Posted by Patrick Deason on April 5, 2018, 6:11 pm
A long time acquaintance recently asked if I would be interested in some old shotguns he inherited. In the group were two somewhat unique L.C. Smiths. I purchased a 20 ga. field with ejectors, 28" bbls. choked .580 left/.597 right, and new to me, a three position safety. The stock had been cut, then incrementally added to; my guess is for a growing child. The other neat Smith was a 12 with straight stock and similar stock dimensions to a skeet gun.
I know these guns came from the Thomasville, Ga. area. The current owner had grown up there. He said his neighbor was one of the Hunters of the Hunter Arms family. He also said he remembered as a boy going into the Hunter's basement gun room that was lined with L.C. Smiths. He said the Hunter man and his father were friends and that they frequently traded guns with each other. He surmised these two shotguns came from the Hunter gun room.
Any possibility this is true? Why would someone order a three positioned safety on a gun with these dimensions?