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

Beautiful gun. The floating duck makes me think of the last light of the day and how quiet it is after the din of the day has settled down.

Tamid, I have a Field Grade 12 ga. Longrange 3" with 32" barrels choked like yours, full/full (.041 & .042) Mine has the Hunter One Trigger and ejectors also with the re-enforced loop. Mine is 1 of 30 Filed Grades made in this configuration. I had done a pattern testing for Dr. Drew and Dr. Jim for an article they were writing for our Journal about the hyberbole of the Longrange killing ducks at 80 yards. I drew a duck inside a 30" circle (flying) and using my range finder set the target on a stake 80 yards away. The reloads I used were from the Alliant site using 3" Winchester hulls 41.5 grs. Blue Dot powder, Win. 209 primer, Win. WAA12SL wad, with 1 3/8 oz. shot. Velocity 1361 fps., 7800 psi.
At 80 yards with the naked eye it looked the size of a Starling. I have pictures of the results but off the top of my head can't remember except I remember 1 pellet hitting near the heart and one possibly breaking a wing.
The recoil was awful, shooting in the summer with just a tee shirt on, only fired two shells, enough for me. This was supposed to replicate the load used when the 3" Longrange was made. I'm guessing, but at 80 yards say at a Canvasback going full bore the lead must be the length of a bus.
I've owned the gun for 20 years and that is the only shells I have fired in it, at the time I thought it would be neat to have.......

Stan, with the HOT and ejectors that is a rare gun. After 1912 the No. 3 was discontinued.

Yes it is, David. RWTF, Francis Morin, offered it to me a few years before he passed on. He had consigned it to Bachelder who took those pictures.

BTW, would you happen to know the earliest application of a vent rib by LC Smith?

Stan, I believe it was in 1926 when the single barrel trap gun came out. The patent number is 1,603,761. I could not find it.

Did you notice the vent rib on the above 3E? I think I remember Francis saying that he had another set of barrels that were original to the gun. Maybe they were the first set and the set I have was ordered after 1926.(?)

Bro. David is close.
When the Double Barrel Trap gun was introduced in 1920, the 'Trap Package' included a flat BTFE, then optional Schnabel in 1922, with the reinforced barrel lug, AE, HOT, and in 1925 a ventilated rib (designed by Stephen J. Gilles the General Manager), with two ivory beads, and recoil pad. Parker offered a VR on their doubles starting in 1923. I believe on introduction in 1925 the Ithaca NID could be ordered with a VR.

Stan, I did not pay attention and did not see the ventilated rib. I believe that gun could have been sent back to Hunter Arms for the rib at a later time.

I believe it was sent back for this barrel set, the second one fitted to it, after "vent ribs" became available. AIR, Francis once told me that the first barrel set was 30" and that he had gotten Brad Bachelder to refit it to another Smith gun he had. I wish there had been some way for me to acquire that first barrel set and have it refitted to it's original action, but that's water over the dam.