Fox Sterlingworth 12ga Project

[MKETOOL]

A little more progress

[jimmartin]

Looks good but please do not cut the barrels , backbore or strike the weight off or my choice ,leave them alone. I have a pin Sterlingworth with 30" barrels that are almost 4 lbs and they shoot and balance so good it would be a sin to cut them.

[Jeff S]

He's right, cutting the barrels is a sin. Of course my favorite skeet gun is a Sterlingworth that my Grandpa cut 2" off the barrels. I guess that's what they did back in the '50's. It doesn't pattern real well, but I seem to break a lot of clay pigeons with it.

[Sam Ogle]

Your gun looks wonderful. Keep taking pictures, as we shooters get a lot of enjoyment in seeing every one of them.
Sam Ogle, Lincoln, NE

[ROMAC]

Proper balance can make a gun feel lighter, unless the weight issue is drastic, perhaps some judicious weight added to the stock can alleviate the need to cut.

[MKETOOL]

Thanks so much for all of the input. It helps a lot to kick things around while I am trying to make a decision on the barrels. I am leaning towards not cutting them if possible. While I want the weight down so it can be carried on a all day hunt, the balance is also very important to making it feel lighter. Also after a lot of thinking, I decided I do not want to put in choke tubes because they take away so much of the beauty of an old gun. It is pretty much choked Full Full now and I want it choked Mod and Imp Cyl. There isn't very much choke length in the barrels, so the most I could probably cut off would be an inch anyway. I do expect to have my roughed out wood in the next few days so I will post some pictures when I get it.

[vaturkey]

Interesting that there isn't much choke length in the barrels. Most Foxes have chokes that run circa 4.5" long and hence bobbing off 2" of barrel would still result in a good bit of choke remaining. There are factory order cards where the factory the barrels to achieve desired length of the order provided the chokes would work out for the buyer wanted. My 2cents (for what its worth) is since this gun is 100% custom cutting the barrels will have zero affect on anything and may provide you what you are looking for in weight/aesthetics.

BTW, enjoyed this thread. Your doing some awesome work on that gun.

[eightbore]

I think I have mentioned that my 28" Sterlingworth ejector weighs exactly six pounds, twelve ounces. It is a bit too original to convert to a custom, but I have no doubt that I could make a 6 1/4 pound gun out of it with some wood and metal trimming, without cutting the barrels. Cutting the barrels to about 24" could result in an under six pound gun. Interesting concept.

[ROMAC]

If I remember correctly, in Steven Dodd Hughes' book Fine Gunmaking // Double Shotguns he states that he took 8 oz. off of his 12 gauge Sterlingworth custom throughout the customization process. I can't recall if that included the barrels being struck but I cant go look right now because I am at work.

[vaturkey]

The Abby Gun started out at 7 lb 6 oz on a digital scale and it was a clone to Bills (Eightbore) in that it was a 28" Ejector 12 Gauge SW with number 3 barrels made in 1913. Finished weight is 6 lb 14 oz on my digital scale and that includes very dense English Walnut and a slightly longer forearm then what the Sterlingworth had. In summary I'd think there would be little problem with shaving off 1/2 a pound of weight on the metal side of things with barrel striking and action shaping. The Abby Gun is a shade muzzle heavy, but that was my choice as I shoot that better then once balanced on the hingepin.

FWIW, my target goal was 6 lb 12 oz so we got it pretty close overall.

[MKETOOL]

With all of the metal I have removed from the action so far it has only added up to .9 ozs I thought it would have been more. I have been thinking about drilling some blind holes on the inside of the tangs and bottom plate to take out some weight. I just want to make sure I don't weaken the structure. The barrels currently weight 3 lbs 13 oz but I have not struck them very much yet. The total weight of all of the metal without any wood is currently 6 lbs 1.6 oz

[vaturkey]

Trying to assist, I just weighed the Abby Gun barrels. Weight is dead on at 3 lb 5 oz. FWIW, the forearm weight with metal is 7 oz.

[Jeff S]

Vaturkey, I saw your pictures of the Abby gun a few weeks ago and all I could say was Wow! I wondered it started out as. That's a mighty impressive Sterlingworth.

[MKETOOL]

Trying to assist, I just weighed the Abby Gun barrels. Weight is dead on at 3 lb 5 oz. FWIW, the forearm weight with metal is 7 oz.

Vaturkey,

Thank you very much for the info. Your barrels according to the fox book would have started out at 3 lbs 8 oz so you had 3 oz stuck off of them, that is very good to know. Mine start out as 3 lbs 14oz so I have some work to do on them. On the other hand, I don't want to take too much metal off because I need to be able to shoot heavy loads at the wild pheasant when I go to South Dakota this October.

[vaturkey]

Vaturkey, I saw your pictures of the Abby gun a few weeks ago and all I could say was Wow! I wondered it started out as. That's a mighty impressive Sterlingworth.

Thanks. Labor of love. Abby was a sweety. Miss her every single day.