The 'sicle' that got away!!

Richard Flanders · 01-04-2014, 11:55 PM

So, I've been restoring a 12ga field-grade LC Smith for a friend for the past year. The guys on the LC Smith website have been a tremendous help in the process. I took about 20 dents out of the bbls, installed a new butt plate and screws, had Tom Carter make new firing pins from specs gotten from the LC guys, dismantled and thoroughly cleaned and inspected the innards, fixed 4 cracks in the inletted area, and refinished the stock. You think Parkers are difficult to reassemble?? They're a pc of cake compared to an Elsie. At any rate I finally got it together this afternoon and after test firing it delivered it to the owner. It's the test firing that was a lesson. After a careful stalk that would make even COB proud, and wearing hvy leather gloves, a tough Carhart jacket, Peltor shooting muffs and a face shield I leapt onto the outhouse seat, drew what I thought was a careful bead, and gave the offending sicle one barrel after the other in quick succession. I had it dead to rights, or so I thought! When the smoke cleared a look at the resultant mayhem revealed that I had only "wounded" it!! I missed most of it from 2ft away!! How can this happen?!

The lesson: Stick to Parkers for that most important hunt from now on. Things will be different next time.... now where did I see the data for those pigeon loads...?