Rochester Ordinance Wild Fowl

[Larry Stauch]

There were only 95 LC Smith guns designated Wild Fowl, but there were only 8 Wild Fowls that went to the Rochester Ordinance training center to be used for aerial gunner training in 1942 and this is one of them. Not only is it rare in that sense, but additionally it's a 2-3/4" gun with 32" barrels that is not chambered for 3" shells.:eek:

[Mills Morrison]

Great find

[charlie cleveland]

great find is right i have looked a long time for one of those wildfowl guns..i have a 3 incg long range ...that gun of yours would make a fine duck gun with those long barrels...charlie

[Rick Losey]

There was a set of Rochester Ordinance barrels on eBay a few months ago

So at least one of those 8 has not survived intact

[John Campbell]

No ill intended at all, but it's "ordnance" not "ordinance" (as per a law or regulation...)

[Patrick Lien]

Larry,
Here are some pics of my "Wild Fowl" Ordinance gun. I purchased it in Vegas years ago. I recall that I was looking at it a month after I bought it when I realized the barrels were 3 digits off from the receiver. I always assumed that the barrels were mismatched while in use by the air corps.

Patrick

[Nick de Guerre]

Nice gun. Do you think Rochester 'spiffed' these up before they left Gov't hands? I kind of wonder how they re-emerge back into private hands...Gov't property auction? CMP?

I could own one of these but I haven't the slightest idea of value. I see one listed on GB, with provenance, but I just have no idea.

They made some Ideal's this way as well, apparently.

- Nick

[Richard Flanders]

So, I guess the Japanese Zero and the Messerschmidts were considered "Wild Fowl"? Nice cover! I have a helicopter pilot friend who rode around on US Coast Guard ships for some time. They had shotguns, including Parkers, that they could check out and shoot clays off the fantail with. This was a very popular form of onboard recreation. He worked in the machine shop. When they decided to decommission those old unsafe shotguns he was tasked with cutting them into pieces with a bandsaw and tossing them overboard. Sad story, eh? :crying:

[Nick de Guerre]

Wow! Clays off the deck? I had read they were used either as a training mechanism for door/tail gunners to learn to "lead" their target...or also to snipe at gulls and other birds on board ships that might get caught up in rotors/engines.

I guess they kept it "light" on board any way they could...no better way to get rid of some stress than banging clays.

- Nick

[Larry Stauch]

I found a Longrange with 32" barrels about 5years ago in a gunshop north of Seattle for $900 that was an ejector gun in great condition and passed it on to my buddy who is very fond of LC Smiths and he was thrilled. May of been a little benevolent on that one. 🤐

[Dave Noreen]

Shooting clays off the fantail was for recreation, not areal gunnery training.

[Drew Hause]

Thank you Larry and Patrick, and I added one pic here
http://www.picturetrail.com/sfx/album/view/24330686

And re: shooting off the rear deck :) President Eisenhower shooting clay targets launched from a Naval escort vessel while cruising the Potomac aboard 'Barbara Anne' with Capt. E.P. Aurand, Sept. 1960. Likely his M21

http://pic20.picturetrail.com:80/VOL1373/6511424/20002415/404486028.jpg

[Bill Jolliff]

Shooting off the fantail of the USS Gen. H. W. Butner T-AP113 on a Sunday afternoon someplace in the Atlantic summer of 1955.

Our ship's nurse (on the right with red hair) looks to be shooting an M1 Garand. Also popular were 1911's and I do remember shooting some sort of side by side. Common targets were weather balloons and junk.

The Butner was a troop and dependent carrier so we had a nurse aboard.

Any of you guys that were in the Army or Air Force in the mid 1950's get shipped to or from Europe? You might have had a ride with us.

http://i70.photobucket.com/albums/i117/jollybill2006/Navy/DSC00079_zpsjkqwiccp.jpg