It did of course have new wood on it, the biggest danger in a lot of use to an old gun is the wood I believe.
The L C Smith is not the only gun which will crack stocks either, many will do so.
Piper I follow you for years here and respect agree with most of your writings but I believe that old wood danger is some thing come up by owners of Elsies and wrongly applyed with broad brush to all vintage guns. Kind of like misery loves company. I agree some box locks will get stock cracks from recoil or what ever but it is FACt that cracked stocks are the rule with LC rather than exception. You shoot sweet Elsie a lot with any thing but low recoil target type loads it's goimng to crack and not if but when. Many advise to glassbed the side plates and back of top tang to help with cracking. Yah right you got a classic vintage double gun and have to slobber its insides with modern epoxy. Or for hunting youd better not use what your buddy has in his parker , Fox or Ithica Nid. What a joke. The O.P asked which vintage guns are prone to problems when shot alot. Asked and answered for
american doubles.
