Fox Sterlingworth Heavy barrels (HE weight)

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Fox Sterlingworth Heavy barrels (HE weight)

Post by AAHESpecial »

At some time in the 1930s, Fox offered a Sterlingworth Waterfowl gun with HE weight barrels and alleged chambering options.
There may have even been small brochures offering this gun well after the move to New York state. Bert Becker remained in
Philadelphia. There may have been HE barrels left as the country slipped deeper into the Depression era-and Fox decided to offer
this option in hopes of selling a more attractively priced heavy double. I believe the American Rifleman ran an article years back
reflecting this waterfowl Sterlingworth -titled Fox Sterlingworth-A Good Gun-Cheap" or something to that effect.

Has anyone run across a heavy HE-barreled Sterlingworth-answering this description?
Any articles or literature?
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Re: Fox Sterlingworth Heavy barrels (HE weight)

Post by Silvers »

Yes. Double Gun Journal, Volume 26, Issue 4 - What's Not To Like - The Heavy Hitter Sterlingworth
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Re: Fox Sterlingworth Heavy barrels (HE weight)

Post by OH Osthaus »

do a search on wildfowl and you will find a few discussions of this model
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Re: Fox Sterlingworth Heavy barrels (HE weight)

Post by Researcher »

https://www.foxcollectors.com/fox-gun-g ... circa-1935

The Sterlingworth Wildfowl Grade first appears on the 1934 Retail Prices sheet stuck in the retail catalogs
March 1, 1934, Retail Prices
March 1, 1934, Retail Prices
and in the Wholesale Price List --
March 1, 1934, Wholesale Price List
March 1, 1934, Wholesale Price List
For 1935, 36, and 37 the Sterlingworth Wildfowl appears in the Wholesale Price Lists --
February 20, 1935, Wholesale Price List
February 20, 1935, Wholesale Price List
March 5, 1936, Wholesale Price List
March 5, 1936, Wholesale Price List
January 2, 1937, Wholesale Price List
January 2, 1937, Wholesale Price List
It doesn't appear on any Fox paper I have for 1938, but McIntosh mentions a 1938 price for it which must have come from a Jobbers or Distributor's Price List.
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Re: Fox Sterlingworth Heavy barrels (HE weight)

Post by Researcher »

It is back in the 1939 Wholesale Price List --
February 1, 1939, Wholesale Price List
February 1, 1939, Wholesale Price List
For 1940 it makes its only retail catalog appearance in the orange Fox retail catalog --
Orange 1940 Retail Catalog pg 7
Orange 1940 Retail Catalog pg 7
and the price list --
January 2, 1940, Retail Prices
January 2, 1940, Retail Prices
and also in the Wholesale Price List which by then had a separate price sheet --
January 2, 1940, Wholesale Price List
January 2, 1940, Wholesale Price List
January 2, 1940, price list
January 2, 1940, price list
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Re: Fox Sterlingworth Heavy barrels (HE weight)

Post by AAHESpecial »

Interesting. Thanks for the additional research help.
The Sterlingworth Wildfowl grade consistently was listed $-10 to approximately $15 below the HE grade.
Both retained ejectors. It was the depression era, and times being what they were......

I did read of a more recent occurance where a widow sold a Wildfowl Sterlingworth at a standard Sterlingworth price.
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Re: Fox Sterlingworth Heavy barrels (HE weight)

Post by Researcher »

The Sterlingworth Wildfowl Grade is essentially the HE-Grade Super-Fox metal finished up in Sterlingworth finish. There appears to be two batches of Sterlingworth Wildfowl Grades. Maybe forty or so in the 1341xx serial number range. The ten that I have observed run from 134102 to 134130. Guns observed in this batch are stocked in Fox-Sterlingworth quality wood.
134102 04.jpg
134122 Fox-Sterlingworth Wildfowl forearm.JPG
The second batch is the last five cards in the graded gun serial number sequence -- 35281 to 35285. While the metal of these guns is finished in Sterlingworth fashion, those observed are stocked in HE-Grade Super-Fox wood.
35281 05.jpg
35281 08.jpg
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Re: Fox Sterlingworth Heavy barrels (HE weight)

Post by Foxnut »

Here are a couple of pictures of two Wildfowlers from the different Serial # batches that Dave referred to in the previous post. The first gun is Serial # 35170 and is fitted with HE wood with PG cap and Jostam Pad (as recorded in the letter). The second gun is Serial # 134112 and is a later gun fitted with Savage Sterlingworth non capped PG and a Pachmayr White Line Pad. This gun is in a block of Wildfowlers that the order cards are not available for. I have seen three of these guns including one that is a single digit off from my gun and all three have the Pachmayr White Line Pads fitted to them. Notice the Tiger Stripe coloring of the second gun consistent with the late Savage era guns. Both guns have the frame polish line of the Savage era guns directly above the "worth" portion of Sterlingworth on the frame side.
image1 (6).jpeg
image2 (5).jpeg
image3 (4).jpeg
image4 (2).jpeg
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Re: Fox Sterlingworth Heavy barrels (HE weight)

Post by eightbore »

More than a couple of the Sterlingworth Wildfowls have been advertised for sale in the last few years.
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Re: Fox Sterlingworth Heavy barrels (HE weight)

Post by Jim Cloninger »

Very interesting, Brett. Thanks. Jim
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Re: Fox Sterlingworth Heavy barrels (HE weight)

Post by Researcher »

I have seen three of these guns including one that is a single digit off from my gun and all three have the Pachmayr White Line Pads fitted to them.
I'm sorry, but if the pad is a Pachmayr, that is from well after the last Fox price list. There are a few guns in the late cards that request a "White Line" recoil pad, but in those days that would be a Fray-Mershon or The Mershon Company Inc. The Fox-Sterlingworth Wildfowl I use to own, pictured in McIntosh's book and a couple of Headrick photo spreads, had the original butt plate.
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Re: Fox Sterlingworth Heavy barrels (HE weight)

Post by Foxnut »

Did not mean to imply that the pad was from the factory. Just find it interesting that all three guns I’ve personally observed in that batch have black Pachmayr white line pads. I know they came post the last price list but It does make one go hmmmm!
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Re: Fox Sterlingworth Heavy barrels (HE weight)

Post by scaupman »

Researcher wrote:The Sterlingworth Wildfowl Grade is essentially the HE-Grade Super-Fox metal finished up in Sterlingworth finish. There appears to be two batches of Sterlingworth Wildfowl Grades. Maybe forty or so in the 1341xx serial number range. The ten that I have observed run from 134102 to 134130. Guns observed in this batch are stocked in Fox-Sterlingworth quality wood.
Dave - Apparently not all of the Wildfowls in the 1341xx range were stocked in Fox-Sterlingworth quality wood - here's a fully optioned Wildfowl, within the range you have recorded above, with a capped full-pistol grip stock and the original Hawkins pad. The Callahan letter indicates it was shipped in 1945 and says: "Of interest is the information is written on an "HE" grade card with the "HE" crossed out".
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Wildfowl Stock.jpg
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Re: Fox Sterlingworth Heavy barrels (HE weight)

Post by Researcher »

I didn't look at my records, worked from memory!! Anyone have one of the guns from that third, earlier batch, that Frank reported in the 132383 to 132390 range? I've not recorded anything in that range.

I'd like to know what type of wood is on the top gun in this ad from "The Dutchman" back in December 1978 --
The Gun Report Dec 1978.jpeg
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Re: Fox Sterlingworth Heavy barrels (HE weight)

Post by MARSHFELLOW »

Dave, I never knew Pete was Dutch. Huh.
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