27" barrels and No 5 wt. stamp on 1911 12 AE

[Germantown]

?? Did Fox always stay with uniform barrel lengths, : 26" 28" 30" 32" regardless of gauge and or grade. GI has a 1911 AE 12 with 27" barrels and it shows c/lm in the ad. Is there a fool proof way to tell if this gun was a special order with that odd barrel length before I put my dinero on the line.?? Also, when I asked the seller (G&H- very very reputable) for the numeral barrel weight stamp, their reply indicated that it was #5-- Strange, as I thought that the numbering code went from 1 to 4 and ended there. Any insights here would be very much appreciated.

[birdhunter]

You can use the member site to look up the serial number and see the manufacturing card. If your a member.

[Germantown]

Thanks- I'm not yet a member. Once I buy and decide to keep a 12 bore AH Fox shotgun, I will most likely join. I could ask the dealer (Griffin & Howe) for the serial number, and have a member do that, with me then reimbursing him the $25.00 fee. But here's the rub. On my 12 gauge bird guns I much prefer 30" long barrels, a few I own have 28", nothing shorter. Also, as, if I can mention another gun make for reference purposes only: The pre-1913 LC Smith, from Grade 2 and up, had half moon milled out "witness marks" on both top and bottom barrel ribs, so if those are missing, the barrels have been cut. Hunter Arms also continued this practice after the 1914 revision on all guns from Ideal Grade and up, with the possible exception of the Gifford Simmonds Pat's ventilated rib in 1926, and the later solid raised top rib first offered in 1939 at a $5.00 extra charge. I have a 12 Ideal Grade FWE made in 1945 with 28" barrels with that optional rib, the top is not milled, but the bottom barrel rib is in the "half-moon" pattern. I am curious as to whether AH Fox in Phila or Fox-Savage in Utica NY had some form if "ID" to verify the original factory length of the barrels on any certain shotgun they produced. To the best of my knowledge here, Hunter Arms may have been the only double gun manufacturer to offer a certain Grade with the buyer's choice of : 26", 27" or 28" long barrels, on their Skeet Special which came out in the early 1930's-- Parker, Ithaca, LeFever- not that odd length unless perhaps a special order.

[SmithShady]

There is an interesting post on this topic if you use the search function on this site and type in " Two Foot Barrels". The post discusses several factory examples that people have seen over the years of barrels that came from the factory in an uncommon length. As for the #5 barrel weight stamp, that doesn't sound correct to me, but maybe someone else can chime in. The Barrel Weights actually went from 0 through 4, with the 4 weight being the lightest and the 0 weight reserved for heavy barreled guns like the Super Fox. I've got a CE 12ga with 4 weight barrels and I can't imagine anything lighter! The barrels were stamped before final finishing, so it's often hard to find a barrel weight stamp on the lighter guns as they were commonly struck off. My guess might be an illegible 3 being mistaken for a 5. The best way to know for sure is to do a card lookup as birdhunter suggested, assuming it's a graded gun.

Mike

[Germantown]

Thank you Mike, I think you are correct in this being a set of #3 wt. barrels-- Another thing- the dealers I have been in contact with so far in my search for a shoot-able graded Phila AH Fox 12 bore- when asked about trigger pulls- many report pulls in the 7 lb. range- Wow- I know that a top gunsmith can remedy that, but did Fox guns have a reputation for leaving the factory with heavy trigger pulls?