new owner needing some advise

[jcbo]

I'm a relatively new owner of a 16 ga Fox Sterlingworth sn 365xxx so i believe it was made around 1929. I always wanted one and destiny must have been on my side. It was stored in a crawl space wrapped in a sheet for over 35 years. The stock was broken and wrapped with copper wire and tape, the butt plate cracked, and the stock dark black with soaked in oil. However, after a good cleaning and soaking of the stock in acetone, I found that all SN match, the bores are excellent and I was able to repair the stock. The operating lever is about at 90 degrees or possibly just slightly left but I had a few gunsmiths look it over and they said I shouldn't be afraid to shoot it. I ordered some 2-1/2" shells from RST and am looking forward to pulling the trigger.

I'm not interested in restoration, just want a shooter for limited 5-stand, sporting clays and preserve hunts. It looks like it's choked full and extra full so i may want the bores opened up a little in the future.

I joined the Collectors Assn and saw something about factory letters. Are factory letters available through the Association or only through Savage Arms Historical Information? Also do I just send a check made out to Savage Arms? Thanks

[Researcher]

The A.H. Fox Collectors Association, Inc. has photocopies of the production cards for the graded guns, A to FE, but none for the Sterlingworths. Dues paying members of the A.H. Fox Collectors Association, Inc. get one free look up per year and additional look ups are $25.

All of the surviving production cards, Sterlingworth and graded guns, reside at the Savage factory in Westfield, Mass.

Letters are available from Savage --

https://www.foxcollectors.com/mechanism ... ry-letters

but the results we've seen since they no longer have a dedicated historian, have been pretty bleak.

Generally the production cards for Sterlingworths, a gun that was made to basic standard specifications with little or no deviation allowed, are bland. Here is one for a 12-gauge I own --

Is that little glyf in the upper margin between the serial number and the 12 a 3? Meaning the gun was chambered for 3-inch shells? It does have 3-inch chambers and for some reason there is no Fox-Proof mark on the barrel flats?!?

[Mike of the Mountain]

"Is that little glyf in the upper margin between the serial number and the 12 a 3? "

Looks more like a "B" to me. No idea what that would mean?