doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Hunter Arms LC Smith Field Grade--History?

I loaned my copy of the trad ed. of Houchins' fine book to a friend- but I am sure there were five brothers Hunter--just as I am sure there are TWO cough drop Smith brothers- Trade Smith and Mark Smith-- You are right- only my 1909 12 Grade 2 Smith has Crown steel barrels, the 1924 Specialty does have Nitro- and it has the "banjo-butt" shaped ejector metal escutcheon-- But I also have an older "transitional Syracuse to Fulton Grade 2E- some history on this Smith, as the original barrels were Damascus and it had the first series ejectors with the "clamshell release"-- The owner sent it to Fulton in 1927 and had it rebarreled with a set of 32" Nitro Steel barrels, ejectors, 32" F&F, barrels stamped 2E and the four digit sn of the gun stamped twice on the flats, one stamping in slightly higher case letters- it also has the reinforcing yoke (as on the LONGRANGE models)-- and a matching splinter forearm with black tip, but the ejector (May 1901 Pat'd style) and forearn relase is in the later rectangular shaped escutcheon-- lotsa variations over the years-

Thanks for all of your inputs. There was a video in Issue 5 of The Sporting Shot on-line magazine about both hot bluing and rust bluing processes used in the restoration of a Wnchester model 21 ( http://sportingshot.imirus.com/Mpowered/book/vsport10/i5/p1 ) The article containing the video starts on page 98. From your comments, it appears that the issue with hot bluing of soldered barrels is the potential for latent corrosion and possible delamination of the rib and barrrels if residual bluing salts are not properly rinsed out.

The video does suggest that one can obtain the same deep blue finish as hot bluing with a sufficiant number of passes. (In the case of the Model 21, 15 passes were done to "match" the hot blued frame.

By the way, the article about my unusual Marlin Model 90 Skeetking starts on page 68 in the same issue 5 of The Sporting Shot.