What makes a great Fox collection?

[fox-admin]

I am always interested in what others consider a great Fox collection. We are all focused on different segments of the Fox collecting world based upon our background collecting, shooting and hunting interests. Many from the more urban areas are focused on competitive guns like single barrel trap guns and double pigeon/trap guns. Those from upland rich areas are more focused on small bores, waterfowl hunters are crazy for heavy duck guns. Some just what to own mint or very high condition examples with no desire to use them. How about you, has your background influenced your collecting interests???????
I started my hunting life as a waterfowl hunter but time and resources have allowed me to hunt upland birds all over the western hemisphere. So I focused on waterfowl guns but have a sprinkling of small bores. I have a few high condition examples I will not shoot, but most of my guns are for use as intended. What say you??

[ylwdog]

I have had a few different collecting interests over the years model 42,61 and 70 Winchesters. I started upland hunting in the early 60's and was brought up hunting with SxS's over the years at one time or another I have used most all the American made doubles. I just prefer the Fox. To me they just handle better. I have had many Graded guns of all gauges over the years and still hunt with a Fox A grade 16 or 20. I have a CE and a BE that are real high condition guns that I don't shoot very often but I'm partial to A.H. Fox and I like them all ! I regret selling an HE straight grip gun years ago so I would very much like to replace that someday ! Interesting Thread... jb

[fox-admin]

I decided many years ago to try and collect a very good example of every Fox grade from A to DE (FE's are out of my comfort zone and financial where with all). Most are 12ga (one 20ga CE) and I have multiple examples of Super Foxes (HE's and CE-HE's). I would still like to find 31736 Super Fox engraved with ducks and a 20/32 Super Fox.
The most rewarding part of collecting is gifting my son Doug with a very nice 20ga Sterly 26" upland gun and a 12ga Fox CE. Both he shoots very well and loves to beat up dad at the gun club!

[Stan Hillis]

I have no set goal in mind for the Foxes I buy. What I mean is, I'm not trying to complete a set of any particular thing. My two biggest game bird hunting interests are doves and ducks, with quail coming in third. So, my interest in doubleguns tends in that direction. I am partial to long barreled doubleguns because they work so well for me on ducks, doves and sporting clays. So, I have five 32" barreled S x Ss, and many more 30" examples. I am hunting quail a bit more now than I used to, so I am watching for the right shorter barreled 20 ga. Fox to compliment the big, heavy guns. Long, lovely subguage Foxes and Smiths issue a siren call to me. I dearly love lightweight 30"-32" barreled 16s and 20s. But, I can see myself falling for a petite 20.

I have to watch the prices pretty closely. I cannot just write a "blank check" for a mint Fox that just happens to come along at the spur of the moment. If I could have I would have bought a very high condition 32" Fox 20 ga. HE a few years ago, that I was able to handle and examine, and maybe a Fox Special that came along later. Specials are very rare, and I consider myself fortunate just to have been able to hold and examine it. Even though I have had to pass up some gems, one of the highlights of my "gun life" was having the unique opportunity to spend a couple hours with BoWhoop in Savannah, GA ......... just before it was sent to Julia's to be auctioned. That was something I am still grateful for. It was definitely one of the high points of my shotgunning life, thus far.

What makes a great Fox collection? ............ whatever "rings the collector's chimes".

SRH

[Jeff S]

Well.... Craig, it's nice of you to pose this question because you are asking for opinions, or feelings, not cold hard facts. Some of the members own a lot of guns. I do not, but I do own a few vintage guns. I own 1 Parker, 3 "German" shotguns, and an handful of Fox shotguns. In addition, I have some cash set aside for one more Fox. I'm eager to buy one more, but at this stage of the game I'm content with the guns I own until the right one comes along. For my tastes, light weight 26" barrels are a plus, a straight grip stock is a big deduction. I dearly love fully checkered half pistol grips (hence the two Charles Daly guns), but I would probably settle for a full pistol grip if everything else was nice. So in summary, beautiful wood, finely checkered half pistol grip and light weight barrels in any gauge represents my dream gun. The gun just needs to be fun to shoot. I know that as a waterfowl hunter I'm supposed to like long heavy guns, but give me the one that's fun to handle, and with a smile on my face, I'll wait for the "cupcake" shots. (My Benelli Super Black Eagle has 24" barrels)

