Difference between factory card and order card?

[Badbob]

OK, I new to the 'club'. Where I come from a 'collector' is someone who has three of the same category. I reckon that makes me 1/3 a collector of Fox guns!
Just got a 12 gauge, numbered 26057, graded A in right decent condition and want to obtain info on the original order for the gun. I have seen reference to a 'factory card' and an 'order card'
and am curious to know if they are one and the same or different from one another, and should I consider getting a 'factory letter' in addition to one or both of these, and where to go to get any or all of these.
I like the idea of knowing some history of this particular gun. Thanks!

[Researcher]

With Parker Bros. shotguns there were huge old bound ledgers, many which still survive in the archives at the Remington factory at Ilion. There were two sets of these books, the Order books and the Stock books, and on top of that the Parker Gun Collectors Association found several boxes of the production cards that followed the guns through the factory. All that survive for Ansley H. Fox guns are these cards which followed the gun through its production cycle in the factory. They are stored in the archives at the Savage factory at Westfield, Mass. Only a handful of the graded 12-gauge cards from 1 to 9600 survive. Over twenty years ago some Fox collectors managed to talk their way into the Savage archives and photocopied the cards for the graded guns. The A.H. Fox Collectors Association received one of these copies a few years ago. Dues paying members get one free card look up per year and can get additional card look-ups for $25 payable by check of via PayPal. Normally members request a card lookup in the Members Forum, and one of the borad members emails a jpeg of the card to the member within 24 hours. Non-computer members can request a look-up by mail and we send them a copy of the face of the card. When the cards were photocopied probably less than 5% of the cards got their backs photocopied, so the only way to access that information is with a letter from the Savage historian. Likewise, the Savage Historian has access to all the Sterlingworth cards which we don't have.

For $40 Graded or $30 Sterlingworth (last prices I've seen quoted) you can get a factory letter on most any Ansley H. Fox shotgun (Philadelphia or Utica) from

John T. Callahan
Arms Historian
P.O. Box 82
Southampton, MA 01073.

Send him the complete serial number and a check, and he can do the rest. That would tell you the specifications of the gun when it left the factory. A letter from John normally takes 6 to 8 weeks. Sometimes a card is a wealth of information, but often guns built for stock cards are pretty bleak. Here is an example of a Sterlingworth card --



Here is a bit more information on the card for BoWhoop --

[Dalgo]

I sent Mr. Callahan a letter and a check on Nov. 2nd of 2012. Check was cashed right away. It is now 16 weeks and I have had no reply from Mr. Callahan on any history about my gun. In contrast, I received a copy of the front part of the card on my gun immediately upon requesting information from this forum. Researcher responded amazingly fast.

Dalgo

[ROMAC]

Dalgo, I'd follow up with a note to Mr. Callahan. The only letter I ever got from him, he did not cash the check untill he did the research. I was told that that was his modus operandi. I hope your letter did not get lost in the Christmas mail rush. 4 moths is a little long unless things have changed.

[Badbob]

Information noted....Thank you, Mr. Researcher. The check is in the mail to Mr. C......