doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com NRA magazine article FUBAR

The problem with articles like this one is that people accept the "facts" within it and will quote it for years. Too many "facts" are out there already and there is no excuse for so many errors. A quick review of the article by one of a dozen real experts would have corrected just about all the errors in it and taken only an hour with emails. Lazy to not do it right and the nra needs to print corrections.

I'm continually astonished that most screen media producers aren't aware that their audience is "a nation of firearms aficionados"!* My favorite is when a TV show or movie switches the hero's handgun between frames. Sometimes from an automatic to revolver or vice-versa....

I guess that's what the channel changer is for?

*(PC for gun nuts)

Yesirre troops- one of the biggest gun writer mistakes was claiming that the great Winchester Model 1912 (from 1912 to aprox 1919) was the "predecessor" to the Model 12, much in the same manner as the fact that the Winchester M54 was, indeed, the predecessor to the great M70 CF rifle. Another fubar is F*S shotgun writer Phil Bourjaily- best duck guns article- claiming that Thomas Crossley Johnson "revised and re-vamped the Browning M1893 and M1897 into the hammerless Model 12- BS- Johnson started from scratch on that "Perfect Repeater", the only thing he "borrowed from Johm Moses Browning's design was the 90% interrupted thread barrel/receiver take-down design-BS is out there, and not just from the politicos--

I would like to hear from this AR technical writer who made so many L.C.Smith mistakes as well as publishing a picture of a .410 Parker and representing it as a Smith. The biggest snafu is that the AR does not publish individual email addresses for authors. Even the local Commie Rag publishes email addresses.

Well, if they had a patent on it, they must have figured some way around the Remington patent of 1894 for cracking stocks.

Three of my Four 12 gauge L.C. Smiths were made prior to 1912-A OOE, 1906, a Pigeon with AE, and a Grade 2E-all with double triggers- all have been well used but well cared for, before they came into my custody- None have any cracks anywhere in the buttstock- the Pigeon has a straight hand grip- two of the three, as having ejectors and splinter forearms, have a slight crack at the rear of the forearm, the small set screw can sometimes cause a surface crack, more tension on the forearm anvil with an ejector gun than with the same gun with extractors, IMO- The 4th 12 gauge was purchased at the Sagola SC shoot in June 2010, Father's Day week-end- My Parker 12 GHE went "South" with the internal cocking slide- so I bought this Ideal FWE from a gun dealer- it is the only FW frame Smith I own at present-28" choked Imp. Cyl. and Mod- solid raised rib, first offered in 1939- and DT-It has replaced the Parker GHE as my numero uno side-by-side SC and also pheasant gun-No cracks anywhere either- I think and pouring Hoppe's oil down the muzzles, and standing the shotgun muzzles upward in the gun safe, the oil permeating into the stock head, is one possible cause of cracks-the other is using too heavy loads in a sidelock- if you want to shoot the big bang loads, get an Ithaca NID, a Model 21 or a A.H. Fox HE--not a Smith--

While the Smith's may crack behind the locks, every Parker or Fox or British boxlock I've worked on was split inside. They just hide it better.

Mark11 must not work on many english boxlock or parker guns. usually over oiled if there is a problem.

I've seen many Parkers with the bolt through the head of the stock. Many. Many LCs with the crack behind the lockplates. Many, many.
In fairness, most are very old guns, most have been used hard, and received sqaut for care.
That said, I will happily leave the "American classics" to them that wants 'em.
Enjoy.

Best,
Ted

Nick Makinson, http://nickmakinson.com, told me years ago that the reason so many Smiths are cracked at the same place is that they are true sidelocks, and that all sidekicks are prone to this very same cracking if the hand pin, I think is what he called it, is allowed to get slackness. He was trained in the English gun trade, did his apprenticeship with B. Wild and Son in B'ham, and worked in the trade until bringing his family to Canada in the early '80s. I respect his opinion as much as I would any gunmaker trained in the English gun trade. He told me flat out, "The L.C. Smith is no more prone to cracking the wood behind the lock plates than any other sidelock gun".

He holds the L. C. Smith in high regard ....................... much to the dismay of many Anglophiles here.

SRH