doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com L.C.Smith SxS Stock ?

Slow down guys, let Dr. Brown post one clear photo and there won't be any need for half guesses.

I have a lettered Gr. 2E from 1896 that weighs 8 lbs. 15 ozs. I wondered why it was so heavy and removed butt plate, there is a 3/4" hole, who knows how deep, that is filled with lead.
The letter specifies guns weight at 9 lbs and in another column, "Very Close Shooter". so this was done at the factory.

As for the "R" suffix, no one knows, anyone's guess.

The easiest way to tell a Regular frame from a Fetherweight frame is the number of screws on the left lock, one for Regular Frame and 2 for FW frame.

Frome the LC Smith Collector's page:

L.C. Smith serial numbers, as they are related to year of manufacture, are confusing. Serial number information before 1890 is not available. During the period of 1891 to 1916, many numbers are not sequential with blocks of overlapping numbers assigned to different types of shotguns, such as hammerless ejector guns. Starting in 1917, serial numbers of all types, gauges, and grades are intermixed. Adding to the confusion is that some pre-1913 ejector guns have an �E� at the end of the number, while others do not. Others have the suffix �R� (on both regular and featherweight frames). Many other inconsistencies occur. Serial numbers for the L.C. Smith Gun Company (1946-50) started with FWS1 and ended with FWS 56800. Serial numbers for the period of 1946 through 1950 include Hunter and Fulton shotguns. Serial numbers of guns produced by the Marlin Firearms Company (1968-71) had a prefix of FWM. The data in the following table were adapted from Brophy (1977). Unfortunately, serial numbers for hammerless non-ejector shotguns from about 23000 to 30000 have been lost. You will need to know if the shotgun is pre-1913 or later gun because some of the early serial numbers were repeated in later years. You can determine if it is a pre-1913 or later by comparing information given under Grades of Shotguns on this website. With a little time and perseverance, you should be able to determine the year of manufacture, but remember that all serial numbers are not in the records.

Good Evening Norm:

Sorry I have not gotten to post an image of my 1914 L.C. Smith SxS in 12 Gauge as yet. However, I would like to acknowledge all of the accurate information and images that have been presented by Dr. Hause, which I have found to be extremely heplful towards solving the question of why my Featherweight action reflects the letter "R" stamped just after and adjacent to the gun's serial number.

At this point there remains no question but that gun No. 347,6XX is in fact a Featherweight model by L.C.Smith. The conclusive feature being the slide lock plate with the five holes and the pointed top apex of the side plate.

As Dr.Hause mentioned earlier, it may well be that the letter "R" in this instance stamped onto a F.W. frame perhaps is to indicate the Curtis style forend latch which, in fact, this gun does have.

Best regards,

Dr. W.E. Brown

Dr. Brown:

Dr. Drew is a wonder. He's compiled photos and information that always comes in handy when trying to figure out Smith-related questions.

If you can, post pics of your Smith - some of us always like looking at them.

Best wishes.

I'm not sure LC Serial #s went as high as the 300,000 here. Is it possible the last number is a 0 or 00?

Yeah, there were serial numbers in the 300000s.

Norm:

I have taken a number of photos of the L.C. Smith 12 Ga. SxS which is the subject of this thread. In addition, I invited a knowledgable Elsie collector to view the gun and asked him to render his opinion as to its frame, which is marked with a letter "R".

Apparently, notwithstanding features which would be present on a Featherweight gun, this particuler gun is not a Featherweight, but rather a "transional" gun that has a regular frame. It seems that the person who inspected the gun today believes that some parts which are purely from a Regular frame were put together with parts from a Featherweight.

I attempted to post some of these images today, but could not determine the proper process to follow in order to down-load the file from my hard drive.

Any assistance would be appreciated.

If you'll send the images by jpg attachment to revdoc2@cox.net I'll post them for you.

Dr. Hause;

An E-mail message has been sent with four photos as attachments.

Thank you for assisting.

Dr. W.E. "Webb" Brown

TroutnPheasant@gmail.com