I just inherited a L.C. Smith field grade 12 gage side by side shotgun. It has dual triggers, the barrel is marked Armor steel barrel the serial number prefix is FWS 185XXX.
Where can I get info on this gun, or anyone with info would be great

Cody Firearms museum, Cody WY...

Google it,

JW

Thunder-

There is a book on L.C. Smith's authored by Brophy. If you can find a copy, you can cross reference the serial number against year of manufacture.

If you've made and error and placed an extra "X" in the serial# above, it was made in 1947 by the L. C. Smith Gun Co, which is indicated by the initial "FWS". Otherwise it was probably made in 1940 and why it would have FWS is a mystery, but I'm not an LC expert.

I imagine that the people on this site can probably answer any questions you might have.....L. C. Smith Collector's Assoc.

You don't mention the gauge but if it's a 16 ga. I suspect it was made (as gatogordo mentions) around 1940 - because I carried an ""elsie) when I was about 15 in 1945 or thereabouts. An absolutely wonderful DB (that made me fall in love with doubles - I shot ruffed grouse with it in my first real introduction to shooting ruffs - and became a lover of dbs ever afterwards - even after my Win.97 pump killed ruffs as good. It's nice for this old man to read references about the L.C Smith. It had nice wood, handled nicely, swung nicely and the trigger pull off always was smooth. What more can be said about a shotgun?

quote:

There is a book on L.C. Smith's authored by Brophy. If you can find a copy, you can cross reference the serial number against year of manufacture.

I've seen that same book; it's quite good. You run across those inexpensively sometimes at gunshows. You might try looking at one of those. You could also check on-line of course.

There are similar books for Parkers, of which I owned a couple, and for other classic U.S. made older guns.