My Fox XE "Sporter"

[Lldub]

About 19 years ago I decided to seek out a mid grade double to shoot clays every now and them. I've always been a clays fan and never really interested in hunting, but I've enjoyed vintage doubles for a long time, and have owned a couple of nice ones.

Anyway, a Fox was my principle goal but had trouble tracking something down that I thought would fit. I then located an 32" XE at a dealer that had "issues", and priced well under others which I had seen in the market (for obvious reasons) . The original forend was long gone (and refitted with a gosh awful beavertail) and the original stock wood had been cut to about 12.25 inches; hardly usable for me, the chokes had been opened to 11 and 17. Traces of color, but otherwise ok. So, I had it shipped and after taking my first look almost sent it back. But, the engraving on the frame was sharp, with virtually no wear. The bores were clean, and it locked up tight. thinking about how hard it would probably be to find a gun I liked that would actually fit me, I realized that with proper wood there really wasn't anything wrong with this one. Keep in mind any collectors value was secondary....I simply wanted a fine gun to take to the range every now and then.

I had it restocked with a pretty nice piece of wood, and eventually managed to take it to the '97 Vintage Cup, shooting a 98/130. Andy Duffy won with a 122. I haven't attended a "vintage" shoot in years, and don't shoot this gun too much anymore because I've gotten too "hardcore" with the NSCA and shooting a "real" gun . I had it out the other day when I went to the range with my daughter, and let her practice with a new auto loader I bought her. Even she notice the Fox, and the last picture is one she took with her iPhone camera as is it sat in a gun rack.

And, I've added a pic of McIntosh which was taken at the '97 shoot. Nice guy and he did a double take and smiled when he mounted the gun and felt the palm swell; not sure who the creepy guy is standing next to him though. Sure enjoy his books and hate that he's gone.

[bbman3]

What a beautiful gun! Bobby

[Researcher]

Great gun and tale, thanks for sharing.

[AmarilloMike]

Neat gun! And you had them do the checkering in the Fox pattern. I really like it.

[Lldub]

Yes. I wanted to duplicate the original stock as best as reasonably possible, but in more user friendly dimensions (to me). The forend is a different matter. The forend you see is a duplication in shape of the pretty horrible grade .1 American walnut forend that was on the gun. I considered trying to have the original forend duplicated, but in 1995 or so it wasn't that easy to find solid info on it's shape and design. I know now of those who could have, but back then it wasn't that easy. But the real problem was that the forend itself had been altered to the dimensions of the wood (since the forend doesn't have the original "taper" towards the muzzles, the "latch" had to be modified. The hook on the barrels is unmodified). Reconfiguring that would have been a pretty big issue if I could have found someone to do it right in the first place. So, as I said, I simply had the forend wood duplicated but with a wood grade to match the stock. Someday, if I get ambitious enough, I might hand all over to someone to fix everything there. But in the meantime it works and shoots fine, so I'm just leaving it alone. I stocked it to facilitate clays shooting, not to attempt a "restoration". Although, given the pretty great condition of the frame and it's engraving, a "restoration" wouldn't be that difficult except for the wood and choke issues (I doubt 11 and 17 are original).

In the mid 90s Reinhart Fajen built a pretty incredible "stock" shop in Missouri. Ultimately, this was a big contributor to their demise because they apparently didn't get the manufacturer's contracts they expected; at least, that's my understanding. But along with that they created a "Custom Shop", and somewhere along the line I ran across one of their brochures. Not knowing or having access to all the custom stock makers we have and know of, now, I took a couple of days off and drove to their new facility (a 5 hour drive from Dallas). I ended up leaving the gun and you see the result. The blank I picked myself. I was going to go with a more traditional Turkish walnut, but when I saw the gaudiness of what was described to me as a blank of Bastogne, I couldn't resist.

I thought they did an excellent job with the checkering and checkering lines. The original stock wasn't fluted at the comb, and I stuck with that.

[eightbore]

Incredible stock, incredible gun.

[George Lander]

What a beautiful gun Bobby! Stock & forearm is supoerb! I had Reinhart Fajen do several restocks fo me in the 70's & 80's and their work was always great and at a very affordable price.

Best Regards, George