LC Smith Markings

jlm1943

Question concerning marking and serial number on a LC Smith field grade Wild Fowl, 32 barrels marked armor steel on both full choke barrels. Right barrel marked LC Smith Field Grade, left barrel Marked Hunter Arms Co.Inc MFRS Fulton. NY. USA. Lug marked Wild Fowl, barrel serial number 197579 with stamped initials RLB next to a cross cannon and a flaming bomb stamp. Serial number on forearm 197579, serial number on action R 197579 Field, LC Smith on both side plates. Also there is a stamp on both barrels that looks like a Large P crooked N & small a and 09 inside a box with NP under each box. Barrel blue 95+ percent, case 85, stock has been replaced. Any idea if this is a military and what year of production.

nord

Looks like 1941. Military markings. If I had to guess I'd say artillery, but maybe not quite what we think. AA batteries had to learn their trade somewhere, it's just their birds were aluminum.

While I have no previous knowledge of doubles being used (and nice ones at that), someone and something had to be used to train troops to make wing shots.

Too bad the stock has been replaced, but the gun is far from worthless.

Nord

PS - The post below reminds me... R = Standard frame. Very likely chambered for heavy loads.

Herschel

According to L. C. Smith Shotguns by Brophy, the lug marked WILD FOWL indicates a gun made for heavy charges, some if not all were chambered for the 3" 12 ga. shell.

laxcoach

According to Brophy, it's a 1942 gun. I've seen a number of Elsies with military markings. They were indeed used to teach "lead" to gunnery personnel. Most I've seen were Fields, but I've seen(and owned one) Ideal Grades also. Yours, however is the first Wild Fowl gun I've heard of. Note that if it does not have "3 inch chanbers" stamped on the barrel flats, it's a 2-3/4" gun from the factory. The "NP" stamps stand for Nitro Proof.

jlm1943

Thanks for all of your info. I did find the inspectors initials RLB was Col. Ray L. Brolin

2520wcf

Many of the doubles that L.C. Smith had in stock at the beginning of WWII were sold to the Army thru the Syracuse, NY Army depot. The urban legend is that these guns were used for training AA gunners to lead their moving targets using clay birds. Certainly some of the contemporary shotguns bought for the AAF were used for that, but all of the LC Smith doubles with military acceptance markings that I've seen were in very good shape for such hard use. I would expect them to hold up mechanically--they're built like tanks. But I'd also expect them to be worn on the outsides from much "racking" and also to have cracks around the sideplates which Elsies often develop from lots of shooting. The 6 or 7 I've seen show neither of these signs of use.

My own theory is that the AAF acquired them because they were buying up everything that would shoot that was available and then decided that they would use Rem 11s and Savage 720s and Win 12s and Rem 31s for their AA training. The Elsies got used (if at all) for recreational skeet and hunting at the various big airbases. I have a Featherweight Field 16-bore with the ordnance "bomb" that I bought in Spokane Washington years ago. It is cherry (except for all those little hunting dings I've put on it over the years).

Your LC Smith Waterfowl is a great gun--good find, and the U.S. use just makes it a better collector's item!