Fox Collectors

Don Ay wrote:great little fox,and your lucky to have such a trail of history of its owner

+1, and as a 1-of-90 gun a great piece of history---one of the times I can find some "collector" in my shotgun views. Hope you have it up and running at full speed soon!

fox-admin wrote:If the chokes are 4 1/2" long and taper from start to end with NO parallel area I would say factory chokes. Savage may have replaced the barrels at some point based on the Savage stamp on the barrels. Errors are made on cards but they are rare in my opinion.

I went back to my gunsmith today and we looked at the chokes and they are just as you described them. 4 1/2" and not parallel. We measured wall thickness and found the thinnest to be .036. Weight of the gun is just shy of 6 lb 2 oz.

TOOL MAN wrote:Wow, we see names on trigger guards from time to time but rarely a city/state. I would do some more digging on the original owner.
Yes indeed, I can see that well-heeled esquire, riding a horse -drawn wagon across that Gaw'ja plantation while 3 or 4 champion Elhews search for the next covey!! Great Fox with a dynamite provenance.....it doesn't get much better. Man, you are going to have one tough second act to follow.....LOL!!

It looks like Mr Swift was a setter man. Found an interesting little letter talking about setters and one named Princeton that he owned.

“During the Summer of 1929, Jake Bishop made his usual exodus to Canada taking with him
the Coleman string of pointers, known to the world as the Lebanon Kennels. For a long, long
time Jake Bishop had been handling pointers, but deep down in his heart there abided a love for
the setter upon which he had placed inhibitions, brought about through his loyalty to the dogs he
was handling. Some time prior to his trip to Canada he became acquainted with a setter which
belonged to H.H.Swift, of Columbus, Ga. Mr. Swift was a lover of setters, a field shooter, and an
ardent admirer of the highest type of gun dog, but nothing could ever induce him to patronize field
trials; he just had no use of this form of sport. It happened that Jake Bishop had occasion to look
his dogs over that early summer and among the lot was one which, after giving him a work-out or
two, Jake went into ecstasies over. Jake told the dog’s owner that he had a field trial prospect in
this young setter and suggested that Mr. Swift send him to the prairies. He did not actually offer
to run the dog, but he assured the dog’s owner that he would find a handler for him and that the
work would practically be under his own personal supervision. But Mr. Swift was adamant to all
offers or pleadings. Bishop still insisted that the dog should have at least some experience on the
prairies and be given an opportunity ‘to get his nose on chickens.’ At last Mr. Swift consented to
allow Bishop to take the dog to Canada, more for a change of environment than because he had
any faith in a prairie education for southern shooting dogs. Jake had no idea of working the dog
himself, but as he had an abundance of assistants on the prairies with him the dog never lacked
having his daily workout. Although Jake Bishop was busy with his pointers he could not help
casting a furtive eye in the direction of this little setter and before long he began to visualize great
things for him. The upshot of it was that Jake decided to act upon his own initiative. He made
arrangements for Ed. Farrior to handle the dog and Jake decided to enter him in his owner’s
name, of course, but he paid the entrance fees with the understanding that Farrior and Jake were
to divide the winnings, if any.

I have the rest of story to email if anyone wants to read it.

Got my XE back yesterday. Cleaned up the repair in the crack, cleaned up the screws, and timed the ejectors. She is ready for the skeet range tomorrow. I found an old red head lace up slip on pad so that will give me another 1/2 inch and I will leave the gun as is. Balances perfectly on the hing pin.

WOW perfect looks fantastic what a prize. Thanks for updating us. Craig

Unless you knew would be hard to tell anything was ever wrong. Whoever did your work did an A+ job IMHO.

Beautiful piece.

Mike

Well done!!!

tjw