Newby looking for CE enlightenment

[fox-admin]

Researcher can weight in here, but I believe that 4-point stamp was used starting with the transition from Philly to Utica. Like I said I could be wrong.

[FOXsan]

I recently purchased a CE 12 gauge represented as being in great shape
and to make a long story short, it wasn't great!!!! I have spent $100s and
now have a nice CE but not a great one. I did have a 3 day opportunity
to review the gun but my knowledge was insufficient to see all that was
wrong. And I had been looking for a nice CE and thought I had found it.
An expensive lesson learned

I later had an outstanding gunmaker tell me to me extremely careful buying high grade guns on the web because their present high prices are allowing unethical folks to invest in sprucing up these weapons and still make a good profit. He also reworked the gun to bring it to its present
state.

I would look very carefully at the serial numbers on the gun you are inter-
ested in because they don't look quite right:

* The fore end and barrel clearly end xxxx64
* The receiver flat appears to have a flat topped 6
it appears to me to be a 5.

I hope I'm wrong, as the gun is beautiful and if authentic would be
a great one to own.

FOX san

[MaxandWill]

Foxsan,

Sorry your lessons learned had to come with a bitter taste on your CE but hopefully the end result will provide years of enjoyment.

Regarding your words of caution. Truer words have never been spoken. I have messed around with the Parkers for some time now and it's sad to see the degree of misrepresentation out there. Ya better know what your doin !

That's what makes it so hard for me to venture out of my comfort zone looking for a Fox. Frankly if this gun fell into one of three categories I would buy it tomorrow.

1) At a dealer I know to be reputable. ( And yes they are out there )
I am not saying that this dealer is not reputable I just know nothing about them.
2) Came with a recommendation from someone I trusted that knew the gun and I knew knows these guns.

Unfortunately I otherwise would be taking a very pricey blind mans risk.


On another subject does anyone know why I cannot get the Private Mail I have written to send out of my mail box?

Thanks gentlemen.

[Silvers]

The PM won't go out of your "Out Box" to your "Sent Box" until the recipient signs on and reads messages.

[Researcher]

I gotta wonder what kind of person would change the barrel address on a nice Utica 16-gauge CE-Grade when it has been well known for at least the last 35 years that factory letters are available for Fox guns??

I know I have a gun, or set of barrels, with those marks -- the square with the concave sides and the sort of two triangles making a little fir tree. But, they aren't on any of the readily available guns -- four Savage era, and three from 1913-14. I seem to remember them being on my 1928 12-gauge 3-inch chamber Super-Fox, but the 32-inch barrel guns are in the far back corner of the safe. My Savage-era J-Grade single-barrel Trap gun has that jeweling on the barrel flats and cocking slide.

[birdawg]

Sometimes I feel we forget that many of these higher graded Fox guns were more custom rather than mass production.
Below is a shot of one of my CE's. This gun is from 1920 or so (Sn digits remove in processing)

I am pretty sure the jeweling was not added after the gun left the factory, but as said before. I would never, say never. Well almost never.

[Silvers]

Jess, thanks for the pic. Your jeweling is more distinct than mine but the pattern and coverage are very similar. Note how the jeweling isn't on the bottom part of the ejectors on either gun. Incidentally I had the entire s/n covered on my barrels but for anyone interested it is s/n 320xx.

I'm still interested in what Researcher aptly described as the stamp that's a square with concave sides (aka as the 4-point star). Also the one that looks like two triangles stacked to look like an evergreen. My wife has the better camera with her on a trip but I'll try to get a macro of those marks with our old camera. Will post later if it looks okay. Maybe one of our board regulars has some good data on these stamps? Frank

[birdawg]

Frank,
As a note, this gun has no cross hatching or marking on the breech ends like yours does. One of the things that make these guns interesting is the seemingly endless variety during production.

I hope someone is keeping track of these variations as we drag them up.
I have been trying to copy the photos as they come out in the hope I can piece some of this together in the future. Sharing this info is a real help when it comes time to write the check for one.
jess