if it has anything to do with the quality of the stocks one often sees on these models and many of the higher grades. I was also taken by the specialty's engraving. I seems to me to be the most and best proportioned of any of the middle grade guns. In any case, congratulations on a fine gun.

There is no doubt that in time that gun stock will crack. Such a nice stock will be a real heart breaker when it happens. To save you the very upsetting loss, that I am sure that you will soon endure, I will take that gun off your hands for $500.00. Please send the gun with M/O to my home. I will shoot it and suffer the painful loss in your place. I hope that I can stand it when it happens and am willing to risk it.

That is about as nice a Specialty Grade as you will ever see. What do you suspose that would retail for today if made in the US? $5,000, $7,500, or how much more.

WAIT A MINUTE KY Jon...

My 1894 vintage L.C. Smith "O" grade has been shot a few thousand times by me and god only knows how many previous owners the old girl has had. Mine hasn't cracked in 112 years.
So stating "There is no doubt that in time that gun stock will crack" is a pretty bold statement.

Craig

CraigF, I guess you didn't see the graemlin with the big grin on it's face.

Yep, you got me there

Craig

Thank you all for the posts and info,I have a bit more news.In the spirit of Football Sunday;
"Upon further review"
It does indeed have a inlay of metal in the rib,here are two pictures (one bad and one worse)
its about 2 inches up the rib,I thought it was a scratch in the rib but there is an inlay of silver ?white gold? platinum? (hey a guy can dream )



another piece of info is the serial number ,when I went to book it in and use the frame its is FWS251XX. I am assuming that would be feather weight?
again many thanks for all the posts,
KY would you require a Postal money order or would a bank check do? Maybe I better just send cash,I will need mailing address and can't thnk you enough for insuring against my certain heartbreak .
best,
Dave K

Yes, it is a featherweight frame. That is easy to tell from looking at the pictures. I don't think they made the Regular frames at that point in time.

I don't know much about the Smiths but that is ONE beautiful gun.

Well since I know you so well and am willing to do you a favor to begin with I guess I could trust you to write me a check. Since you are so reasonable lets drop the fee to $450.00. Call it a 10% friendly discount.

On a more serious note you do think that is the original stock, right? I think so also. A few of us here note that sometimes very late production guns have wood far above their grade from several different makers. That blank would have been at home on the highest Smith ever made. I wonder if it was put on this gun as a "favor" to the buyer or maybe just to use up a high grade blank that was never going to be used on a higher grade gun as their sales dropped off to almost nothing towards the end. Once again I wish these gun could talk.

A silver bar? It's gold, for Pete's sake. I've looked at it a hundred times, handling and cleaning and just waiting in the blind, so I took it out again for a real good look. Yep---it's silver.