16ga.com ~ View topic - L.C. Smith #5 16 gauge Grouse Gun

Gentlemen,

Having owned a vast array of fine Grouse guns down thru our family history, there are a few Grouse guns us boys dreamed about owning, especially due to our families engineering background. High on that list when I was a boy were a select few, the Westley Richards 16 gauge Drop Lock, the 16 gauge Purdey Self Opener with the original Hodges Breech work, the #5 LeFever 16 gauge, and at the top of that list, the 16 gauge L.C. Smith #5 gun. My Great grandfather owned both the LeFever and the L.C. Smith #5 guns. Unfortunately they were both stolen from his home in Edgwood, Pa shortly after he was killed at work in the JL&B steel mill in Pittsburgh, Pa in 1913.

As a boy I dreamed of owning both these guns, it took me a long time to acquire a L.C. Smith #5 gun and I do own one of the finest ever made, and I also have the use of my good friend Ken Grafts #5 gun any time I want to Grouse hunt with it. I have never recovered the LeFever #5 gun.

The L.C. Smith Production record book gives a total of only 523, #5 guns made from 1894 - 1912. There may have been a few more executive guns that were never recorded in the sales/inventory records. When you think about how many double guns L.C. Smith actually made down thru the years, the 523, #5 guns is very minute. These high quality guns were some of the finest Classic American double guns ever made. Not many turn up for sale each year, and they sell for big money.
One such gun just sold for $13,995 on GI this last week. It was one of the last 16 gauge #5 guns ever built, and was in almost pristine condition. Production averaged nearly 28 #5 guns each year over the 19 years the #5 guns was in production. Production of #5 guns ended in 1912, making all #5 guns over 100 years old at this time. The incredible hand engraving on the #5 gun and the metals used during that era, were some of the finest available to any gun maker. The Brown Rotary Bolt lock up system is the best ever engineered, according to Nick Mikinson, Master Gun Maker. The Hunter One trigger invented by Lard is so reliable both Westley Richards and L.C. Smith used them extensively in their guns. Westley Richards used them in their dangerous big game rifles also. The French Walnut Wood on these L.C. Smith #5 guns was incredibly high grade also. If you were lucky enough to Grouse hunt with on of these 16 gauge #5 guns as a boy, you knew what gun you wanted and started saving your money to purchase one.

In 1894 when the #5 gun was introduced it sold for $200.00, a very high cost in 1894 for a two trigger double gun, especially here in the USA. Only the well off business owners and big business executives could afford a #5 gun at that time.

Leap forward to the late 1940 when I was born and the guns had increased in value greatly, because Hunter Arms was no longer making the #5 guns. Today depending on the gauge of the #5 gun and the barrels on the gun, these guns are selling for big big money. If you can even find one in pristine condition to purchase.

For me even the 16 gauge Purdey self opener, my buddy Ken Graft owned, with the original hand made Hodges breech work, did not handle like the 16 gauge L.C. Smith #5 gun, in the Grouse woods. For me there is nothing that compares to the #5 gun, it becomes like part of my body as my muscle memory mounts and guns the birds. It downs Grouse in an effortless even fluid motion, like no other double gun I have ever used. Even my buddies Westley Richard 16 gauge Drop Lock takes a back seat to the #5 L.C. Smith side lock 16 gauge Grouse gun, and that makes it top Grouse gun IMO.

all the best,

Pine Creek/Dave
L.C. Smith Man

L.C. #5 Guns, the stuff Dreams are made of, for a Grouse hunter.

How about this one?

http://www.16ga.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=24188&start=0

Skeettx,

Mike you bet the #7 Syracuse gun is one of the finest ever made, I have never Grouse hunted with one of the 16 gauge #7 guns, I do not know any one who even owns one. They maybe the equal of the #5 gun, however I personally have never had my hands on one or hunted with one. Love to some day for sure.

all the best,

Pine Creek/Dave
L.C. Smith Man