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

You picked a real honey to fix up. The mashed wood fingers at the head of the stock is unfixable short of splicing, which requires the talents of a real artisan, and the forend is in the same shape. Screws wallowed out, probably has some pits in the barrels just guessing. A hard-used old brown gun. Have fun and good luck…
JR

I’m seeing really decent English boxlocks selling for less than the presumed cost of a full blown restoration of an LC Smith. The debate about the worth of doing something like that with an LC Smith rages on (to those that rage, anyway, some of us walked away clean a long time ago) but, it would be hard for me to pretend any American double was the equal of even a middle of the pack ‘brummy boxlock.

I’m not buying said restoration, but, do hear another man’s opinion before opening your wallet and letting those thousand dollar bills blow into the weeds:

https://vicknairgunsmithing.blogspot.com/2016/01/an-unbiased-look-at-design-of-american.html

Best,
Ted

I hope there is not a previously repaired crack at the wrist





We (at least some of us ) are trying to help you know what you are getting into. There are lots of nice condition L.C. Smith 20g shooters out there for less than the cost of the full restoration.

53 caddy: You've been given some excellent information here. Consider it carefully.

I presently own 3 Elsies, a very early Quality 2 gun, a Quality 1 gun and a D-grade hammer gun (all pre-1913 and all 12s). I grew up with Elsie and have a nostalgic connection to her but...I don't live under any delusions about them. Mine are all big, heavy 12s that I have used successfully on targets. They would be fine in a duck blind (or on turkeys) and would be adequate for upland work (if you don't mind lugging all that extra weight). Because LC Smith has earned a rather-spotty reputation for problems in their lower-grade guns, I bought all of mine fairly reasonably and then utilized the services of a good gunsmith friend to sort them out (cleaning, minor repairs & cosmetics, and then inspecting the guns to insure mostly trouble-fee use going forward).

LC Smith made something like a half a million guns at Fulton, New York before the floor collapsed in 1949 and the factory was closed. The lion's share of them were the Field Grade models. While their sidelock design is touted widely as being a superior design, they are a very-rudimentary form of sidelock (w/none of the precision or safety mechanisms that made the British versions so famous) and it mostly lent itself to mass-production. The post-1913 guns were even further streamlined for mass-production and quality suffered accordingly. The earlier guns (pre-1890 & from Syracuse, NY) and the upper-grade guns are a different deal altogether, and even post-1913 there were some exceptional examples produced.

Their history is fascinating, some versions are shockingly beautiful, and the design was strong enough to have many survive to this modern day.

Proceed with caution.

Let's face facts here guys: this gun is a very, very poor candidate for restoration. The wood is trash, a restock is unrealistic unless the op has become obsessed with this, and the metalwork and barrels are a hard go as well, the latter being an unknown. People have to live and learn with these things. I think he will learn the hard way. Not saying anything here that most of you don't already know...
JR

Why be rude?

If it's not your cup of tea, just say YOU wouldn't do it.

Shitting on every person that has an old gun they are partial to is not the reason for this site.

You don't actually have any old shotguns anyway, Do you?
I see you hawking SBFG every time you go in there, and selling used target guns in the for sale section, but I can't recall you actually having an ownership interest in old shotguns that you've shared.

Just taking some sort of sinister glee in shitting on unwary posters.

clap, some refer to them as malcontents...

If, in your twisted world, this harms your sensibilities, I'll consider it worthwhile. Liberal loons like you see straightforward opinion as rudeness. It ain't, nor was it intended to be, so go sell crazy elsewhere.
JR

Says the resident maladroit.
JR

The collectables INDUSTRY relies on people doing what pleases them.
You just like to shit on other people for fun.

People that actually use vintage stuff get unimaginable pleasure from their accumulations.

Refurbishing "Grandpa's Old gun" has had innumerable well received articles in all of the publications some of us have supported for years, in the face of people like yourself.