I'm bidding on a shotgun in local auction that is a complete headscratcher to me. It's likely unusable outside of being a true curio and relic, but it looked rather neat and despite scouring the internet all day, I couldn't find but one other example that sold on gunauction without the buttstock.
It's a John M. Smyth Company of Chicago pump-action shotgun in 12ga (supposedly). Attached are pictures of the only other example I could find.
Can anyone identify the action? Most of what I've found says that Smyth was a hardware/department store in the late 19th and early 20th century in Chicago. All of the other examples of shotguns I can find with their name are either American/Crescent/Folsom or Iver Johnson models with the J M S name on them. I can't find any pumps from those lines that look like this either.
Any help would be appreciated as I'm certain I'll need to track down some parts to make it whole again should I win it.
It's a John M. Smyth Company of Chicago pump-action shotgun in 12ga (supposedly). Attached are pictures of the only other example I could find.
Can anyone identify the action? Most of what I've found says that Smyth was a hardware/department store in the late 19th and early 20th century in Chicago. All of the other examples of shotguns I can find with their name are either American/Crescent/Folsom or Iver Johnson models with the J M S name on them. I can't find any pumps from those lines that look like this either.
Any help would be appreciated as I'm certain I'll need to track down some parts to make it whole again should I win it.