"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"
That gunsmith would be Buck Hamlin, and Buck is the individual who performed the restoration and stock work on the 5E Smith gun I referenced in my previous post. You won't go wrong choosing Buck, and you can count on Buck to be completely honest. If you do choose Buck, I'd suggest you call in advance of your visit - 636/479-4304.
I called Buck one day a couple weeks ago, just to make sure he's still down there and all. Got to talk guns with him for quite a while, seems like a really nice guy. One of those salt of the earth types....
My smith, definitely has the FW receiver. I read somewhere on here, that Smith did not start putting the FW designation in front of the serial number until about 1918 or so. My gun is a 1915, and only has an "E" on it, no FW. But, it's definitely the FW frame.
More than likely, I'll just use my NID if I want to shoot anything heavier, or I have a nice contraption called a Beretta AL391 Urika II that will handle heavy loads if I have to. And, I shoot that gun pretty darn good usually. It's just doesn't put the same smile on my face as a SxS does.... :-)
