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

That's very unusual for an L.C. Smith 12 ga to have a 2 3/4" Chamber stamp, they were always 2 3/4"
This period gun was assmebled after the floor collapse, and Marlin decided to close the operation in Fulton and move everything to New Haven, Ct. They lost key personnel in the move and it's quite possible "newer employees" not familiar with the practice stamped some barrels.
I have a circa 1946 Field Grade FW S1825 that doesn't have any stampings on the top of the barrels, but on the watertables has the serial number, Field and Hunter Arms proof mark.

To me this is what makes collecting and researching these guns interesting.

Here is a picture of the other side of the forend. I do not have the gun in front of me but am working on posting a picture of the barrel flats.
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I don't have a lot of LC experience with just having owned a 4-5, but my post war Ideal 12g ejector gun has a roller latch as above but the barrel lug is different. Rather than the sloped back with the round bottom centering hole for the spring, mine has a vee notch for the roller to engage.

So...what does the roller engage on the gun above? Could this be an assemblage of parts? Possibly the beavertail FE was from an ejector gun and they left the roller escutcheon on the forend just to fill the hole?

The roller latch on an LC Smith typically denoted a gun with factory installed auto-ejectors, however, it was the policy of Hunter Arms to also fit all graded post-1913 Smith extractor guns(those above Field grade, with the exception of those graded guns made with the Curtis Style "push button" forearm release during the teens); and continuing into the Marlin era, with the roller latch faster. Early graded extractor models will feature the "banjo" style escutcheon, while later madels will feature the oblong shaped escutcheon that is seen here; but the purpose of all gun fitted with a roller latch was to reinforce the fastening of the forearm to the barrels (remember Smith guns without this feature were often found with missing forearms). Prior to 1913, graded extractor guns featured a dogs head bakelite forearm inlay; and at a glance, were easily distinguished from Smith guns having auto ejectors.

Tg,
On the ejector guns with the roller latch, the forend lug has a vee notch in it for the roller latch to catch. How does the roller latch work (catch the barrel lug) when the lug is as shown in the picture?

Same principle same loop used on extractor/ejector Ideal Grade up. If the "J" spring was missing forend would still stay on, might be a little sloppy.

On a closer look at the picture of the forend lug, I think I can see the vee notch in the front. That matches my two ejector guns.

BTW, that beavertail looks just like one that I worked on yrs ago. I believe it's an original BT.