DevRep,
Your right, there is a crack right behind the appex of the right sidelock plate. As most everyone knows this is probably the most common "injury" our beloved Elsies endure. As it was explained to me by the man who inspected this beauty after I bought it that the U shaped channel in the stock that the lever bolt goes down through is often times paper thin. It should also be noted that L.C. Smiths guns did not recieve any finish on the inletted portions of the stock, i.e. bare wood. So, any oil that was shot through the firing pin holes would thus penetrate raw wood and made an already fragile area that much more weak.
Once that U shaped channel cracks which we can call the 1st phase(if paper thin on some guns, would't take much shooting at all) the next phase of injury as I will call it is a crack behind one of the appex's of the sidelock plates. If left in this condition and the gun was still in service the next phase to crack was behind the top tang. THEN, the final blow, was that the crack behind the sidelock plate and the crack behind the top tang would then meet up somewhere back in the stock and then you pretty well have a major problem
The "evolution" of the crack process was explained to me in great detail by Dr. Bill Hambidge, whom was the one who took this gun apart and inspected it. Of course other things can and do occur and thus various cracks and other damage can occur for different reasons. If I made a mistake in the explaination of the cracking evolution on L.C. Smiths, it was my fault, as I am going by memory from what Bill explained to me that he has learned through out the years of him fixing this very problem.
It is a shame the gun has this situation, but it's been corrected and the damage will not go further. The gun (other than this issue) is in fine shape and I was and still am tickled to own it.
