Christmas Present - L C Smith Long Range

[Frank Srebro]

Just want to show some pics of a nice L C Smith Field Grade Long Range, a 3-inch/32-incher I scored last month. I'd promised my wife the Smith would be my Christmas present and although I peeked I didn't open the box to play until all our family were here on Christmas morning. Santa was good to me this year.

As most will probably know the Long Range Smith was a contemporary of the Super-Fox. Some of the ice had melted of late and I had her out for ducks real early this morning but the few birds I'd spotted there yesterday evening were gone. Rats! :(

frank

EDIT: Forgot to include the 4th pic here when I posted yesterday. If you expand it you'll see some tiny raindrops as I was finishing up with the camera.

[Rick Losey]

Very nice Santa Frank

Case looks great on that one.

[Mills Morrison]

Very nice

[Frank Srebro]

Of late I've read opinions that Hunter Arms may have over-hyped its Long Range gun, but this student of Super-Foxes sees some subtle boring features in the Smith that go beyond just using a bore mike, calculating the choke constrictions, and yawning to learn the LR Smith is "only" choked something like 40 points as compared with 48-50 points or so for a typical Super-Fox. Back in the day Captains Askins and Crossman wrote well of the Super-Fox as well as the Smith Long Range in comparative testing. There had to be something going for the Smith. Once spring comes I'll be doing some patterning and penetration testing at distances and with lead and the current non-tox shotshells.

[Stephen Hodges]

Frank, feel free to jump on your sled, fire up the tiny reindeer's and head to New Hampshire next Christmas to put something under MY TREE:rolleyes:

[charlie cleveland]

a lc smith long range is more affordable than a super fox....i have the lc smith long range but have not owned a super fox yet....charlie

[Craig Larter]

I just like the branding "Long Range". What duck hunter could resist!!!! The LR way outsold the SF due in my opinion to Hunters pricing. Nice gun Frank hope u kill a few ducks before the season ends. I own a LR and like it very much.

[Bill Murphy]

As all of us know, this "long range" hype among the Fox, Parker, and Smith people comes out fairly equally on the pattern board. The best long range 1 1/4 ounce #4 lead shot patterns I have shot came from a 30" Sterlingworth and will probably be equaled by other Sterlingworths, Parkers, Smiths, and Super Foxes in years to come. I still have those pattern sheets and still have the #4 lead shot loads to test. I could fire the Super Foxes at the same pattern sheets, but would be unlikely to improve on the 90% patterns thrown by my old Sterlingworth. Of course, I could give it a try. I wonder how the Nash Buckingham 1 3/8 ounce copper #4 Super X loads would print on paper? I have a few of the old lead #4 loads squirrelled away. Maybe someone could give up a few of the copper 1 3/8 ounce loads to compare.

[Garry L Gordon]

I sure could use more time to judge my lead! I think my letter to Santa must be in the dead letter box...

[Dave Tercek]

I had a nice Ideal grade Long Range years ago. It seemed like an original un-altered gun. The odd thing was that the Right barrel had an improved choke. It was nicely polished with no signs of being reamed. The seller told me some Long Range guns were ordered that way, the first shot being for over decoys the second for passing or going away birds.
Any thoughts ? , Dave

[Rick Roemer]

Wow, that old ad mentions consistent kills at 80 yards! Someone needs to try patterning at that distance. Ha

[Jay Gardner]

I had a nice Ideal grade Long Range years ago. It seemed like an original un-altered gun. The odd thing was that the Right barrel had an improved choke. It was nicely polished with no signs of being reamed. The seller told me some Long Range guns were ordered that way, the first shot being for over decoys the second for passing or going away birds.
Any thoughts ? , Dave

My first D-grade was choked the same way. It had been ordered by the owner of a prominent sporting goods store in NYC and if I remember correctly lettered that way. I was told that gunners would shoot at incoming geese with the full barrel and by the time the incoming geese were able to stop back peddling and flare the IC was all that was needed. Seems there are a number of guns configured like this there must be something to the stories.

