Drawbolt Sterlingworth

[Jack71]

I picked this nice Drawbolt Sterlingworth recently. It's #1338XX, 12 gauge with 30" barrels. I wouldn't have known what it was had I not seen Frank Srebro's article on them in Winter 2014 Double Gun Journal.

[Jeff S]

Nice looking Fox, and it pays to read those articles.

[Silvers]

Thanks Jack for a tip of the hat. One of our long time members has a Drawbolt Sterlingworth Ejector gun that he's had completely redone - metal and wood - into a custom Fox something like a C-Grade and with (as I recall) a pierced break lever. I've seen and handled it a couple of times while at the Southern SxS. Great gun and kind of what might have been if Savage stayed in the A H Fox shotgun business after the War.

frank

[Researcher]

I've recorded three ejector guns in the batch of 30-inch barrel Drawbolt guns in the 133xxx range. In the mostly 28-inch batch in the 143xxx range I haven't seen an ejector gun. In the 26-inch guns in the 161xxx range I've recorded one with both ejectors and the Fox-Kautzky Single Selective Trigger.

I have in my files some pictures of a Drawbolt frame with a Fox-Kautzky Single Selective Trigger that are annotated 161580 which is a bit beyond surviving records. Unfortunately none of the pictures show the serial number and I have no recollection of where those pictures came from.

FWIW there is also a Tom Kidd article "The End of the Line" on Drawbolts in The Double Gun Journal, Volume Eight, Issue 1, page 117.

[Jim Cloninger]

Very nice looking Sterlingworth.

[67galaxie]

Does anyone have a link to the article that Frank wrote in the double gun journal? I would love to read it

[67galaxie]

I just sent an email request to info@doublegunshop for the articles. Thanks guys! I also requested Franks 2021 summer article Saga of the Supers, Fox Waterfowl Guns. I am really excited about that one as well

[Silvers]

galaxie, thanks for your interest in those articles. As I read this there might be some confusion between the doublegunshop web site and the Double Gun Journal. As far as I know the DGJ has been/is available only in hard book format. Past issues of the DGJ are often available on E bay, or you can call the DGJ at 231-536-7439 to order directly. Heidi usually answers. The DGJ is copyrighted of course and I'm sensitive to that. Otherwise I'd be happy to make and send you copies.

Meanwhile galaxie I know you're interested and here's a partial pic of a Sterlingworth Drawbolt that was not in the article you cited. Note the wide top tang and the machine screw head at its back end - as compared with the narrow tang and shank end of a machine screw on the regular SW. As the name implies, the Drawbolt uses a bolt that runs inside and along the long axis of the buttstock to "draw" the stock into the back end of the frame. As is typical on most modern shotguns.

frank

[ROMAC]

I had the chance to buy one a few years back for not a lot of money but the one side looked like it fell off the back of a truck and slid in gravel.

It hurt to walk away but I passed.

[67galaxie]

I greatly appreciate the help sir!