L.C. Smith wasn't a gun maker; he was an investor, but you'll find his name on some of the finest shotguns of the Old West. I've got an L.C. Smith double-barrel shotgun made in Syracuse, New York about 1885. The hammers are graceful, and there are double triggers, of course. It has a ball-type pistol grip stock with fine hand-cut checkering and a beautiful hard rubber buttplate. It has 30-inch barrels made of Damascus steel. L.C. Smith operated out of the Syracuse plant for only a few years in the early to mid-1880s first making hammer guns and, later on, a hammerless model. The total production was only about 20,000 guns. Taking this shotgun apart is as simple as removing the forend and unhooking the barrels from the receiver. There was only one locking mechanism: a rotary-style bolt that hooks through a hole in the rib extension. Smiths almost never shoot loose, and you can tell this gun is still tight just by the sound it makes when it closes. For a visual demonstration of this shotgun, be sure to check out the video above.
--Larry Potterfield