[Rick Losey]

Wow, that old ad mentions consistent kills at 80 yards! Someone needs to try patterning at that distance. Ha

the long range hype was not just for the guns

http://parkerguns.org/forums/picture.php?albumid=588&pictureid=11315

[Rick Losey]

I had a nice Ideal grade Long Range years ago. It seemed like an original un-altered gun. The odd thing was that the Right barrel had an improved choke. It was nicely polished with no signs of being reamed. The seller told me some Long Range guns were ordered that way, the first shot being for over decoys the second for passing or going away birds.
Any thoughts ? , Dave


both of my Elsie Long Ranges are very full and full,

but, most makers at that time would fill any reasonable order to get the sale

however, i would rather see a letter than listen to a seller :)

[Frank Srebro]

I had a nice Ideal grade Long Range years ago. It seemed like an original un-altered gun. The odd thing was that the Right barrel had an improved choke. It was nicely polished with no signs of being reamed. The seller told me some Long Range guns were ordered that way, the first shot being for over decoys the second for passing or going away birds.
Any thoughts ? , Dave

Captains Askins and Crossman were out ducking back in the glory days and both recommended a Modified choke in one barrel of these specialty duck guns. On the other hand there were the dedicated duck men like Buck and Olin who went with tightest chokes in both barrels. Also I've read more than a few times now that shooting a period 2-3/4" shell in a 3-inch chambered barrel would reduce the efficiency (% at 40 yards) by about 10% and that's not counting the lesser pellet hits when using a lighter payload. Especially good to know when birds were working the decoys well.

Yep 79 or 80 yards is pushing the envelope quite a bit. It was generally acknowledged by experts that the Super-X 2-3/4" progressive load afforded an effective 5-10 yards increase over the heaviest bulk/dense smokeless powder loads, also that the extra length 3-inch/1-3/8 ounce progressive load would add to that. :bowdown:

[Garry L Gordon]

So the "more time to judge your lead" is the time that the duck/goose flew to the 80 yard range limit? Help me understand the "more time" claim. I certainly get more distance, and birds traveling from X to Y distance equals time, but...judging lead?

[Mills Morrison]

There was a great article in the Double Gun Journal a few years ago about Long Ranges and that article suggested the 80 yard claim was a bit of a stretch. They are still classic guns

[Tom Flanigan]

There was a great article in the Double Gun Journal a few years ago about Long Ranges and that article suggested the 80 yard claim was a bit of a stretch. They are still classic guns

Eighty yards for a standard twelve was indeed a very long stretch. The gun companies marketing strategy encouraged sky busting. Captain Charles Askins as well as Elmer Keith were long range shooters. But they did a lot of testing with the guns and loads they shot at long range and I don't believe either was a sky buster, even Keith shooting geese at 80 yards with his 3 1/2 inch 10 bore Ithaca. Those guys knew their guns and loads intimately before they hunted with them.

It is interesting that Askins considered #4's a ten bore shot size. He used 6's for ducks from his 12 bores. I agree with 6's as the best duck shot size but I have gotten really good patterns with a couple of my long range 12 bore guns with size #4. Thats all I shoot at geese since 3's are no longer available. Interestingly enough, I got decent patterns with 3's and used them exclusively for long range geese when I could get that size shot. But I have never gotten patterns good enough using 2's. My maximum size shot for a 12 bore is #4's except for #1 buck for deer. My maximum for the 16 is size 6 and maximum for my 20's is 7 1/2 generally. Although I have played with a 20 bore for ducks occassionally with #6 because the gun I use patterns #6's reasonably well.

If a person is interested in long range shooting, then they should spend some time at the patterning board testing different shot sizes and loads. It's the only way to know what each gun is capable of.

[Garry L Gordon]

...and the added time to figure lead???

[Mills Morrison]

I have made some long shots this season but no where near 80 yards.

[charlie cleveland]

ithe 3 inch guns in my opinion with 3 inch load of 1 5/8 of no 5 shot will pattern 3 to 5 hits on average in a mallard duck....i have shot at a dr pepper can at 70 steps many times with the 1 5/8 ounce loads of no 5 lead shot...it will put on average 5 to 8 hits in the can....i do believe these guns could do the 80 yard shot on big ducks with lead shot with no 4 or 5 lead shot with a full choke gun.....charlie

[Jay Gardner]

Better figure a little drop along with the lead.