BUT, Hey Don, 50 years using the same gun, WOW!! We need photos and a chronology of you and the LC 16. When/How did you get it and the highlights of the years with the LC. Don't let us down, that will be a great story. Randy
The gun belonged to my Dad. He as the second owner. The first owner was a Doctor Seagraves, from Era, Texas, who bought the gun new. He was an old country doctor who made his rounds in a buggy. He carried the L.C. Smith with him in the buggy.
His Grandson and my Dad were best friends all their lives. The families were very close friends.
For reasons that I am not clear about, the Doctor left instructions to have the gun given to my Dad upon the death of the Doctor. The was in the late '30s or early '40s.
Dad went into the Army in 1943 and I was born in 1945.
Dad was not a bird hunter in the true sense of the word. He was a pot hunter and rarely shot at birds on the wing. However, several of his friends were excellent wing shots. He killed a lot of quail and upland plovers, but not many in the air.
After the war was over, Dad got a job as the foreman on a ranch in Arizona. When I got old enough to be the "bird dog" for Dad's friends, he would take them hunting for Gambel's Quail. While I picked up the birds from the wing shooters, Dad would stay a the pickup and shoot quail that ran by on the ground with the ole Smith. Yes, there were that many quail. The coveys had hundreds of birds.
He used the ole gun for all types of critters at the ranch, rattlesnakes, skunks, coons, and even large red bats. They would roost in the eves of the ranch building. Dad would take the shot out of the shells and replace it with rock salt to shoot the bats and not damage the buildings.
We moved back to Texas when I was 10 years old. I started using the ole gun when it was 12. I killed my first flying doves and quail with it and I killed a lot of ducks with it over the years. It was the only shotgun I had for several years and I got pretty good with it. I regularly took limits(on the wing) of Quail,Doves and Ducks with it. I even used it for trap and sheet.
When I was 16, I bought a Browning Double Auto and used it for trap and skeet. I bought a 12 gauge Model 12 Skeet Grade for skeet when I was 18 and a 12 gauge Model 101, 30" Field Grade for trap when I was 19. As they say the rest is history.
Dad liked to go hunting with me, but he rarely carried a gun. He loved to watch the dogs work the quail.
One time, he did carry the ole Smith on a quail hunt with me. I was using the Model 12 and had killed a couple of quail on the covey rise in the corner of a hog pasture. The dog retrieved one of the birds but we were having trouble finding the other one. Dad leaned the Smith against the wooden fence of a hog pen nearby and came to help find the bird. The dog finally found it. We then heard grunting of a hog and looked around to see a 500 pound sow carrying the L.C. Smith in her jaws by the stock with the barrels sticking straight out to the side! This went on for several minutes. Needless to say, there were some major concerns until that ole sow decided to let go of the gun. The only damage to the Smith were tooth marks left in the butt stock. They are an interesting reminder of a great day in the field with my Dad.
I have still continued to use the L.C. Smith for a few hunts every year. It has become my go to Turkey gun.
I'm sure that is more than you wanted to know.
