16ga.com ~ View topic - Retrieved the 1904, 12 Gauge Silver Breech L.C. Smith Not!

Gentlemen,

As many of you already know, my Great Grandfather had a set of 4 Silver Breech L.C. Smith guns made for my Grandfathers 13th birthday, the 12 gauge gun from this set was stolen from his home in 1913 just after his death. Thanks to Guns International I have just recovered the 12 gauge Silver Breech gun that was made in 1904. The internet is definitely good for some things, and gun recovery is one of the things. Although the gun was abused some what, it still locks up tight and is usable. However I will need to have the gun worked on to fully restore it. Very happy to have recovered the gun for our family collection.

all the best,

Pine Creek/Dave
L.C. Smith/Westly Richards Man

My Grandfathers 1904 12 Gauge Silver Breeh L.C. Smith birthday present, abused but recovered today.
[url=https://ibb.co/qTFqMGK]

[/url]

That’s a great story and very interesting. Would love to know more details. Congratulations on the recovery.

Member Joined: 30 Nov 2011 Posts: 1803 Location: Minnesota

Nice its back home Very Happy

Savage16,

Yes I am very happy to have the gun back, the gun is on its way to my FFL dealer in Penn Hills, Pa (Powell Guns) right now. The gun has been abused however and will need to be worked on by a Master Gun Mater in the future. I still have one more Silver Breech gun to recover, and I will probably never see the .410 Silver Breech L.C. Smith gun. Because the gun is worth real big money today, I think that it is buried in somebodies private L.C. Smith collection, never to see the light of day again. I can only hope it surfaces in my life time, I still hope that it does. The 12, 16 and 20 gauge Silver Breech guns are all home now, where they belong.

Citori16,

I will probably never tell the full story about the guns, some real bad stuff happened in and around my Great Grandfathers death, that led to the guns being taken from my Great Grandfathers home. John Houchins the writer of the latest L.C. Smith book (The Legend Lives) was the only person intrusted with that information, and he promised to keep the knowledge to himself, and he did until his passing.

all the best,

Pine Creek/Dave
L.C. Smith/Westley Richards Man

My Grandfathers Special made 12 Gauge Silver Breech L.C. Smith double gun, part of a set of 4 Silver Breech guns given to him on his 13th birthday.[url=https://ibb.co/XxB81Yrn]

[/url]

Joined: 08 Feb 2009 Posts: 1547 Location: Western WA

Dave, valuable possessions changing hands and vanishing after the passing of a family patriarch is all too common. These things seem to go hand in hand as some of us have learned.

B.

Brewster11,

At least after all these years I have recovered the stolen gun, my Great Grandfather and Grandfather along with my Father are all smiling from above. The gun should never have been stolen in the 1st place, some real bad stuff which we have now guarded against properly..

all the best,

Pine Creek/Dave
L.C. Smith/Westley Richards Man
[url=https://ibb.co/nsQ7svdN]

[/url]

Wonderful Dave , happy for you to get your gun back where it belongs, think i remember to talking about the silver breech guns going missing, is the 410 the last one still missing, it will be good to hear how well you shoot it , definitely be a connection to your past when your carrying it in the Grouse woods.
Good luck with it WJ.

WJ,

Yes the .410 Silver Breech gun is the only one missing now from the original set purchased for my Grandfathers 13th birthday. I have a hunch I will never get to recover that gun, but you never know!

all the best,

Pine Creek/Dave
L.C. Smith/Westley Richards Man

Gentlemen,

Still waiting on the delivery of our 12 gauge Silver Breech double gun from out in the Denver Gun Room, shipping these days is just terrible takes twice as long as it use to to ship from anywhere out west to Pa, and I start to worry about the guns being stolen going thru Chicago.

all the best,

Pine Creek/Dave
L.C. Smith/Westley Richards Man
[url=https://ibb.co/vxcBSXf5]

[/url]

Joined: 07 Mar 2010 Posts: 519 Location: South Eastern PA

Dave, if you don't mind, walk us through how GI came to discover it was stolen?

Do they run all guns on the site through a database check?

Did you put them on notice? Has your family filed with some type of national stolen gun database.

It's a great story and being that the theft occurred over 100 years ago it's quite fascinating that you got it back.

ROMAC,

No we kept the knowledge of the stolen Silver breech guns very close to our vest,
my family believed if we let the information on the guns out, even to the stolen gun registry, the guns would be burried in different collections and we would never be able to get them back. It was just dumb luck that a widow of the man who had the gun sold to him, brought the gun in to the Denver Gun Room and they posted the gun on GI.
Where I review the L.C. Smith guns for sale, postings every day. When I saw the gun for sale (SN), I reviewed my grandfathers information and purchased the gun immediately, no legal action was needed, the gun was for sale at a very reasonable price, much lower than I would have had to pay for the gun to be legally recovered.
All the recovery work on these guns was done by me and my family down thru the years.

all the best,

Pine Creek/Dave
L.C. Smith/Westley Richards Man
[url=https://ibb.co/B2jSXzTb]

[/url]

Gentlemen,

There is information just uncovered that the SN may have been used twice and that this particular gun may have been made in 1937, with the same SN and be an imitation Silver breech gun, we will see when the gun arrives home which is true. The gun maybe one of the Chrome plated later made guns, and not a real Silver Breech gun made in 1904.

all the best,

Pine Creek/Dave
L.C. Smith/Westley Richards Man

Gentlemen,

I pick up the Silver Breech 12 gauge gun this morning at about 11:00 AM, will need to check out the gun closely when it arrives home. Either way I have added another L.C. Smith gun to our Grouse gun collection. I have not purchase a 12 gauge L.C. Smith in quite some time, it will be a very nice addition to our collection.

all the best,

Pine Creek/Dave
L.C. Smith/Westley Richards Man
[url=https://ibb.co/j9NHkMvc]

[/url]

Gentlemen,

After looking the 12 gauge Silver Breech gun over closely I find that this gun has a duplicate SN and is not my Grandfathers real Silver Breech gun. The gun happens to be a real nice imitation Chrome Plated L.C. Smith gun made in 1937. The gun is in a lot better condition than the pictures showed. The marks on the Breech work that looked like chips out of the coating were just heat lines that I polished out, restoring the Chrome Plating to original. The Rotary Bolt that looked to have been worn in the picture was not worn at all, the handle had been bent some how and'the gun locks up like new, with the handle just right of center. I cleaned the gun up and ran some Gun 21 Treatment thru the barrels and they shine like brand spanking new. Using the wrong shells in the gun had no real negative effected either, on the Breech work or the barrels in any real manner. The gun is in real fine shape and will be a nice addition to our L.C. Smith collection, in reality I stole this gun for the money I payed for it, I more than got my monies worth out of this purchase, I got a fantastic 12 gauge Chrome Plated imitation Silver Breech gun in fine shape for very little money.
All that was really needed was a good clean up to return the gun to its original Hunter Arms sales condition.. Because the breech/side lock screws were tight, I left the one out of time, as seen in the 1st picture. I also put a coat of Timber Luxe wood restorer on the stock, it came out real nice, leaving just enough character in the stock to warrant its age. All in all a real nice 1937 L.C. Smith 12 gauge double gun for more than very reasonable money.

all the best,

Pine Creek/Dave
L.C. Smith/Westley Richards Man
[url=https://ibb.co/k6cW05Qm]

[/url]
[url=https://ibb.co/tT1LVqv4]

[/url]

Joined: 08 Feb 2009 Posts: 1547 Location: Western WA