Old Fox back on the clays course

[Silvers]

A couple of weeks ago I posted about using a restored early B grade Fox with pretty tight chokes on a local sporting course, and competing pretty well against all manner of modern over & under sporting clays guns. Most of the comments I got were positive but two gents wrote to me, and said - in effect - they didn't believe the post. The sum of both emails was that tight chokes have no place on a sporting course and that perhaps I was "stretching" my report.

Today I was out again with another old Fox. This one is a 1909 CE 32 incher that has .039" chokes in both barrels. Its record card says "must make 75% patterns with both barrels". The presentations were different than two weeks ago, and we had a couple of different shooters. Also represented were two other SxS's, one a Winchester 23 and the other a Browning BSS. Both are single trigger selective choke guns. I'd like to say I was high gun on the squad but I choked on the last station and lost two birds there. My friend Allen finished with a 92 and my Fox had a 91.

Again, this was with a pretty tightly choked Fox versus a Browning Ultra o/u with a screw choke system. The Fox will be 100 years old in a few months and she sure strutted her stuff today, same as the B grade did last time. For any doubting Thomases, here's the scorecard. Frank

L-R - Krieghoff, Browning, Browning, Win 23, Browning BSS, CE Fox


Fred 80, Jack 72, Frank 91, Rocco 75, Al 92, Mike 88

[MARSHFELLOW]

Apparently she struts nicely but she has a fine "escort" calling the steps....nice shootin.

Ya gotta dance with the one who brought ya. tjw

I'm hopin to get the XHE out after "flyers" in a week or two.

[mc15426378]

As I thought when I read the previous post of the results of the B grade shoot, I do believe the "Indian" is a major factor in these scores.

Nice shootin Frank.

What loads are you feeding that ol gal?

Mike

[Silvers]

Mike, I use RST's Lite 1 ounce 7.5's and their Falcon Ultralite 3/4 ouncers in 8 shot for the closer birds and minis. Yep of course it's the Indian not the arrow, but my point is that using that Fox long range gun isn't much of a handicap if at all. Pick up the latest sporting clays mag and you'll read all about how tight chokes are a big no-no, double triggers suck on simo pairs, the low rib double barrels will block the bird picture. Also, barrels better be overbored or you might as well stay home. Not to say how low velocity shells are totally out of the question; if you believe the merchandisers you better have >1300 fps shells in your bag or you're outclassed.

IMO the most important factor is confidence that your gun will do its part if you do yours. Would I have done as well with an old Folsom SxS? I doubt it. Something about these old Foxes has put the magic back in the game for me. Frank

[mike campbell]

Good shootin Frank!

There's a fella on one of the BB's who always weighs in with his experience of shooting his "full-race" Win 21 at clays long enough to determine the SxS cost him 1-2 targets versus his O/U. I ask you, who can quote their "average" sporting clays score to within 1 or 2%? Now if you shot trap or skeet you might be able to detect a 2% drop over the course of a season, but sporting?

Then there's a guy who recently quoted some "well-known British shooting instructor" as saying double triggers will cost you X number of targets on pairs. I suggested the Brit needed to shoot a little more and teach a little less.

But, of course, if you pigeon-ported that old gal you'd pick up a couple of targets.

Big Ann will tackle the FITASC at Rock Mtn in a couple of weekends. You gonna be there?

[eightbore]

I rarely shoot less than full choked guns at anything except the first barrel of Columbaire. Most of my skeet is also shot with tight, long guns. Clay targets are normally not missed by the difference in radius between IC and FULL choke patterns. When you lift your head or look at the gun, you miss by feet, not inches.