[Researcher]

As close as I've ever come to actually having a collecting goal was that I wanted to add 16- and 20-gauge straight grip Gough-style A-Grade little brothers to Meat-In-the-Pot --

Meat-in-the-Pot

to my hoard. I got a good little 26-inch 20-gauge with which in 30 years I've probably shot two limits of Quail and one or two Pheasants.

20-gauge

I scored a very nice 16-gauge straight grip A-Grade, but it is a bit out of the mold with 30-inch barrels and a beavertail --

16-gauge

It was ordered out bored 50% and 60%. I've probably only shot two rounds of skeet with it. The lament is that several decades ago, because I wanted the Gough-style A-Grade engraving, I passed on 300100, a straight grip two-barrel set early-style A-Grade at the old gunshow at the Arthur Ashe Center in Richmond.

The smallbore Fox I've shot most of my Quail with is my 1913 vintage 20-gauge --

The first birds I shot over Skitso back in 2005

and the 1913 vintage A-Grade. Skitso will be 16 years and nine months the 6th of May

[gunsrus]

First time posting .I am a Fox small bore junkie . Started with an A Grade 16 with 28" #4 weight barrels and got hooked big time .
I've since found a few more A grades , 20 and 16 , most with 28" tubes but a few with 30" . Picked up a couple Sterlys too.
I have a 15" LOP and therefore Dan Rossiter has restocked and refinished several guns for me .
My current projects with Dan are Philly Fox CE 16 gauge with 30" single trigger and the most recent an early Philly Fox CE 16 with 30" double triggers .
Thanks to all here for such valuable information .
PS I am a dedicated bird hunter , my passion , in the NorthEast and currently hunt behind three Setters .

[Jim Cloninger]

My passion is duck hunting with S x S shotguns. I like long barrels and tight chokes. My current Fox duck guns, all with 32" barrels and F & F chokes, are a C straight grip, a CE half pistol grip, and a HE pistol grip. I also hunt with M21 Winchesters, a 20, a 16 and a 12. Jim

[Fin2Feather]

I'm not a collector; I consider myself a professional accumulator ! First I got a Sterlingworth 16ga, and the next thing you know a 20ga Sterly and a 12ga Sterly showed up to go with it. Then I got an A grade 16, and wouldn't you know: the same thing has happened! I like half pistol grips, double triggers and 28" barrels; my A Grade 20 has 26", but I made up for it with the 12 - it's a two barrel set, 28" and 30", so the average is intact!

[arcmaster]

Craig;

Great question and great post! I like a wide variety of doubles, but agree with the rest of the commenters that Fox in general have the best fit and feel for me. I really like 32 inch 20 gauge fox shotguns and have been lucky to root out 3 over the years. I also am partial to the X grade and love a 32 inch 12 gauge x that I found with a safety delete and extractors rather than ejectors. That deep Germanic style engraving really does it for me. For me the best part is getting to visit with other enthusiasts at events and take a look the beauties that they have been able to acquire.

thanks
Mike

[jolly bill]

How about you, has your background influenced your collecting interests???????

First off, it might help some if you know how old I am. I’m 82 and graduated from high school in June of 1954 and joined the U. S. Navy 2 months later.
I bought my first shotgun when I was a sophomore in high school, about 1951. It was a J. C. Higgin’s bolt action 16 gauge. We lived on the edge of a small town and had a mostly English Springer Spaniel, named “Spot” (of course). It was during the pheasant season and some hunters were hunting in a nearby field and after some shooting they were looking for a downed bird. My brother and I offered the services of Spot and we soon found the bird. “Hey kid, ya wanna go huntin’ Saturday?” Sure!

