Sterlingworth Wildfowl #134111

[NorthernBob]

A recent pick up led me to buy a 3 year membership after a years long lapse. I had to change my user name from Northern Bob to NorthernBob and re-register for some reason. The new pick up is a Sterlingworth Waterfowl serial number 134111. It has 32" barrels, ejectors, 3" chambers, perfect bores, standard hard butt plate, and if my scale is still accurate weighs 8 lbs 11 oz. I'd send for a letter, but the letter for the Wildfowl auctioned off by Rock Island on 7/9/2018 mentioned that there was no card for mine. A forum "Wildfowl" search led to 12 pages of interesting reading and a few questions. The barrel flats have only the serial number, a 3, and a small SP in an oval. The right barrel is engraved "3 in Chambers" on top. Photos in the other threads of Wildfowl 134112 and other near by serial numbers show the barrel flats stamped "3 in chambers". Do any of the others in the 134102-134130 block have the serial number on the top of the right barrel? Also, the address is Chicopee Falls, Mass., is that right for the times? A thread in this forum says they moved to Chicopee Falls between 1946 and 47? Here are some photos of 134111. Would this be standard Sterlingworth wood for the time this was produced? This is my fourth 32" Sterlingworth, but the only one built on the HE frame parts. Any comments or questions welcome.

[Jeff S]

That’s a beautiful gun. I hope you nail some ducks with it

[NorthernBob]

Thanks, Jeff.

[Researcher]

Welcome back. Great to fill in another Fox-Sterlingworth Wildfowl. Now have fourteen recorded in the 1341xx range, 134102 to 134131. In Frank Srebro's wonderful Fox-Sterlingworth Wildfowl article in The Double Gun Journal, Volume Twenty-Six, Issue 4, the search of the production cards he commissioned showed some cards up to 134142 and that most of the surviving cards in this bloc show 1945 shipment dates. His search also showed and earlier bloc of guns 132383 to 132390 that show shipment date in 1937, 1938 & 1940. To date I've yet to see one of the guns in this bloc surface.

Savage Arms Corp. moved to their J. Stevens factories in Chicopee Falls in 1947, so I wonder if 134111 is a gun finished up after the move?

[Silvers]

Thanks Dave for your tip of the hat. Most of the Record Cards in s/n block 134000 are missing to include 134111 but nearest that number, 134109 and !34118 are extant and both show shipment in 1945. Of course that's not definitive for 134111 but methinks it's likely to be a 1945 gun. frank

[Foxnut]

Thanks to Frank and Dave for filling in some of the missing pieces on these guns. I’ve owned two of the guns in the missing serial number range and know of another one from a former member. JT Callahan also surmised these three guns were from 1945 as well. Thanks for sharing your Wildfowl, very nice looking gun!!!

[bbman3]

I owned one but went down the road years ago,i need to find the serial number. Bobby

[Researcher]

Would this be standard Sterlingworth wood for the time this was produced?

Yes. The Fox-Sterlingworth stock with the capless pistol grip was first pictured in the 1937 A.H. Fox Retail Catalog.

On a few occasions we have observed these capless pistol grip stocks fitted with a grip cap,

However, we do still see many guns with the actual capped pistol grip stock to very near the end of production. My 1938 Ejector Brush --

[NorthernBob]

Thank you all for the additional info. Silvers, it looks like the volume your article is in is available on the DGJ website as a back issue. I'll order one asap. I'm looking forward to reading it. Researcher, is this the only one with the Chicopee Falls roll stamp that you've seen? I'm a bit surprised that Fox may have had a roll stamp with that address 2 years before the move there.
Just another thought about all the missing cards for these guns. I don't know what the process was for the person responsible for filing the cards for completed guns, but I assume they were used for inventory and tracking? Would the clerk file the card by the serial number in files collected 10 or 12 years earlier, or just add them to the cards for the current model B's that were being made at that time? Especially if there was a factory move and the old cards were packed away in boxes? It's been 75 years since they were made. If I was a company historian whose job was to write factory letters and while searching for a different number came across an undated card with a serial number that was out of sync by a decade, I'd pluck it out and re-file it in the proper sequence. Otherwise I know I'd never find it someone requested a factory letter for the gun. That might explain the few random cards that are available in the searched serial number ranges. Perhaps a search by time frame (1945-47) would turn up the missing cards. Anyways, thanks again.

[Researcher]

It is a miracle that any of the A.H. Fox production cards survived. It appears that the ones from the original factory at Wayne & Bristol Streets didn't survive. From late 1906 to 1925 the Fox factory was in the brick building in the 4600 block of 18th street. In 1926 they moved into the new more efficient factory in the 4700 block and the price of the Sterlingworth dropped from $48.00 to $36.50.

Then in 1929 the Godshalks sold the gun business off to Savage and everything moved to Utica, NY. After WW-II Savage consolidated their gun making business at their J. Stevens plants in Chicopee Falls, Mass. and the factory at Utica went to making products for the post war housing boom -- lawnmowers, washing machines, exercise equipment, etc.

Washer & Dryer brass plate.jpg (62.93 KiB) Viewed 2911 times

Then in 1960/61, Savage Arms Corp. moved the gun making to their new factory in Westfield, Mass. Fox cards at Westfield --

[Silvers]

[snip] ...... Researcher, is this the only one with the Chicopee Falls roll stamp that you've seen? I'm a bit surprised that Fox may have had a roll stamp with that address 2 years before the move there. ..........................

Bob, how about posting a good pic of the proof mark on the barrel flats? Curious to see if it's the Savage/Utica or the Chicopee Falls stamp? I once found a shred of evidence that Chicopee was making at least some barrels for Fox-Utica years before the factory move to Chicopee. frank

[NorthernBob]

Thanks for the additional info. I never really thought about how many cards there are until I saw them stacked like that, thousands to the box.

Frank, here is a picture of the barrel flats. I see it has that odd 8 looking stamp that is mentioned in some of the other Wildfowl and HE threads. If there are any other photos you'd like to see just let me know. Thanks.

[NorthernBob]

Here is another with better contrast.

[Silvers]

Bob, that stamp that I call the SP/oval on the ridge of the right side barrel flat indicates that your Chicopee legend barrels were proof fired at Savage/Fox/Utica NY. Back to a probable ship date of 1945.

FWIW at least some of the Chicopee legend barrels made for A H Fox guns were silver soldered at assembly, not soft lead soldered as typical. frank

[NorthernBob]

Thanks, Frank. On the negative side I took it out for a few hours yesterday afternoon and got a few shots at passing Canada Geese. I missed, but found the right ejector isn't kicking out the shell. I can hear something in the action kicking, but it isn't engaging the forearm to kick the ejector forward. Any idea what might cause that? There is a crack in the forearm on that side too.