Posted by Tom Archer on February 22, 2022, 9:39 pm, in reply to "8ga "
No safety guns are not common but not unusual either; generally most such guns were ordered as competition guns where the shooter wanted no auto safety to insure no accidentally lost birds that could mean the difference between winning and losing. The 8-bore was not cataloged as available during the Syracuse manufacturing era, but a handful are known to exist; yours could represent a "new" discovery; but would not be the first no-safety Smith 8-bore known to exist. Jim Stahl has our best records on 8-bore Smiths and I'm sure he'll join shortly and share his data.