LC Smith-Lefever stocks-performance shotshells
 

Recent factory performance-based shotshells show both increases in payload and velocity. I reload for various rifle calibers, but not for shotshells.
Boss and other companies specialize in quality reduced pressure ammunition.

This is particularly important if not critical with vintage shotguns approaching 100 years in age. Stocks of older walnut display no sense of humor exposed to heavy recoil. Sideplate shotguns such as those from LC Smith and Lefever
are particularly vulnerable where the rear of the sideplate adjoins or contacts the head of the stock. I own two LC Smith Long Range 3-in shotguns whose stocks are particularly sensitive in this area.

Fortunately, my 3-inch chambered double guns are only used for hunting the elusive Eastern wild turkey. With 100-year old walnut stocks, I am a bit sensitive as to what shotshells enter the chambers of these Long Range Smiths.

Somethig to consider for owners of Lefever, LC Smith and Parker fine shotguns.

They’re used on waterfowl a LOT more than for turkeys, with all due respect.





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Neither type of quarry requires 3" shells or even higher power 2 3/4" shells.

Now this is the post of the year.:bowdown:

Mine are used almost for nothing but the Eastern variety of wild turkey. (Winchester M-12 Heavy Duck 3in for ducks and geese-have 2.)
Bill/Dean-The Western Merriams sub-species does not have the levels of deceit, chicanery, and down right elusiveness of the Eastern bird. With all due hunting experience in AL, VA. NM, and AZ.

The deep SE turkey must have been bred originally in Iran/Persia.

(Reggie Bishop and I have owned the same 3 in VHE Parker, and we agree about TN-AL turkey gobblers. Doubting Thomas hunters are invited to the SE with their 410 shotguns w/o TSS to try their skill. With all due respect.)

Hunting turkeys with a .410 without TSS shot is not only illegal here in NH, but In my opinion downright unethical. Now I know there are folks who will disagree with my statement but I truly believe it. I do think the mystic belief that the eastern turkey is akin to hunting a ghost is way overblown. I have probably killed over 40 easterns in my life, and I do not find them particularly hard to hunt and kill. Whitetail deer are much more difficult as they add the sense of keen smelling abilities to there already keen eyesight and hearing. We are probably lucky that turkeys cannot smell.:)

Steve:
I agree with your last sentence 100%.
The VA. turkeys are Eastern of course, and I have hunted them successfully. But they do not measure up to those found in the deep south. Maybe it has something to do with being hunted literally for centuries by the likes of D. Boone, Holt Collier, and Ben V. Lilly. I have probably slain at least 35 gobblers in my lifetime, and suggest that you try some of these rebel birds.
The Devil and Daniel Webster may have included some of these fowl under the tutelage of the former. At any rate, they are a different strain of Eastern turkey and those who have hunted them at any length, like Tom Kelly-agree. I have never felt under-gunned or out-thought with any Merriams variety, or even close.(Elk hunters in NM/Colorado are encouraged to take up turkey hunting.) But the last gobbler slain here weighed 21 pounds and sported a 10.5 inch beard. I would not have slain him with anything less than a double 3 inch shotgun, because he was both sly and outdistanced me at 51 yards. But for an immediate second LC Smith Long Range barrel, he would have escaped to tell the tale. In essence, and admittedly, he turned tables on me.
But this turkey was nothing compared to the 4-5 yr old sly mossback who has deceitfully sent me to the monkey house the last couple of years. A will-o-wisp denizen of swamps who haunts cemeteries. He has beaten me on at least two major meetings: chess is an easier game. (But not Rocky Mtn elk hunting.)
A 3-in Parker and an HE Super Fox have been employed without firing a shot at this old gobbler. But this is the Eastern Alabama variety that makes turkey hunting such a grand challenge.

As often discussed, the design defect of 'Long Cracked Smiths' is inadequate wood surface to absorb recoil at the head of the stock. That is where the cracks start

https://photos.smugmug.com/Repairs-R...DSCF2869-M.jpg

then extend into the lockplate inlet, often with a crack at the apex of the inlet

https://photos.smugmug.com/Repairs-R...20marked-M.jpg

https://photos.smugmug.com/Repairs-R...DSCF2861-M.jpg

Lefever guns do have more surface area, but can also crack

https://photos.smugmug.com/Wood/i-XR...%20stock-L.jpg

Boxlock Parkers are more likely to crack down the middle of the head

https://photos.smugmug.com/Repairs-R...0%282%29-M.jpg

IF the head of the stock is not oil soaked, impregnation with ultra-thin cyanoacrylate glue may prevent cracking.
This stock was treated with Abatron Liquid Wood Epoxy

https://photos.smugmug.com/Repairs-R...%20Epoxy-M.jpg

I will say this much. The easterns here in Southeast Tennessee are very much elusive this year. I have been ghosted many times this season. I am not a rookie in the turkey woods but I sure feel like one this year.

I blame rookie turkey hunters out there before the season opens calling in all manner of pseudo imitation turkey calls, ultimately spooking them off.







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