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I have a 12 gauge Philadelphia Sterlingworth # 114170 with 30" barrels that measure 3.75" to the start of the forcing cones.
I was wondering if anyone else has ever seen chambers this long in a Sterlingworth.
I believe the gun was made in 1927 and was wondering if anything that long was being used around that time.
I have checked barrel wall thickness and everything is good with no tool marks or signs of chamber lengthening.
It handles great and has become one of my favorites for sporting clays.
A friend and I once looked over 11 or 12 (I forget) Super-Foxes that were for sale. One of them had 3-5/8" chambers as measured with my special chamber gauge that's made to match the "tight" S-F chamber. Reading would probably have been about 3-3/8" or so with a regular 12 ga chamber gauge. Chambers were reamed nice and smooth, and it looked to me that some gunsmith generously lengthened for 3-inch or maybe even 3-1/2" shells. And that was in the extra heavy 0-weight Super-Fox barrels. We passed on that gun. The fellow who owned the collection kept selling them off and as I recall the rechambered gun was one of the last he had after the others changed hands.
Now, this story doesn't mean anything relative to your gun but I would bet money that your forcing cones or chambers were lengthened. I suggest that you get some wall readings on an unmodified 12-gauge Sterlingworth of that vintage, for comparison, and get a good professional opinion on whether the gun is safe to shoot with the full range of factory loaded shells. Nice graphic!
Last edited by Silvers on Tue Dec 30, 2014 7:56 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Just some additional perspective fwiw. Not counting Super-Foxes, right now I have (64) conventional AH Fox 12-gauge guns in my tech data base on an excel spreadsheet. These are Sterlies and graded guns I've personally measured over the years; some I've owned, others I've just evaluated. Three were ordered for the early 3-inch shells and had chambers that checked out at 2-7/8" or a hair longer. The balance of (61) guns had chambers that measure from a scant 2-5/8" to a tad over 2-3/4" long.
