doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com LC With Nice Original Case Colors

Picked up another LC Smith for the collection. Found my first ejector gun,it is a 1927, serial # RE9742X regular frame that is in resonable shape.
What makes it unusual to me is the amount of nice original case colors,most I have seen in the field grades have been pretty faded.Gun does not appear to be used much, looks like mainly hunting use with a fair amount of field scratchs and dings.
Wood is decent with no cracks. Negatives is stock was cut for a recoil pad and barrels have some dents that will need to be addressed. Gun is very tight,barrels ring tru and ejectors are strong and timed well,almost lost one of my snap caps trying them out.
Gun has done some traveling over the years, recoil pad is from a gunsmith in Santa Monica CA, I picked it up from an auction in IL,now its in MD.
Was wondering if there is any special maintenance that needs to be done for the ejectors?
Also anyone in the Maryland area that has experiance in barrel dent removal or know of a close by resonable smith to do the work.
Thanks,
John

Very nice colors! As to the ejectors, if they presently work as designed; I'd leave them alone. The main thing to remember about Smith ejectors is to NEVER remove the fore iron without cocking the gun first (many a cocking rod has been broken and many a fore end wood cracked by someone trying to force a forend back onto a Smith gun with the hammers in the fired position). If you plan to have the gun serviced/repaired by a good double gunsmith, just have him check the ejector parts for any potentianl problems and lubricate properly. I would sure plan to loose that Pachmayer white-line pad and replace it with something period; a Hawkins, NoShoc, Silvers, etc.

John,

I suggest you go to http://www.lcsmith.org and join the smith collectors group. With or without doing that if you post there asking your questions about gunsmithing you'll quickly get an answer. Lots of helpful Elsie folks there ready to help. Welcome. I too recently this week bought my 3rd Smith. 1940 Field Grade in nice shape but needs a refinish job to make it look near new. Good luck. Dennis in NH

John,
Nice indeed. I like the Regular frame guns. Looking at your picture and if I'm not mistaken, yours is about the fourth one that I have seen with the wood problem on both sides of the trigger near the receiver. I have a Longrange that has the same problem, not heat, not oil, don't know. If you decide to try and remove it let me know how deep your's is. Mine was shallow and I should have used Acra Glas but used a hardened filler instead. One of these day I will do it better.
This is before.

Bruised wood/barbed wire...Geo

George is likely correct

My 06' 00


A Baker


A Colt 1883


A Parker VH


Comparing another sidelock (the Baker) and two boxlocks (Colt and Parker), it is apparent that there is a 1/2" of exposed wood between the receiver and the trigger guard on the LC. It seems likely the wood scarification is simply the result of abrasion and crushing, the accumulation of dirt and oil from gloves and fingers, and possibly being hung on a nail in the barn.

Thanks for the input. I also think the wood is scared from wire or hanging on a nail. The trigger guard has very nice blue except for some scratchs at the front that could have come from barbed wire. Gun seems to have a fair amount of rough carry wear but very little shooting wear.
I would love to put a vintage pad on it but the stock was cut a lot,don't know if a vintage pad would be thick enough without a spacer, added a pic from the side so you can see how much it was cut.
Fits me fine as is and the first round of trap I shot with it shot a 24, points very well.
Thanks,John

John: please see http://www.lcsmith.org/faq/recoilpad.html
The Galazan Silver's style pad comes in 1 1/2"
Item # PP006 http://www.connecticutshotgun.com

Those are unusually strong colors and certainly not redone or the bottom would be more like the top. I'll go along with the barbed wire or hanging nail theories and suggest maybe also a lot of leaning over the edge of a duck boat. Most guys around these parts abused the buttplates in pushing down barbed wire, and I personally go out of my way to avoid the barbs. Topgun is absolutely correct about not forcing the forend on an uncocked gun. It's not hard to remove it in that state but can and will be damaged while forcing back on. Brophys' L. C. Smith Shotguns shows a simple tool that can be used to manually cock an uncocked Smith. I don't know if anybody makes one, but it was fairly easy for me to make one from the pictures in the book. I last used mine in January after I bought a field grade FW from a guy struggling to get his forend back on.

Tall guys go over a bob-wire fence and push down the top strand with the gun-butt; vertically challenged folks like me go through the fence by pushing down the second strand usually with the gun. Done it a million times...Geo