If the stock head was properly glassed and reinforced at the time the stock was refinished, your Smith can/will handle pheasant loads with ease. In one of my past restoration/experimentation projects, I restored a battered 1903 vintage Grade 5E Smith that still had a solid set of 32" barrels and good engraving. The gun was restocked to my tastes in the original Hunter style using exhibition English; and the chambers of its 32" barrels were lengthened to 3" (ample wall thickness to do so). This gun was to be a shooter so I made sure the stock head was properly bedded. The result was that the gun absorbed with ease every load I used to include the occasional 3" mag. This was a beautiful gun, and on those days when I could calculate the correct lead; that gun would drop doves at 60 yards plus. Some of the most memorial trips I've had afield were with that Smith; and looking back, I'm at a loss now to understand why I traded it away? Just badly afflicted with "doublegunitis" I suppose; as it seems in those days I was forever looking for the next best thing once the "shine" was gone from whatever it was I already owned.
