Posted by John Liles on May 14, 2017, 6:01 pm, in reply to "Re: Forearms"
If fore-ends were 5 for a hundred bucks, and if a machinist scale was a good substitute for lamp smoke and a diamond file, I'd say Bill was spot on..... Anyway, as someone whose fit many stray barrel-sets to LC Smith guns, I can say with at least a little confidence that it's a heck of a lot easier to get the barrels sufficiently if not perfectly on face than it is to get the fore-arms to fit and function properly, especially if it is an ejector gun/fore-end. I've only had one instance where an original fore-end (mostly) fit a stray barrel set that I fit to someones gun, and even that took just a tad of lamp smoke and file work. The only two barrel set Elsie guns that I've ever seen with only one fore-end were ordered as two barrel sets originally from the factory. Guns sent back subsequently for a second set usually came back with a second fore-end with the #2 stamped on it. That should give you some idea of how likely it is that a fore-end will randomly fit a different gun.