LC Smith Metallurgy Question

Hey All
I am currently doing a scratch build on a FWT LC Smith circa 1927. While scratch building a rotary bolt for said shotgun I have had opportunity to examine the locking system very closely. The seat for the rotary bolt is a blind pocket 11/16" in diameter, 5/8" deep bored forward into the receiver very hard up under the tang. I got to thinking about how the LC machinists pulled that cut off; there is hardly any room for a cutter shank however you went about it. When I consulted some engineering drawings I found evidence that the tang was forged straight, the pocket put in, and then the tang bent down. That makes sense from a machining viewpoint, but I personally have never seen a receiver forging of any era that was not forged directly to shape. The tang has a thin graceful profile. Would there have been some tendency for the tang to return to the original position over time and use? I have read that the fellows who shoot these vintage shotguns a lot experience some problems with the relationship of trigger, sear, and safety parts. The water quench color hardening process would certainly contribute to "freezing" the tang in place I would think.

Interesting. I have several Smiths but never had one completely apart so not sure what this looks like. I am scratch building a Stevens 44 1/2 currently. It also has a difficult cut down inside the frame. There is a spring loaded hammer head shaped pin that loads the breach block, it sits in beside the barrel. I had to make a cutter with the correct length, shaft diameter and cutter diameter to make the cut. Worked out well.

Congrats on the Stevens build. I have not caught the single shot bug yet. I do have a modern Pedersoli .45 paper case Sharps in inventory. The .45 is way too much pressure for the sealing system, so the gun had a very short service life before the breech seal gave up. Pedersoli also reintroduced the "floating" chamber that Sharps abandoned early on. For very good reasons. I now plan to convert her to cartridges, using the .45 Dupee, probably the first rimless cartridge ever. It was a Milbank primed proprietary round developed for some experimental prototypes of the Winchester Model 76. It fits the paper case action perfectly but I do gotta work out an extractor. Visit my LC build on the Shotgun Forum in the High End Specialty Forum if you are curious about the LC inner workings, but I have been stuck on building the rotary bolt for so long my readership has gone to sleep I think.

I am interested. You have a link to that site? Don’t seem to be able to find it. Thanks

You should find it at Shotgun Forum. Once there go to the High End and Specialty Shotgun Forum. Are you recording your Stevens build?

Yes, you can see at ASSRA forum. This should get you there. ASSRA Forum - Stevens 44 1/2 Build

I made it to the site. I can see the dialog, but site security blocks the pics. Sounds like you have been on the build for awhile. The real difficulty of the long term build, at least for me, is staying focused. The documentation process and the forums help with that. Also my long suffering wife does not have to listen to me reel off build stories anymore.

Time wise I have been at it for awhile but had to take more than ten months off and had other things I wanted to do before starting back on the gun. So, actual time on it is not to bad. I had some guys asking me to do a thread on it, so the thread just started 3-4 days ago.

There is also a thread on an aperture sight I just finished along with one on engraving. Both in gunsmithing.

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