Posted by Tom Archer on April 29, 2016, 12:12 pm, in reply to "1894 A1"
The "S" shaped "three-quarter" grip is not uncommon on A-1 and A-2 Smith guns from this period (I've owned one and seen several other examples); and the skeleton butt-plate feature was always a special order feature a customer could request, along with heel and toe plates and checkered butts (with and without ribbon work). My A-1 also featured the Type II ejector mechanism; and as has been done with your gun, mine had been sent back to Hunter at some point after it was shipped in 1895 to have those Type II ejectors retro-fitted. Don't remember if mine had the ejector patent date noted or not; but as you've noted your gun had the "banjo" escutcheon, and this feature was not introduced until after the Type II ejector had been patented (the first variation of the Type II ejector mechanism featured a round escutcheon held in place by two very small wood screws). The later addition of the "banjo" escutcheon was a huge improvement in that design as it increased the strength of the wood attachment to the fore iron. The first variation of the Type II ejector can be seen in an old edition of the DGJ in an article featuring the Pratt A-3; and the fore iron of that gun is engraved "Pat'd Applied For". The gun itself was shipped in 1900, and the formal patent issued and stamped on all ejector guns from 1901 forward. Since your ejector addition would have been a repair shop project, the date stamp detail was most likely over looked. There's an article in an early edition of the LC Journal showing the differences between the early and later style Type II ejector system; and Brother David Williamson will likely post photos from his file of both types to illustrate what I have tried to explain.