Posted by silvers on March 16, 2007, 12:17 pm, in reply to "Re: Boomers???"
Okay my last post on the subject. There are tons of Smiths out there that have oil soaked wood in the head of the stock, and no doubt that contributes to the set back problem. However that doesn't explain the cracked collector grade Smith guns that occasionally grace the pages of the DGJ, etc. Take a close look at them and read their history and you'll find that most are not oil soaked pieces. The Smith's stock head design defiency is widely known and accepted as FACT. Glass bedding a hunting-beater type gun might be okay but doing that on a better one that approaches collector grade just doesn't make sense to me. Same as another expedient a Smith gent once told me, just file down the sides of the lock plates so they only bear on the wood at their outer edges. Net, if you want a collector type double gun for extensive use in the field or on the courses, without having to baby it with light loads, there are better choices than the Smith design. Silvers