the gun in the attic ...

Status
Not open for further replies.
K

keeperofthehills

Member
Joined
Oct 14, 2003
Messages
142
Location
So far back in the WV hills that they have to pipe
Picked up a shotgun at a gun show over the weekend.
the guy found it in the attic of one of his relatives house.

get this its an LC Smith ideal grade 12gauge.

i wish this story had the fantasy ending of "the gun was in perfect condition!"
but alas it dosent.

aparently this old double gun was the favorite perch and poo spot for the birds in the attic. once i got the bird poop and rust off of the barrels it is pitted really bad but just on the sides.a little bit of auto body refinishing exp tells me that i might be able to sand out the pits and it will be fine. and the reciver had some junk on it as well but i dont want to clean it up too much as to run the risk of loosing the engraving. .

the wood is in excellent shape and the fit is still nice. it closes up with a nice crisp "snap". and it will put off primed hulls. the bore is nice. and it has london steel barrels.I wouldnt be afraid to shoot it now, but better sense tells me to let a professional look at it.

so for the questions. are these guns safe to shoot with modern loads?
should i try to blue it myself. (no experince) or get somone with experence to do it. and what about the pits on the barrel?
any ideas guys?
 
What you have is one of the last great American made SxS shotguns. Some say, one of the best ever built.

As for the pitting, I would have a professional look at it. Trying to do a home restore on such a gun IMHO would be a waste of time. If the barrels were in pretty good shape and all it needed was a facelift, I would say go for it, but yours sounds like it could need some major restoration work.

I would also look at http://www.lcsmith.org/ and maybe make a post or two there as they seem to have some of the LC Smith experts on board. They could also probably point you in the right direction for a reputable LC Smith gunsmith.
 
In the condition described, there'll be no interest from serious collectors, so I wouldn't be afraid to apply a little, judicious "home restoration"-knocking off some rust and refinishing the wood comes to mind.
 
I had the same thing happen to me last fall. My cousin gave me an old attic shotgun to look at. It was an American gun co. 'Knickerbocker' and in rough shape. At one point the metal was painted but the wood was ugly but in solid shape. Had a broken firing pin on the left barrel, too. So we take some 1 oz. skeet loads, a length of 550 cord and an old tire out in the woods to see if it would be a shooter or blow up. Well its a shooter so he wants me to try to do something with it. I still don't trust it, so we proof it redneck style by getting all of the 12 ga. shells we can find. From skeet loads to 00buck and slugs (2-3/4") and it held up well (all lead of course).
I stripped all of the paint off with pretty much just a screwdriver and polished all of the metal and rust blued it on the stove (yep, I'm single) and stripped and refinished the wood. Had a firing pin made, new butt plate and trigger guard. Polished the barrels as best I could (quite pitted) and it came out quite nice.
Too bad there is no collectors value on it even though I believe it is more than 100 years old. Not a bad shooter at the skeet range either.
An old betsy like the smith would make a fun project that you can easily do yourself. Just takes some time. For the pits on the outside of the barrel, you are pretty much stuck with them. But on the inside, I took a 10 ga. 'tornado' bore brush, a small ammount of oil and an electric drill and just kept running it up and down through the barrels. Pits are still there, but it cleaned up fairly well.
And she only doubled once on me.
HAve fun with it, what's there to lose?
 
Stop. Do not proceed. Box that Smith up and ship it to me for expert care and love. If I feel you are worthy, I might return it to you.

Just once I wish that would work.

Ok, now that I got that out of my system. I know you might not care, but here is what I think you should do. Take it to an expert for inspection and restoration. Piece by piece have them resolve one of the issues. The piting can be handled with some care and a reblue it, to the point you will not see any sign of the damage without close inspection. Have the wood stripped and redone in a hand rubbed oil finish. For about $500 you will end up with a really nice sxs, with some limited collector value, plenty of style, a nice story and quality quality quality. You cant get a decent sxs for that amount of money.

PLEASE DO NOT monkey with one of the last great american firearms unless you really know what your doin. If you want to do that, send me a pm and sell me the gun instead. It has been neglected enough, dont abuse it now.
 
sorry already started monkeying...
ehh well chalk it up to youthful entusiasim.

I sanded the pits out of the barrel with sandpaper and got tired so i just loped them off at 20 inches... i didnt feel like doing the whole 28 inches. i need a coach gun anyway.

now pull your jaw from the keyboard and read on... man i love doing that.
had a coulple local gun gurus look it over and they gave it a clean bill of health.
and after a couple of tire/string remote contorl test fires for my own peace of mind I shot the crap out of it. I shot about 175 rounds through it last friday and not a mechanical misfire or double or anything. this thing is a clay busting machine.

i soaked the barrels in kerosene and knocked the rust off of them with a wire brush. its pitted pretty bad. not enough to compromise saftey but enough that you can see em at like 10 feet. ill try to get my roomate to take some good digital photos of it. and figure out how to post em. i will be interested in selling it axeman so i will keep you in mind.
 
yep .... you got me. I actually did drop my face in my hands when I saw what you jokingly did to the barrels. This smilie was my face:eek:

My wife just asked me what I was groaning at.


You were joking?

I figured it would get a clean bill of health, esoterics dont hurt a smith.

Let me know if you want to move it. The sooner the better as I am moving to NJ soon and will not be able to process a FFL for a few months while I await my dunbass FOID card, change of addres, find a decent FFL etc etc.
 
I can't believe that you said you cut the barrels!!!!!

That S*%t ain't right!

And the gun can't be too bad. I'll drive down there and take it off your hands if you don't want it.

Seriously, my favorite hobby is trying to restore old guns. I do a decent job if I do say so myself.
 
 
Hills,
How far are you from Elkins? Looks like you got plenty of sunshine there.:p

For the barrels. The pitting is probably too deep to fix so heres my suggestion:

Have the barrels and reciever bead blasted or media blasted. This will give the entire finish a satin look and after its reblued the pitts will be less noticeable. The gun will have a dull blue finish but it will be a uniform color.

I'm currently working on a Winchester 94 that is pitted pretty good. If I can't get 'em all out I'll be doing the bead blast finish to hide the pitts.

Chris
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

S
  • Locked
New Gun!!!!
Replies
10
Views
521
Geno
G
S
  • Locked
New Old Shotguns
Replies
5
Views
2K
Clark
Clark
K
  • Locked
lee loader tool for 16ga?
Replies
20
Views
1K
skunkum
S
I
  • Locked
I hate people who know all about guns
2
Replies
38
Views
2K
Nitram68
N
M
  • Locked
My Next Gun
Replies
19
Views
1K
Zedo
Z
Back
Top