The guy’s name was Bill Brown and he was using a side by side shotgun of some sort and I was impressed. I hunted several times with Mr. Brown and his double barrel shotgun stuck in my head.

When I got out of the Navy, I bought my first double, an Ithaca Lefever Nitro Special in 12 gauge for $20.00 from a local TV repair shop that also sold guns. I learned that a 12 gauge was OK in some circumstances but there were times when a small bore was better. I also learned that there were shotguns and then there were SHOTGUNS as in our favorites – A. H. Fox’s.

It took me awhile to find that smallbore but in the meantime, picked up a well used 12 gauge Sterlingworth for about 50 bucks soon followed by a late style A 12 for $135.00.

It was in September of 1968 (50 + years ago) when I paid $175.00 for my early A grade 12 gauge, SN 7983, from Glenn Appleby from Galeton PA. I still have that gun and I’ve put more than 10,000 rounds (light target loads) through it in the past 6 or 7 years. It’s my favorite Fox. Actually, my favorite gun.

All that followed by a nice Sterlingworth 20, a CE 12, some 16’s, more 12’s, some more 20’s and on and on. And also in the mix, there were some fantastic Parker’s. Used those mostly for trade material which resulted in some fantastic Fox’s.

Nice to own, nice to shoot (the one’s I’ve shot anyway) and a big bonus is the friends you make, the people you meet and all that good stuff that goes along with it.

So I guess for me, it starts with looking for a nice double, narrowed down to Fox’s and you really can’t have just one.

[grouse28]

First time posting .I am a Fox small bore junkie . Started with an A Grade 16 with 28" #4 weight barrels and got hooked big time .
I've since found a few more A grades , 20 and 16 , most with 28" tubes but a few with 30" . Picked up a couple Sterlys too.
I have a 15" LOP and therefore Dan Rossiter has restocked and refinished several guns for me .
My current projects with Dan are Philly Fox CE 16 gauge with 30" single trigger and the most recent an early Philly Fox CE 16 with 30" double triggers .
Thanks to all here for such valuable information .
PS I am a dedicated bird hunter , my passion , in the NorthEast and currently hunt behind three Setters .

Welcome to the Fox Collectors Forum. What took you so long?
Great to have a Fox hoarder on board.

[somo_setters]

First time posting .I am a Fox small bore junkie . Started with an A Grade 16 with 28" #4 weight barrels and got hooked big time .
I've since found a few more A grades , 20 and 16 , most with 28" tubes but a few with 30" . Picked up a couple Sterlys too.
I have a 15" LOP and therefore Dan Rossiter has restocked and refinished several guns for me .
My current projects with Dan are Philly Fox CE 16 gauge with 30" single trigger and the most recent an early Philly Fox CE 16 with 30" double triggers .
Thanks to all here for such valuable information .
PS I am a dedicated bird hunter , my passion , in the NorthEast and currently hunt behind three Setters .

I too am a Fox small bore junkie. I got started with an A Grade 20, high condition gun. I since have moved onto a 20 bore CE restoration project, and am also collecting some Sterlys just because. I don't have a specific collection goal, and I like restored, original, and customs (I like how the vintage seen is evolving, and appreciate different tastes). I use my guns in the field, no matter what I have into them.

I'm 37, and know of a few other younger SxS and vintage loving hunters in northern WI and greater Lake States region where I reside. Is interest from younger generations increasing? I don't know, but it does appear to be gaining some ground in the "Project Upland" circle. I wouldn't call myself a gun "collector", but more of a lover of the family hunting heritage and upland lifestyle. A life without old guns, waxed cotton, bird dogs, and hunting camp just seems wrong. My passion is grouse and woodcock hunting behind setters, and my taste in guns follow that pursuit.

[TOOL MAN]

What makes a great Fox collection?


Answer: When you pay off the HELOC!!!!

[spyder]

A set of Late Bs in 3 gauges. I’m a third of the way there. I’d also like a legit 28g Model 12.

Then I’ll be happy.