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LC Smith shotgun experts...need some help
CS8161
Member Posts: 13,596 ✭✭✭
Just took this old scattergun in on consignment, don't know anything about these shotguns, any idea on what its worth, or what model it is? The hammers do not stay cocked and there are numerous cracks and splits in the stock...is it basically just a wall hanger?
Here is the link:
http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/ViewItem.asp?Item=143532438
Looked it up on LC Smith websight, made in 1914, thanks LAXCOACH!
Here is the link:
http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/ViewItem.asp?Item=143532438
Looked it up on LC Smith websight, made in 1914, thanks LAXCOACH!
Comments
You need to seek the advice of Elmer J. Fudd... he was a well known card carrying L.C. Smith aficionado.
In the condition you desrible... my vote is to use it for a tomato stake in next years garden[;)]
What you have is an F grade gun, the entry level hammer gun. If you go to lcsmith.org, you can determine the year of manufacture from the serial number.
Value? Having been badly abused over the years, its value is considerably diminished---- probably a little more than a pristine Winchester 21 or an unfired pre-64 Supergrade M70 !
Just took this old scattergun in on consignment, don't know anything about these shotguns, any idea on what its worth, or what model it is? The hammers do not stay cocked and there are numerous cracks and splits in the stock...is it basically just a wall hanger?
Here is the link:
http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/ViewItem.asp?Item=143532438
It's an L.C. Smith/Hunter Arms Co. Hammer Gun, Type II. With no engraving or deluxe wood it's one of the lower grades. Brophy's book shows the following serial number ranges by year of manufacture.
1895: 27,766-29,999.
1895-1898: 50,500-57,999.
1900-1902: 79,000-89,999.
1902-1918: 125,000-179,841.
After 1918 hammer gun sn's are mixed with hammerless and they cannot be seperated.
John
First you need to understand that 'ol Bert has taken too many unintended salt water baths. He sinks perfectly good boats and calls it submerging but I know better. Fact is, Bert's line descends from the only surviving member of the CSS Hunley's crew.
Remus Nemo (Swimmer) Hartman was claustrophobic and sat on a deck chair attached to the bridge of the Hunley. He suffered the good fortune to fall into the bay before his sub cleared the jetty. The rest of the crew signed on for a 140 year voyage as we all know.
Remus' son Julias Witherspoon (Bubbles) Hartman was also a career submariner and contributed with some success to the design of the Titanic. As with his father, he didn't make the maiden voyage as he was prone to seasickness.
Rumor even has it that the Edmund Fitzgerald was designed by one of the Hartmans. Sherlock Ahab (Foghorn) Hartman was considered a failure because the Fitz actually floated for many years before becoming a submarine. He spent a number of years in an undisclosed institution so I understand.
Now to your Elcee...
Fluid tubes and repairable, but not worth the time, expense, and bother. As has been pointed out, a low grade field gun. (Low grade for a Smith being better than most anything else on the market at the time.) I suspect the lock problems are due to the broken wrist. Again, not a real problem from the mechanical standpoint, but a deal breaker overall.
Right now and probably forevermore I expect the individual parts will be worth more than the gun. The buttstock cannot be replaced with another because each was hand fitted to an individual gun.
Value?
The tubes alone might bring $100.00+ to someone in need of them. The locks will also command a few dollars as will the frame and triggers.
But the gun as it presently exists is a $100.00 wallhanger. Obviously it's possible that someone might offer more, but the value is VERY low!
Still a better gun than one of Bert's M-21's.[;)]
Elmer J. Fudd
over who made the better shotgun. But I suspect each has bought the other more then one drink of single malt scotch in the last 20 years. If every thing they printed on this forum was true one would have certainly have choked the other by now and we would have lost one or both of the most knowledgeable GUYS here.
.
Did you ever read one of Pat McMannus' books wherein he speaks of his best friend Crazy Eddie Muldoon? It seems that Pat and Eddie built a submarine and tested it in Eddie's farm pond with mixed results. (They did the same with an airplane off the barn roof, but that's another story.
Anyway... The little known fact is that Pat has hidden the true identity of Eddie all these years and that Bert Hartman is the actual person depicted in his stories. Which, of course, tends to explain Bert's somewhat erratic behavior and his questionable taste in firearms.[;)]