LC Smith Heavyweight
 

Waterfowl season in southern Arizona closes this Sunday so I thought I would give it one more try with gun I haven't used before. Most of the ducks and geese I saw (2 geese and 8 ducks) were just too far of a distance for me to shoot at knowing I was using low pressure bismuth RST shells. This Bufflehead flew in front of me at 35 yards and the antique Smith shot great. It is a Quality 2 Syracuse gun, 10 gauge, 32 inch barrels, made on an extra heavy frame weighing in at 10 pounds, 10 ounces. Needless to say there was no recoil problem! From everything I have read this is within a few ounces of the heaviest 10 gauge LC Smith made. I am thinking the barrels deserve to be redone.

I have to agree! With that much original case color remaining, you owe it that much.





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Is that the same frame the L.C. Smith 8-gauges were built on? My Father briefly had a Quality 2 Syracuse L.C. Smith 10-gauge that was on a much smaller frame, and it barely weighed 8 pounds with, as I recall, 30-inch barrels. Was considerably lighter than my Super-Fox at 8 pounds 9.4 ounces. In fact he thought it was a 12-gauge when he picked it out as his inheritance from a late uncle's collection!

Do you have a letter on your gun? The letter may indicate that the person ordering your gun was a competitive shooter whose gun had to conform to the rules of the day, under 11 pounds for a ten gauge gun.

From what I have read, there are no serial number records for the Syracuse hammer and hammerless LC Smith guns from 1883 to 1888. The earliest records begin with the Fulton guns in 1890. This gun is estimated to be manufactured in 1887. The outside measurement of the breechballs is 2 3/4".
I can't find data on the 8 gauge frame size so I don't know if the frames have the same dimensions. Does anyone know what the width of the LC Smith 8 gauge frame is?

Here is a comparison of Parker 7 frame 8 gauge barrels to the LC Smith 10 gauge extra heavy barrels.

that 10 lc smith barrels look small compared to the 7 frame parker 8 gauge....but the 10 ga barrels are really thick i suppose it could be bored out to a 8 ga looks like to me...charlie