Fox Collectors

After my previous post, I've been thinking of writing something definitive about SP-/SPE Skeet Guns. While eating my breakfast this morning, I've been scrolling around the production cards in the 347xx and 348xx range. "Something definitive" is a joke!! The first mention of a skeet gun bui...

Great Gun, Brett. Congrats! Mine is 34891, probably not quite as nice. 34891 05 12-ga SPE-Grade S&UGG right.JPG I mark my getting this gun in May 1977, on a spring trip thru New England, at Capeway Sport Center along the road out Cape Cod, as when I move from being a guy who hunted with a co...

Great photo. Thanks for sharing.

The factory building was pictured from North 18th Street on the back cover of the 1904 Philadelphia Arms Co. catalog -- Back Cover 1904 Pocket Catalog.jpeg A "Brownie" picture of the factory after the A.H. Fox Gun Co. moved in -- 1907 Postcard front.jpg The pictures of the factory in the A...

Keystone Cable was the name over the door when I visited in the late 1980s.

She looks a little less intense in that last photo!

I gotta wonder what would a schematic do for you that the Disassembly Instructions on our home page doesn't cover?

https://foxcollectors.com/mechanisms/disassembly

By the 1920s the factory original checkering on A-/AE-Grades wasn't fully pointed up -- 201683 01 A-Grade, 26-inch.jpeg but generally, cut a bit deeper than on a Sterlingworth -- Flat-Top Checkering 01 STERLINGWORTH EJECTOR BRUSH.jpg Catalog A-/AE-Grade picture and text -- 1926 Retail Catalogue, pg ...

That pin actuates the automatic safety when the top-lever is pushed to the right. Cut-aways from the 1908 "Campfire" Catalog --

That gun looks like an AE-Grade to me. Shouldn't have cheek checkering.

https://forum.foxcollectors.com/viewtopic.php?t=13072

A 1906 Lewis era Ithaca Gun Co. catalog lists the barrels for the No. 1 Special as "Nitro Steel." I don't have any Minier or early Flues era Ithaca catalogs but the 1911 to 1915 catalogs list Cockerill Steel barrels for the No. 1 Special. 1911-12 pg 14 No. 1 Special.jpg The next Flues era ...

My No. 1 Special that shipped 25 May 1915, with never catalogued 30-inch Cockerill Steel barrels, choked .000" right and .018" left, has 2 7/8-inch chambers, but it has only digested these while in my care -- 28-gauge, 2 1-2-inch, Lite, 5-8-ounce #9.jpeg From the 1914-15 Ithaca Gun Co. cat...

Very nice 28-gauge. Is it chambered for 2 1/2-inch or 2 7/8-inch shells -- TARGET 28-ga.jpg TARGET 28-ga 2 7-8 inch.jpg Up through the 1914-15 Ithaca Gun Co. catalog the No. 1 1/2 was their entry-level Damascus barrel gun -- 1914-15 Ithaca Gun Co. catalog No. 1 1-2.jpeg In July 1915 magazine ads Ith...

The workmanship on these early guns from Wayne & Bristol Streets is top notch but being all 12-gauges, they don't seem to do all that well in the marketplace. From the first A.H. Fox Gun Co. catalog -- 1905 Finest Gun in the World page 5.jpeg The earliest B-Grades didn't get that little burst of...

As of 9-3-23 out of the 3010 guns in his Model 71 survey he had recorded 135 with the 20” barrel. If you have access to the Summer 2021 Winchester Collector magazine there is a very informative article in there on 71’s. You can also see it online at the Winchester Collector forum I believe. I found...