When my bro-in-law died...the one that laid dead in his house for two weeks...still can smell that smell...I went into the house to snatch up the guns. I found that he had an old LC Smith hammer gun. Turns out it was made in the 20's and was a field grade so the best guess I found as to value was around a grand. It was in remarkable good condition save for a couple of issues. The hammer screws were missing and it looks like there was at some time a piece on the tip end of the fore stock that is missing...like a piece of metal end cap or possibly something made of a harder piece of wood. Maybe there was nothing there and it just looks like there should have been. The hammers were either so nicely fitted that even with the screws that hold them on missing...I can not, for the life of me, get them off. No...I remember now...the screws weren't missing exactly, they had been sheared off leaving the threaded end still in the screw hole. Maybe they are attached in a different manner than I've ever seen hammers like that attached??

Bummer, regardless, his brother wants it because he says he wants to pass it down to the son as it was a family piece. Fine by me but he geys to pay the woman her share of the value. I was shocked to have found an old LC in the first place.