Fox Baltimore Gun Co.

[pinion]

Hi All,

First post here, I happen to be going through my shot guns that were given to me by my grandfather/via great grandfather hand down and noticed I had a Fox and wanted to do some research on it. I was in process of rebuilding a stevens 255 and started to research the fox and came across the forum here. The gun itself is in ok shape, the trigger guard can easy be adjusted and put back in place but there is a hole drilled up near the tang for a bolt it appears to go through and hold everything tight which i am not seeing on any other guns, as well as my forearm does not have a take down lever but just a pin and nut in the wood that does not match up to any other guns i have seen on the forum while i waited for activation. Here are some pics of the gun the serial number is shown, #567. The barrels measure 28", not sure of the gauge one would guess a 12gauge as the only markings on the gun i have found thus far is the fox name and the 3 digit serial.

https://drive.google.com/folderview?id= ... sp=sharing

[bbman3]

Welcome,there are experts on this forum who can give you more info than i.I once owned one of these guns and they are scarce.That hole drilled in cheek of stock is for a bolt that repaired a cracked and spreading stock.Bobby

[pinion]

There is some minor fracturing in that area, but there is some spreading i would guess that is why they put the bolt in place.

[Researcher]

Welcome aboard. Looks like the old Fox has seen some hard travelling, like most of them have. Looks like someone replaced the woodscrew in the forearm with a machine screw. Not an uncommon happening when the woodscrew loses purchase in oil soaked or split wood. The forearm should look like this --





Also looks like the top rib is coming loose from the barrels at the breech end.

I've never heard of one of these being made in anything but 12-gauge, and those I've had a chance to measure the chambers in were chambered for the old 3 1/4 inch bulk smokeless powder paper shells. Also, those I've measured all had very tight bores in the .708" to .712" range. Seems like Ansley was very concerned about a good gas seal at that time.

[pinion]

Thank you, could you tell me anything else about it such as is there a model or what barrel type it is? It would appear to me that they are damascus of some sort though I have never seen any others in person for comparison. I fixed the trigger gaurd last night with a few gentle taps of a rubber mallet then proceeded to start dismantling the gun for clean up and lubrication. I did notice there is more cracking in the internal tang area than was thought internally. Which explains the need for the bolt now though it could be easily repaired by a smith or with some gorilla glue and a little patience i think. I would like when i am done repairing and cleaning to have it checked for safety and shoot it some. I saw that some people use a special lite load. Just for my own curiosity as i do not intend to part with it, what are most of these worth once they are fixed up and in working order with all orig equipment?

[Researcher]

The Fox Gun Co., Balto., MD., U.S.A. guns appear to have been made in two grades -- A-Grade, like yours, have Twist barrels and the B-Grades have Damascus barrels. There were probably less than a thousand of these guns made in the company's barely 1 1/2 years existence, July 1898 to Jan 1900. Your's is the twentieth one of these I've recorded, 17 A-grades and three B-grades. Serial numbers from 153 to 901. Some collectors feel a need to have one in their collection, but there is really little demand for them, and I don't know of anyone actually shooting one of them. They seem to go for a few hundred dollars, but we've yet to see one surface in really high condition, or in any higher grades.

[pinion]

Great thank you for the info, do you know of any manufacturers who make replica stocks/forends incase i am unable to salvage mine properly? i found a company who had a buttstocks for foxs later models but not this one that i saw.

[jolly bill]

pinion,

Just to add to Researcher's comments about those not very common, but may not necessarily be highly sought after, FOX GUN CO. BALTO MD USA guns.

As luck would have it, I have owned two Fox Balto guns, both B grades: #345 a fairly high condition gun that Tom Kidd featured in one of his Double Gun Journal articles and # 438 that I now own and shoot.

#438 (some pictures below) is in reasonably good condition with decent bores so shooting it was not a tough decision. Have shot 7/8 ounce black powder loads plus some 1/2 ounce light loads that I load using nitro powder (Alliant Extra Lite) at less than 5500 psi pressure and about 1300 fps. It has 30 inch Damascus barrels choked Full and Full. A grades have twist steel barrels as Researcher pointed out.

What they may be worth? Good question as you just don't see them come on the market. I'll have my #438 on the Fox FOR SALE table next week at the NE S x S Classic at Hausmann's Hidden Hollow in PA. Against the rules to market or advertise a gun on this part of the forum, so if anyone is interested, send me a PM for details.

For your gun, it might not be easy, and might be pricy, to get it to shooting condition and when you do, it may not have a lot of value. Different story if it has some family heritage value and only you can decide what to do and what you might want to spend.

Hope this helps some.

Jolly

[pinion]

Thank you for the extra information, I dont have any intention of selling i was just curious as to what they were worth since they were rare. I have an affection for double guns, being as this was my great grandfathers it does have family worth to me so i will fix it up, everything works on it so cleaning it up and fixing the stock are the main things before i have a gun smith take a look at the barrels for me. I do load my own ammo as well so i could look into making some lite 12gauge loads for it once its operational. I would like to make it look as best as possible with out destroying or taking away anything from it.

[pinion]

Though if you could give me any hints on final disassemble that would be appreciated, i have the stock off the back and the hing pin bolt out but the forearm and receiver are all still connected and i did not want to do anything crazy so i was taking my time trying to get it all apart.

[jolly bill]

Pinion,

I have not tried taking one of the Balto Fox's apart, and hopefully I'll never have to. I'll leave that to someone who knows what they're doing - that ain't me.

The standard A. H. Fox's are OK to disassemble but only if needed. Those too, I don't like to try and turn a screw and possibly make a mess of the screw slot.

Seen too many with buggered screw slots. They aren't pretty.

Maybe someone else has some thoughts.

Jolly