doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com 1915 LC Smith Field Grade questions.

Recently picked up a 1915 vintage LC Smith in 12ga that had been restored many years ago, and is in excellent condition.... I can see where stock was refinished, and a few hairline cracks fixed with expoxy etc. The barrels are in excellent condition, and the action is very tight, with lever still to right, etc. It's got auto ejectors, which is sort of rare on a field grade I hear.

I have bought some 1oz 2/34 DE loads for it, which should be sufficiently low recoil enough to safely shoot in the gun. I feel good using these for most smaller birds, rabbits, etc.

If I wanted to hunt pheasants with the gun, any recommendations on shells? Maybe look at RST? On the LC Smith collectors FAQ, it said try to keep pressure below 8500 psi.

Anyone using a gun like this for pheasants?

I also have a 1927 Vintage NID that is in almost new un-altered condition. It's my understanding that the NID's can take a little more punishment..... Maybe I just use the Elsie onsmaller birds, and the NID on pheasants.

Here is a pic of the LC Smith and my NID 12ga.

Nice guns, enjoy shooting them both. There are many in the L.C. Smith organization that shoot pheasants with their guns. The problem with going to higher velocity and heavier payloads is the wood behind the locks. If you want to shoot heavier loads I would suggest you have the inletted wood acgraglassed.

It's possible, that has already been done when the stock was refinished. I'd need to pull the side plates to do that.... May need to take a peek.

Here are my 16's..

1927 Fox Sterlingworth & a 1926 Ithaca NID.

The Fox has 28" barrels, and the NID 26". I had the stock on the Fox refinished by a master woodworker, as it has a small hairline crack in the wrist. Will probably have barrels re-blued at some point.

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.

Several years ago I took an 1899 grade 2 LC to South Dakota
I was with a group shooting 3 in auto loaders. Everyone of them was shocked how well "weak" shells were dropping birds.
I shot B&P 2.5 in High Pheasant loads in #6.

There is a fairly well know LC Smith restorer, gunsmith down in Pevely MO, I may swing the gun by him to take a look at it. I may have him do the restore work I want done on my Sterlingworth barrels as well.

BTW, this is my first Elsie, and it appears to have what is called the FW action, as it has the smaller lug, and rounded receiver, etc.
http://www.lcsmith.org/faq/frames.html

I don't see the 2.5" shells on their website. What oz load/velocity were these? RST sells 1 oz 1150 velocity #6 shot in 2.75" shells. I would imagine something like this would work fine, as long as I do my part.

Looks like an old Victor paper-mache mallard decoy? You have some nice shotguns...Geo