424 
FOREST AND STREAM, 
[May 25, 1895. 
The Hunter Arms Co* 
Events move rapidly in America, but there are few 
shooters now before the public in America who cannot 
easily remember back to a time when a certain event of 
importance occurred in the history of guns and gun- 
nery in this country. It seems a good while ago, but 
really it was not so very long ago when the first L. C. 
Smith gun was put on the market and began to be ad- 
outline and general symmetry. The Hunter Arms Co., 
always a little ahead, recognized that the great question 
mxt to be met was that of getting out a more shapely 
gun. Slowly and surely the lines of the L. C. Smith 
be 'an to improve. People began to say, "What a pretty 
gun!" 
Foreign guns began to appear with ejectors on them. 
Always a little ahead, the Hunter Arms Co. was the first 
to grasp the ejector idea. No better ejector has ever been 
THE HUNTER ARMS COMPANY'S EXHIBIT. 
vertised as a good gun for American shooters to have. 
Comparisons are usually odious, but comparisons are 
very well when one compares his own success with his 
earlier shortcomings, and it will hurt no one to refer to 
the quality of the early L. C Smith guns. Those were 
the days of 10-bores, of tremendously heavy barrels, of 
olubbish proportions and general clumsiness and awk- 
wardness in gun-making in the United States — the days 
when foolish men carried around a cannon of a gun and 
shot at quail with 5drs. of black powder and H^z, of shot. 
The shooter of those days boasted of the solidity of his L. 
C. Smith gun, which weighed perhaps ll-Jlbs. — a truly 
awful weapon. Still, no one even to-day could deny the 
shooting qualities of these guns, for even in those days it 
was evident a splendid system of boring had been dis- 
covered. The most heated discussion arose over the 
shooting of these guns, but the guns went right on shoot- 
ing. Still another fine feature of these oil guns was the 
Smith cross-bolt, beyond doubt the best bretch fastening 
ever put on any gun. Foreign guns have several very 
pretty fastening bolts, but some of them have not stood 
the test of time. In a few months the gun is loose, 
and hence dangerous and worthless. No one even 
in the modern days of excessive charges of nitro powder 
has ever seen a loose L. C. Smith gun. Even the old 
cannons, if you could resurrect them to-day, would be 
tight and sound. The Hunter Arms Co., manufacturers 
of this gun, are the only firm on earth who guarantee 
their guns not to shoot loose with nitros. No other maker 
has this fastening. Then came the day of the hammer- 
less guns, and the L, C. Smith gun as usual was a little 
ahead of the time. It happened that the writer, away 
back in the early '80s, purchased} one oi the very first 
of tht si guns brought into his State. It was a 12-gauge 
and weighed 8f lbs. Eight years later it was still a sound, 
good gun, but the march of the L. C. Smith had long 
gone past it. The nitro powder had come to stay. The 
L. C. Smith gun was the first to experiment with proper 
boring for the handling of the new powders. It was 
alWays ahead, not a little behind. Long ago, by this 
time, the reputation of the L. C. Smith gun was perma- 
nently established, and it was known as a perfect shooter 
in every corner of the land. Long since Harvey Mc- 
Murchy had carried the banner of the L. C. Smith everj • 
where in America — and either then or to-day a better rep- 
resentative of a gun or a keener student of events never 
existed than Mr. McMurchy, and probably the public will 
never know just how much of the continued improvements 
in this gun have been due to him. Certainly it is only due 
to him to say that he and the gun grew up together. It 
was a matter of course that when Mr. L. C. Smith disposed 
of his interests to the firm which for some years ha^e 
manufactured this gun (the Hunter Arms -Co.), M*t~"' 
McMurchy should go on at Fulton, N. Y., with his old 
sweetheart, the L. C. Smith gun. Apparently there has 
never been any regret on either side since then. Certainly 
there have been many changes and improvements in the 
gun since then. Even more than ever, it has been the 
gun par excellence of America. It 1 had ideas, and was 
not afraid to carry them out. 
Shooters began to be dissatisfied with American guns. 
They would shoot all right and wear all right, but they 
did not balance and handle right— they lacked elegance of 
devised by those who took more time to ponder. Simple 
and positive, with few parts, and so arranged that you 
can't load your gun without leaving it in firing order, it is 
all that can be asked and quite as good as has appeared. 
You can use this ejector in sea shooting, and it will work. 
