Ran across a 20 gauge smith the other day, it looked real danity and trim and felt real light and when it threw it to my shoulder it was spot on i did not need another 20 gauge smith but i just liked if and bought it and brought it home, this is what i found SR# 10774R 26 INCH BARRELS MOD AND IMP MOD, DROP AT COMB 1 3/8 DROP AT HEEL 2 3/8 14 INCH PULL TO BUTT PLATE, ON MY POSTAGE SCALES IT WEIGHTS 5 LB 7 OZ, ABOUT 1 LB LIGHTER THAN MY OTHER 20 GAGE SMITHS OF LATER SR# DATES, MY QUESTION IS HOW DID SMITH TAKE ABOUT A 1LB WEIGHT OFF THIS 20 GAGE, AND COULD YOU SPECIAL ORDER A ULTRA LIGHT 20 WITH THOSE STOCK DIM. BACK ABOUT 1912 OR 13.
Bob, does this gun have the Curtis for-end? Seems guns having the R suffix do. Hunter Arms Company had a saying "anything within reason" and your gun would be within reason. First you could weigh the barrels and compare it to another 20 ga with 26" barrels, the stock could be drilled out and left without fillers. Look under the butt plate, lastly remove the locks and see if there are holes drilled in the long arm of the receiver. The barrels could have been struck thinner so be careful of that. The chambers should be 2 1/2" and if changed to 2 3/4" from the factory should have a stamping on the barrel flats stating so. I would have the barrels wall thickness checked to be sure it is safe to shoot.
Sounds like a wonderful gun and good shooting with it.
yes david it has the curtis for-end and 2 1/2 chambers the barrels weight 2.7 lbs, i can not compare them to my other 26 inch 20 gauge for it has the high rib and weights a lot more, there has been no wood taken from the stock under the butt plate, the barrels do look thinner,i do not wan't to take the locks off for the screws have been un turned and i do not want to mess them up, i think they used some kine of a light wt wood is does not look like my other smiths woods, it is very thin at the wrist, and the whole stock is a lot thinner over all than my other 20 gauges.
Bob, your post got me curious. i have a 20 gauge speciality grade SN:4666 R made in 1919. 26" inch barrels with Curtis forend. I took it to a postal scale and weighed it. complete gun was 5# 13 oz. barrels were 2# 9.6 oz. I'm now wondering if it is a featherweight?
"MY QUESTION IS HOW DID SMITH TAKE ABOUT A 1LB WEIGHT OFF THIS 20 GAGE, AND COULD YOU SPECIAL ORDER A ULTRA LIGHT 20 WITH THOSE STOCK DIM. BACK ABOUT 1912 OR 13."
If one checks early Hunter Arms catalogs, one will find 20 gauge guns regularly offered in weights ranging from 5 1/2 to 7 lbs. Obviously, barrel length and wood density were huge factors in finished gun weight; BUT a gun ordered with the auto-ejector option would obviously be heavier than a manual extractor gun due to the added weight of the ejector mechanism. When a customer specified a certain weight for his gun, Hunter would often bore holes in the butt stock to either add or subtract weight; and or change a balance point. They would also drill lightening holes in the frame beneath the narrow portion of the lock plates, and sometimes in the rear portion of the frame also (a Journal article featured such a frame in an article many years ago); so the answer to your question is that a customer could certainly order his gun as a light weight model. Hunter Arms even offered 12-bores in weights as light as 6 lbs.; and some years ago I was the proud owner of a 1912 vintage Grade 3E with PG stock, FW frame, HOT trigger, and 28" Nitro Steel barrels that weighed 6 lbs. and 8 ounces. It was the best shooting Smith I've ever owned and a gun I wish I'd never traded.
As to "is my gun a Featherweight", this question has nothing to do with the weight of a Smith gun; the term "Featherweight" is only a reference to frame type. Hunter made two style frames, a Regular Frame (offered at commencement of gun production) and a Featherweight frame (introduced in 1907). The most obvious visible frame type differences are seen in the shape of the lock plate and size of the cut for the barrel lug; but the easiest way to make a determination of what frame type one has is via the screws attaching those plates to the frame. A Regular frame lock plate will show only one visible lock plate screw slot; and it will be seen on the left side lock plate. A Featherweight frame will feature two visible screw slots on the left side lock plate and only one screw slot on the right side lock plate. It seems a customer could specify frame type up until about 1940 or so (only the Featherweight frame was available afterwards); but if a customer wanted a light weight gun HE MUST SPECIFY gun weight, as guns with Featherweight frames weighting more than a gun with a Regular style frame are often encountered. I hope this information is helpful.
The 20 ga. was always made with a featherweight frame. There are rumors of the possibility of a regular frame but none have been found to my knowledge. 16 ga can be found with both frames.
The point I attempted to make in my comment is this; the fact a Smith gun (of any gauge) was built on a Featherweight style frame does NOT automatically mean that gun is a "light weight". If a gun was ordered to be light weight, either frame size could be used for that purpose. Long before the FW frame was introduced, Hunter offered 16-bore guns as light at 6 1/2 lbs.; and in my opinion no Smith gun has more elegant lines than an early 16-bore with its scaled down R sized frame.
And for what it's worth, and in spite of the fact that an example has yet to be located; a thorough examination of the surviving shipping ledgers record a small number of 20-bore Smith guns as having been built on the R sized frame. I'm sure we'll stumble across a surviving example some day just as was the case with the Whippet Grade single barrel trap.