A grade special features

[ritmaine]

I am looking at an A grade with a beavertail and checkered side panels. Are these legitimate options or an indication of replaced wood. The factory letter mentions neither option. Would that be usual or are all features usually in a letter? Thank you.

[Twice Barrel]

I would be very suspicious of an A grade with checkered side panels. Look very closely in the checkering and I suspect that you will find plugs converting reinforcing bolts in he stock head which have been disguised with checkering. As far as the beaver tail forend the letter should have mentioned the extra cost feature unless it went back later for a factory replacement. The serial number should also be stamped in the wood between the barrel channels if this is a an original forend. If you are still not sure compare the checkering styles with those listed in McIntosh's book.

[Researcher]

More often than not, checkered stock cheeks, on a gun that normally didn't come with them, are covering a repair to a cracked stock head. That said, over the years I've seen cards that call for checkered stock cheeks and those that call for not checkering the cheeks on guns that normally came with checkered stock cheeks. Many Ansley H. Fox guns were built "for stock" and when an order came in for a gun that one in "stock" could be modified to fill, a Fox Special tag was made out for the changes. More often than not, only the original production card survives in the records, but sometimes the "Fox Special" card survives, and in a few lucky instances both do. I have such a gun in a 16-gauge Fox-Sterlingworth Deluxe Ejector Field, and Roe Clark sent me photocopies of the cards --





After decades of looking at Fox guns and reading the letters one gets some ability to read between the lines as to what is in the letter and the gun in front of you. Also, many guns were returned to the factory for modifications and/or repairs and none of those records survive. The production cards/factory letters are a clue, but they are not the be all and end all. Post some pictures of the gun in question and I'm sure some of the finely tuned eyeballs that frequent the board will comment.

[ritmaine]

Thanks for the great infomation. On rereading Mcintosh's book he states that beavertails weren't catalogued until the l930's This is a l922 gun so must be a later fitment.

[Researcher]

Even though the A.H. Fox Gun Co. never catalogued a beavertail forearm for doubles, they did make some in the 1920s. I was in my fifth decade of looking at Fox shotguns when I saw my first rightious Philadelphia era beavertail forearm.

[ASavageFox]

as other have said... never say never... I own an AE that was ordered with C grade wood... not C grade checkering but C grade quality stock. I've seen a sterlingworth that were engraved more like an A grade but said sterlingworth and letters with the extra engraving. Lots more of these unique guns out there than most would suspect.