In response to suggestions from some of our members, we are launching this new feature on our website.  This will be a place for members to show off parts of their collection on the world wide web!  Here is how is will work.

Any active member can submit an article and pictures to the webmaster for posting on the website.  It can be something new to your collection, one of your favorite guns, or any gun you think others would like to know more about.  We will periodically change the Collector’s Corner to feature articles submitted by the members.  If there is enough interest, we can archive the articles for others to refer to in the future.

I have started things off with one of my “special Elsies”.  I hope you enjoy it.

        Some of you know that I seem to have an attraction to LC Smith’s.  Most of my “Elsies” are nice guns, but are nothing that are especially noteworthy.  I do have two guns that I think are a bit special.  This article is about my 10 ga Ideal Grade LC Smith.

       This gun was made in 1916, 3 years after the Hunter Arms Company changed the grades and names of the models.  While the Ideal grade in not a high-grade gun, this gun is somewhat unique.  Hunter arms continued to use Damascus barrels on the 10-ga guns after the model change.  So this gun, like all of the other 10-ga guns made in ideal grade, has Damascus barrels.  What starts to make this gun special is the fact that only 153 10-ga Ideal grades were made.

        10 ga guns were made in weights from 8 ½ lbs to almost 10 ¾ lbs.   Most were on the heavy side of 10 lbs and very tightly coked.  Here is where the story on this gun gets a bit more interesting.  This gun weighs 9 ½ lbs with its 32” barrels and is choke improved modified and full.  I purchase this gun from a fellow who acquired it from an estate of a family from the Maryland Coast.  This gun was most likely a rail gun and that is the reason for the more open choke.  Most LC Smith collectors know that the guns from this era were typically very tightly choked.

        You can see from the pictures that the gun has seen some wear to the finish, but, like most “Elsies” she still locks up tight.  The stock has not been cut and is still in restorable shape with the original butt plate!

        This past season I used this gun to take a few ducks with my reloads of “nice shot”.  Now that she has taken game in my hands, I am ready to begin the restoration project.  While this gun is not a high-end gun, I think the history behind it and the uniqueness of the configuration makes her worthy of restoration.  Someday in the near future (time and pocketbook willing) I hope to have her retuned to her original glory and out in the marsh again!

Jerry Mele