Posted by Tom Archer on January 3, 2015, 3:13 pm, in reply to "Oddball Smiths "
OK Jason, although I'm not entirely sure what you might be thinking in your "non cataloged options" reference; I'll take the bait. As to your reference to Hunter's Grade 2 gun, Hunter's Grade 2 was the basic price equivalent to Parker's G Grade gun (according to my recollection); how many G Grade Parker guns have you seen with engraving patterns other than their standard flying turnip motif? I haven't seen any; but am almost certain (without pulling out my Parker reference books) that a G Grade example exists somewhere with a 36 or 38" barrel? As to really special/unique Grade 2 Smith guns, I've seen a several and have pics here of one that I've been intending (for the past 10 years) to feature in a DGJ article (alas, motivation is a difficult proposition these days), and of which I'll provide a short description. The barrels of this Grade 2E gun were originally mounted on a C Grade Syracuse era hammer gun; and at some point those barrels only were shipped to Hunter Arms to become the basis of a completely new shotgun. Hunter Arms then modified the lug and rib extension of those barrels to fit a hammerless frame and house auto ejectors; then built and fitted a hammerless frame around that barrel set. When the gun was completed, the owner received a Grade 2E 30" straight-gripped, single trigger 10-bore ejector gun. The new hammerless frame was serialized to the barrels (18XXX); and the Grade C hammer gun stamp was over-stamped with the Grade "2" hammerless gun grade stamp. Obviously this Grade 2E is not included in the surviving serial number records; and if this is not an example of Hunter arms providing "non-cataloged options", I don't know what would be. I can provide another example whereby a set of Syracuse Quality 2 hammerless gun barrels were returned to Hunter and fitted to a brand new Grade O frame; the original serial number on the barrels was stamped onto the frame, and the Grade stamp "2" on the barrels was over-stamped with the new grade moniker "0". I can provide example after example of "custom" Smith guns I've seen that are not considered custom simply due to special ordered engraving patterns; but I don't believe a single one of these guns was built on the factory floor, but were instead custom built in Hunter's repair shop. I suspect the same was true of most custom Parker guns, as common sense tells us that it would be too costly to interrupt normal production and modify standard jigs and tooling for custom work. But I really don't understand your reference to the term "non-cataloged options"? If an option wasn't cataloged, then how was this un-cataloged item ever an option? It's been a loooooooooooooooog time since I've studied Parker guns (I became bored with Parker gun because every Parker I saw outside of book/magazine pics looked exactly like every other Parker I'd already seen; and I have the same opinion of most post '13 Smith guns); but I honestly don't recall Parker order forms offering optional 42" barrels, and 18 or 24 gauge chamberings? Hunter Arms didn't either; but if you check Hunter's gun order form, the customer was offered an extremely wide range of custom stock dimensions, barrel lengths, choking, etc. And by the way, when it came to offering desirable optional features Hunter Arms was years ahead of Parker with high-demand options such as a single trigger and auto-ejectors. And as I recall from my research, about the only thing I remember being credited to Parker as a "first" was developing the 28-gauge; but I'm not even convinced of that claim, as it appears that bore size was already available in England and Europe. Everyone is certainly entitled to their own opinions; but I've personally seen more unique/custom ordered Smith guns than any other make with the possible exception of Lefever, which company seemed to make changes to their gun almost daily. But don't get the wrong impression that I'm strictly a Smith gun cheerleader, as I'm certainly not and admire and appreciate all quality makes of the American double gun; but knowing that there exist a significant number of unique Smith guns to discover and explore keeps my interest in the Smith gun at a very high level.
PS: As I recall member Chris Dunlap owns a very unique Grade 2E small bore gun with design features not seen on any other Smith gun; perhaps he'll post some pics of that gun to this thread.