Re: Pigeon grade, 2nd. barrel Archived Message
Posted by SGT on August 8, 2008, 8:39 pm, in reply to "Pigeon grade, 2nd. barrel"
Randy
I've seen a fair number of Smith guns with barrels added at a later date; all I have observed done at the factory had a serial number stamp identical to the serial number on the frame (except for letter prefix stamps). I don't have the document in front of me, but I recall reading a letter from Hunter to a customer stating they did not accept used barrels as "trade-ins"; so I don't believe Hunter would have fitted a set of used barrels to another Smith gun (probably for liability reasons). I've also seen a lot of Smith guns with aftermarket barrels fitted by a gunsmith; in some cases the serial number stamp was not changed, in others the serial number was altered to match that on the frame (usually easily identified as the number stamps are not the same size, style, spacing as on the frame; and also it's diffcult to weld over the old numbers and do a great job of smoothing the welded surface). I've never seen a screwed-up stamp on a higher grade Smith (including a Grade 2, with one exception); but it is not uncommon to see over-stamps, out of line stamps, etc on low grade Smith guns. So it seems to me that it was not the policy of Hunter to weld over, smooth, and restamp a serial number stamp mistakes; they were corrected with an overstamp. The one Grade 2 I referred to above was from a C grade Syracuse Hammer gun that was factory converted to a Grade 2E by Hunter. In that case, the original serial number from the C Grade frame was retained, and the C grade stamp was overstamped with a 2.
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