Utica Sterlingworth Skeet and Upland Game Gun

[JasonPeck]

Here is one I haven't shared before here. Utica Sterlingworth Skeet and Upland Game Gun 12 gauge with factory straight grip and 26" barrels manufactured by Savage about 1936. 6lb 13oz. Choked C/IC. This gun was offered to me while manning my display tables at a price I could not refuse. Some nice case colors remaining. The rubber pad was on it when I bought it and gives a longer LOP which suits me.

[fox-admin]

Nice gun in great condition. Nice pickup and an appropriate reward for all your hard work and dedication.

[Researcher]

Nice gun!! Wish my 12-gauge S&UGG had a longer stock. Mine was ordered 13 1/2 inch with a Jostam Anti-Flinch pad. Been using a slip-on pad on it for twenty years. Seems to work as I've twice run 75 straight with it and my 7/8 ounce reloads.

Jason, could you give me the serial number so I can ad it to my list? I see there are two of these on Gunbroker.com right now, 160255 and 160400. One in California looking for an opening bid of $2500 and the other in Georgia starting at a penny and now at $706.

[JasonPeck]

I believe you have observed this serial number previously. 160722.

[Researcher]

You are right, I do. Thanks.

[eightbore]

Big difference between $2500.00 and $706.00. What is the real value of those fairly scarce Savage era bird guns? I almost hit on a great S&UG 16 gauge a while back at a Chantilly Virginia show, thinking without thinking that it was a butchered pistol grip Sterlingworth. My friend, Kevin M. wrote the check because of a greater knowledge of such things. I wonder if one of us scored the Gunbroker 12 gauge, and at what price? Don't see a lot of those.

[JasonPeck]

Whoever bought the Gunbroker SUGG #160255 got a steal at $767.

[eightbore]

#160,255 arrived today and it is outstanding. Many suggestions of wood refinishing or added finish, but I'm not sure. Late guns have lots of questions. The case color is great with some of it under original varnish. Buttplate is all there with a crack. Barrel blue is dull, but barrels ring very well. I'm looking for my Johnson's Floor Wax as we speak. I have never owned a Fox with open chokes. I will test fire later this week. This gun would be right at home with a $2500 starting price. By the way, Jason, I had to pay a $25 shipping fee. Thanks to Kevin McCormack for my recent education on Skeet and Upland guns. Thanks for your comments on my new gun.

[JasonPeck]

Real good buy Bill.

[eightbore]

I have a great "Sterlingworth with Condition" collection, including this S&UG, a great flat side a couple of weeks ago at the Waterfowl Festival in Easton, MD, a real nice 20 a couple of years ago, and some common high condition hard butt 12s from a while back. Who knew a few decades ago that a bunch of original case color would make Sterlingworths a good collector buy? Except for a few nice Supers, and a nice PAC B, I don't own a high grade Fox, and I'm not disappointed. Noreen got me started on Sterlys and they are good enough for me.

[eightbore]

My first Sterly came from the old Winchester, VA show about 40 years ago. It was a mint non ejector 30" gun with a Pachmayr pad. I couldn't live with the pad so it got traded away for a VHE Remington Parker 16. The Sterly cost me $125 and I would pay twice that to get it back.

[Dave Erickson]

Take my non-collector comments with a grain of salt, but I'm genuinely tickled with my Utica Sterlingworth 12. It fits and comes up as well or better than anything I own. It has a couple fixable issues, so rather than investing in more or better Fox's I'm going to put it right and enjoy it. I already have the checkering recut and stock refinished, and over the winter I'm having the metal work done.

[Foxnut]

Jason, the gun you pictured that started this thread is a great looking gun! At the November Tulsa show there were two 12/26 S&UGG at different tables. The first was a gun w/no case color left at all but bluing was very good and stock still had most of the varnish/finish left on it. Asking price was $1900.00. I made an offer on the gun and the owner came down to $1600.00. The second was a gun with appx. 50% color on the receiver and strong barrel blue. Stock May have been refinished. If I remember correctly it had ejectors. Asking price was $2600. You usually don’t see two at the same show. Last Spring Art Wiley had a 16 Ga. S&UGG 2 barrel set one barrel marked Utica and the other Chicopee Falls. A nice gun w/asking price of $3900.00 w/nice leather & canvas case. I was enamored w/that one but couldn’t pull the trigger.

I think prices on these guns are all over the map due to scarcity. I know some dummy (me!) who payed way to much for a really nice condition 2 barrel 12 Sterly S&UGG w/ejectors that was the last new Fox gun to leave the factory and belonged to Roe Clark. Just had to have it!

[Jim Cloninger]

Brett, Roe's gun! That is something. Jim

[eightbore]

I left a nice 16 gauge Skeet and Upland at a PA auction last weekend. I have no idea why, I just did.