Moreover, it wi'l not "break ' you to buy it. It is not a 
luxury, to go to the rich alono. 
As selling agent for New York, the Eastern and Southern 
States for the L. C. Smith gun, this firm does one of the 
great gun businesses of the country. This is how the 
Hunter Arms Co. exhibit was made in connection with 
those of the W. Fred Quimby Co. The goods were shown 
by Mr. Robert Hunter, Mr. William Hunter, Mr. Thomas 
Hunter. There are six of the "Hunter boys" in the firm 
of the Hunter Arms Co. They are nearly all large speci- 
mens of manhood, and Mr. Thop. Hunter said that he and 
his brother William together weighed 465lbs. 
And so our story of the growth of a gun has ap- 
proached the exhibit at the Sportsmen's Exposition. 
What shall we say of the exhibit itself? Very little. 
The story that has gone before is the best description of a 
gun which has always been ahead in methods of manu- 
facture and of distribution on the trade. There were 
twenty odd guns displayed, running in price from $45 up 
to $500, and not in any one of them could you find a 
hint that it was one of the offspring of the old L. C. Smith 
gun described in the opening lines of this story — except 
that it would shoot, and that it would not shoot loose! In 
total value the display was worth about $2,500. To show 
how the public likes a good article, it will do to note the 
fact that over $1,500 worth of these guns were sold during 
the week, more than half the total number shown, one 
a magnificent specimen which sold for $500. This gun 
was of Whitworth fluid steel barrels, magnificently en- 
graved finish, and of a purity of outline hitherto unknown 
io American gun making art. After this the foreigners 
must come to us to learn how to make a symmetrical and 
finely balanced gun. The ait is at length attained here. 
Of the guns displayed in the cases the majority showed 
the Crown steel barrels, so popular as made by the Hun- 
ter Arms Co., though fine Damascus and the cheaper 
laminated barrels were also shown. A full line of 'Sec- 
tionals showed the beautiful working of the lock, safety 
and ejector mechanisms, and one grand gun was shown 
unbr owned, "in the bright," to display the beautiful en- 
graving before sending it to the bluer and browner people. 
■ Thp bulk of the twenty guns shown were of Crown steel 
barrels (this was the first gun firm to upe that barrel 
material in America), and the straight hand, as made on 
all the handsome ejector pigeon guns. By the way, the 
L. C. Smith was the first also to adopt this fashion of 
stock, now rapidly becoming so popular. In short, this is 
the gun which has always been a little ahead. 
Of Mr. L. C. Smith, often called the "lucky man," it 
was sometimes said that if he should fall into the. ocean 
he would come up covered with diamonds. Now, whether 
it was the inventor of this gun, or Mr. McMurchy, who so 
ably has shown it and sepn it win the highest sort of 
honors, or whether it was the Hunter Arms Co. who have 
put their money boldly into making a gun "always a 
little ahead," or whether it was Mr, W. Fred Quimby 
of New York, who has and probably always will handle 
this gun — whichever it was that was to blame for it most 
no one knows: but certainly the combination has been a 
great one and a winning one. Out of this the public 
can draw its own inferences in regard to the present and 
the future of the gun which has been "always a little 
ahead," 
Spratts Patent. 
The exhibit of Spratts Patent, Limited (American), waa 
most complete in its array of dog furnishings and foods. 
No sportsmen's exhibition would be complete without such 
an exhibit, and no exhibit could be mora complete in it- 
self than was that of Spratts Patent at the Sportsmen's 
Exposition in Madison Square Garden last week. 
There were dog Collars large and small, some plain and 
strong with a view to practical usefulness, others strong 
and ornamental with a view both to use and beauty* 
THE EXHIBIT OF SPRATTS PATENT. 
But long before this another thing had happened which 
shows the good luck and good foresight of the owners of 
the L, C. Smith gun. This was the fortunate arrange- 
ment by which Mr. Fred Quimby became selling agent of 
the gun. The firm is now the W. Fred Quimby Co. , of 294 
Broadway, New York city, and it cuts a great and grow- 
ing figure in the sporting goods trade of the United States. 
Dog chains of the best material and construction were in 
sizes from the light slender chain used on toy dogs up to 
the heavy chains needed for the largest St. Bernards and 
Mastiffs. Neat leathern leads of different weights and 
s'zes for the show ring, and for leading the dog about in 
security or for exercise; metal pans which cannot be up- 
set, and which can be used for feeding and watering; dog 
