New to me Fox

[coues]

I am still trying to learn more about Fox shotguns and have a long way to go. I was offered a two barrel set Sterlingworth today at what I felt was a fair price despite a few warts.
I am posting pictures along with some history I was given.
The serial number is 86603. This gun was made in 1919 by A H Fox gun Co. in Phila. PA. My understanding at the time it had 28” barrels. I was told at a later date the gun was sent back to Savage Arms in Utica NY and had a set of 32 inch Wildfowl barrels installed. Barrels are choked .040 the bores measure .725. Double beads and came with matching forend.
I have attached pictures of the barrels, receiver, as well as the forend with their markings. Any information is appreciated.
I am not sure but are members allowed one card look ip each year with renewal of membership?

Thanks Phil

[coues]

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[coues]

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[Researcher]

Very interesting. The A.H. Fox Collectors Association, Inc. does not have copies of the Sterlingworth cards, only the cards for graded guns.

My 1928 vintage HE-Grade Super-Fox has original 32-inch barrels, but was back to Savage some time in the 1930s for a set of 28-inch barrels. The Savage barrels have the V stamp like your Savage barrels.

[coues]

Thank you for the information.
Were the added 32 inch 3 Inch chambers similar to the barrels on the wildfowl guns? How common are 32” barrels on the Sterlingworths?

[Researcher]

From my 34 years of observing and recording Sterlingworths, my tables as of this month show 8.7% of 12-gauge Sterlingworths were 32-inch. Your gun would of course be in my tables as a 28-inch gun for its original barrels.

Your 32-inch barrels are 1-weights whereas the Fox-Sterlingworth Wildfowls had 0-weight barrels as they were built on the larger Super-Fox frames.

[coues]

Thank you that clears up a lot of misinformation I had been told. The story was the owners father sent the gun back to have wildfowl barrels installed. Clearly not the case. I am guessing the gun went back because his father wanted a gun to shoot waterfowl with and wanted 3” chambers.
It needs a new butt stock but the bores are excellent and gun locks up tight.

[fox-admin]

Very cool gun, I'm always amazed by what shows up. Thanks for posting pictures. It would make a neat newsletter article. Craig

[Silvers]

Congrats on a great find and as Craig had written, a cool gun. That 3 IN. stamp is the righteous Factory chamber stamp and so are the SP/oval proof stamp and the proper size/font "2" for second barrel; and the combo with 1-weight 32 inchers will make for a really nice swinging duck gun once you get her fixed up. As you may know a very few HE Grade Super-Fox guns were "ordered light" and made up on the regular 12-gauge frame with 1-weight barrels and 3 IN. chambers. They finished up at about 8-1/4 to 8-3/8 pounds, in my mind just about ideal for waterfowling with 1-3/8 ounce 3-inch shells.

We sometimes see Sterlies or Graded Foxes that were rechambered by gunsmiths post-factory with standard 3-inch commercial chamber reamers and restamped or engraved with a spurious variation of "3 inch". This is not one of them.

As Dave had written, the comparatively few Sterlingworth Wildfowl guns were made up on the so-called "Magnum" frame. Yours is only the 2nd standard frame Sterlingworth I've ever seen that was Utica factory re-done for period 3-inch shells. My article on the first one is in Volume 29/Issue 4 of the DGJ, titled: Few Ducks In The Desert.

frank

[coues]

Thank you Frank, I will see if I can find this article.I appreciate the information you provided. Its shootable as is but the stock will need to be replaced at some point. I am looking forward to shooting some dairy pigeons and eurasian dove with it.

[Researcher]

Just to add some confusion, all the FOX-STERLINGWORTH Wildfowls in the 1341xx serial number range I've saved pictures of have the word CHAMBERS stamped under the 3IN. on the barrel flat.

The couple of Wildfowls in the graded gun serial numbers go both ways.

35281 09a.jpg (27.92 KiB) Viewed 4545 times

[coues]

Thank you Dave. I noticed the forends are marked with barrel length for the barrels they go to. Would the factory have done this?

Were the Wildfowl barrels choked and or bored differently than standard barrels?

[Jeff S]

Nice purchase. You’ll have some fun with it for sure.

[Researcher]

Thank you Dave. I noticed the forends are marked with barrel length for the barrels they go to. Would the factory have done this?

Were the Wildfowl barrels choked and or bored differently than standard barrels?

I did notice that. I have not seen the barrel length stamped in the forearm wood before. Nice touch. I see the forearm for the number 2 set of barrels is also marked 2 in the wood in addition to the 2 in the usual locations on the forearm iron and on the barrel flats.

In Frank's excellent article on the FOX-STERLINGWORTH Wildfowl in The Double Gun Journal, Volume Twenty-Six, Issue 4, on he states the bores of 134122 were .729"/.730" with .040" and .041" of choke. Twenty or so years ago when I visited CSMC with the Parker Gun Collectors Association, there was a Savage-era 12-gauge HE-Grade Super-Fox in the gunroom. Lou and I measured the bores and got .731". Not the over-bore barrels of the Philadelphia era.

[Researcher]

One other thing I noticed about this set is that the original forearm for the 28-inch barrels must have been lost. Sterlingworth forearm irons in this serial number range were nitre blued.

The current forearm iron has the late Savage cyanide case colors and of course the wood is pure Savage style.