doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com LC Smith Quality 2

First, thanks for everyones input and sorry took so long it get back to you all.
I can not see any makers marks on the Damascus barrels, There may be a T but it could also just be a couple light chisel strikes.
I took the fore end metal back out of the wood to photograph the numbers, noticed besides the serial number it also has the grade 2 number so if it is a replacement I would assume it was done by Hunter Arms.
To be honest I bought the gun with the idea of just flipping it. I took it out today and shot a round of trap just to make sure of function. May have been a mistake, crushed 23 of 25 with low pressure 7/8 oz loads, this seems to be one of the most naturally pointing SxS's I own.
Are these early Smiths overbored? Cleaning patch is a loose fit compared to my other 12 gauges and a dime is loose at the muzzles but it breaks birds like full and full.
If I keep it I am going to have to get some work done on it, the left firing pin and bushing have been poorly replaced and will hang up or pierce the primer and the roller extractor seems to have a missing or broken spring, other than those 2 items the gun shoots great with nice trigger pulls.
If I decide to keep it any idea who to have do the work, my go to gunsmith would prefer to not work on LC's anymore.

Thanks again.

John
Obviously the original forend was lost off this gun at some point in time; and the entire forend is a later factory replacement. If you examine the fore iron metal on your gun, you'll see that it is wider at the base that the iron in David's photo. It became necessary to strengthen the fore irons on Smith guns after the development of their Type II ejector system; and sometime in 1901/02 the width of the fore iron base was widened. I don't know if/when the reinforced fore iron was incorporated onto manual extractor guns; but certainly by the 1913 grades transition this change was standard on all Smith guns. If you examine the photos David attached earlier of a Quality 2, and specifically examine the photo of the fore iron; you'll clearly see the differences I've tried to describe. Who knows when Hunter did this repair, but the company was obviously out of original Syracuse era parts when this repair was done; therefore a current production iron was adapted/modified to fit an old model Quality 2. Knowing this information just makes the old gun that much more interesting, and I'm glad to know she shoots well. And if you don't find anyone local to do those repairs, you might try Buck Hamlin but it'll be a wait. He's out in Colorado chasing elk at the moment; then there's deer season, rabbit season, turkey season, etc. so who knows when he might be ready to go back to work.

John, nice shooting. I would say that the for-end wood was a replacement done at Hunter Arms and serial numbered to the gun.

When I bought my 12 gauge Syracuse gun, the bores were shiny and I suspected they were honed, when I measured them the were .743 compared to the Hunter Arms ones of .729-.732. I think most of these old guns did have a larger bore for the wads used then.

It is common in older doubles of most makes to find oversize bores. I personally believe this was from the popularity of brass shells during this era. Due to thinner side walls brass shells required larger wads. Guns ordered for their use had oversize bores. Chamber dimensions were normally set for paper shells. There were exceptions however with some undersize chambers & brass hulls for use with standard bores & wads.

it is Not snabel- but schnabel- Der Deutsche worden fur "beak"- Der Fuchs!!

Thanks Runs always good to have a proof reader.

You are welcome--80 proof works for me- three fingers in a tumbler, rocks and a splash of branch water--read that "Charlie-Lima"!!