32" sterlingworths??

Researcher · Post by **Researcher** » Tue Jul 12, 2011 12:17 am

It is choked full and full, but the chokes are shorter than "normal" Fox chokes. Only about 2 1/2 inches long.

eightbore · Post by **eightbore** » Tue Jul 12, 2011 7:17 am

Barrels shortened no doubt.

MARSHFELLOW · Post by **MARSHFELLOW** » Tue Jul 12, 2011 7:19 am

dammit Murph you beat me to it !!! Great gun Dave!

tjw

Silvers · Post by **Silvers** » Tue Jul 12, 2011 7:50 am

Yeah Dave, a super gun. Now ya got me kickin myself again on passing on that AE 16 32 incher. Nice try Murph and Tom; I got a 16 on the bench now with the same deal on a 34 thou choke. 2-1/2 to 3" seems to be typical choke length for 16 gauge.

Silvers

Researcher · Post by **Researcher** » Tue Jul 12, 2011 5:17 pm

I had one perfect mid-afternoon spot for it on a tall Dove pass on a farm near Mount Jackson, Virginia. If I didn't limit out with it on the pass, it was best to return the long A-Grade to the truck and exchange it for something shorter and more open bored when the Doves were coming in low and twisty to one of the farm ponds late in the day!!

Stan Hillis · Post by **Stan Hillis** » Tue Jul 12, 2011 11:01 pm

Researcher wrote:I had one perfect mid-afternoon spot for it on a tall Dove pass on a farm near Mount Jackson, Virginia. If I didn't limit out with it on the pass, it was best to return the long A-Grade to the truck and exchange it for something shorter and more open bored when the Doves were coming in low and twisty to one of the farm ponds late in the day!!

Now that is my kind of way to pass an afternoon! Love them little grey rockets.

Stan

vaturkey · Post by **vaturkey** » Sat May 24, 2014 7:59 pm

Added one to the inventory today purchased at an auction in Va. Serial number 112031. Didn't capture the bore diameter because I was in a hurry as I only had a few minutes to look at a pile of guns before the auction started. Chokes were however .035 and .040 (based on my memory). Barrels are number 2 weight. Gun is very tight with lever way to the right and wood in good shape. Barrel blueing is pretty much non-existent as well as case coloring. Still, these things don't grow on trees. Was located on the Eastern Shore area of Virginia and no doubt spend it early days swacking ducks and geese I'm guessing. Should have it in a week or so as they only do dealer to dealer transfers.

A couple of bad pics:

Stan Hillis · Post by **Stan Hillis** » Sat May 24, 2014 9:24 pm

Sweet. How I love these 32" guns. Got three 32" Foxes, but none are Sterlys. You got a good deal on it if it is indeed as tight and clean as it appears.

Congrats, SRH

vaturkey · Post by **vaturkey** » Sun May 25, 2014 5:43 am

It was the second to last gun sold. Were about 70 guns sold before it so most folks had lost interest by then. I think everyone there just thought it was a 30" sterly, but the tape measure didn't lie.

Silvers · Post by **Silvers** » Sun May 25, 2014 7:35 am

Nice catch Tom. That Sterly was on my watch list and I had my finger on the mouse button, but lickin my wounds from another one that went over what I'd set as my absolute max. Decided to pass on the 32-inch SW in those few seconds since I hadn't done any homework on it before the auction kicked off. I'm glad you got her. The same thing happened earlier on what looked to be a nice IJ Super Trap but that was while waiting for my target gun to hit the stage. Haha. Best to get to these auctions in person ..... but a 12+ hour round trip and the Holiday weekend ...... Again, I'm happy you snagged the SW. Silvers

vaturkey · Post by **vaturkey** » Sun May 25, 2014 8:24 am

Silvers wrote:Nice catch Tom. That Sterly was on my watch list and I had my finger on the mouse button, but lickin my wounds from another one that went over what I'd set as my absolute max. Decided to pass on the 32-inch SW in those few seconds since I hadn't done any homework on it before the auction kicked off. I'm glad you got her. The same thing happened earlier on what looked to be a nice IJ Super Trap but that was while waiting for my target gun to hit the stage. Haha. Best to get to these auctions in person ..... but a 12+ hour round trip and the Holiday weekend ...... Again, I'm happy you snagged the SW. Silvers

Frank they had a screaming early BE with 32" barrels at the auction. Collector/shooter in Norfolk bought it at I believe $6,200. Bores were .722 and chokes were about .035 and .040. By far the best early BE I'd ever seen. Not a closet queen but an amazing gun. They also had an early 30" AE grade 16 Gauge serial number 300100 that had more thing wrong then right. Gun had a badly repaired stock, aftermarket extra set of Fox barrels and had been recase colored (poorly) over buffed out engraving (IMO anyway). As much as it might have been worth fixing it wasn't worth fixing to the tune of five or six thousand dollars.

This is unfortunately and auction you have to drive to. The sellers know almost zero about guns and can't answer any questions very well. I had called and asked several questions about the AE 16 gauge, but didn't feel that they understood what I was asking. Nice enough folks, but they were out of their element. Almost all the guns at the auction came out of a single Virginia estate. Was a long drive even for me at 10 plus hours. Tom

Researcher · Post by **Researcher** » Sun May 25, 2014 11:56 am

Serial number 112031.

Ahhh..... Another 32-inch 12-gauge Sterlingworth with a zero in the hundreds place in the serial number.

Congrats!!

eightbore · Post by **eightbore** » Sun May 25, 2014 6:27 pm

Tom, if I'm not being too inquisitive, how many did you go home with? Some of the Lefevers looked interesting.

vaturkey · Post by **vaturkey** » Sun May 25, 2014 7:20 pm

eightbore wrote:Tom, if I'm not being too inquisitive, how many did you go home with? Some of the Lefevers looked interesting.

Just the Fox Bill. Only had 15 minutes to look at the guns before the auction started and once it started they restricted anyone from looking at the guns. Spend my time concentrating on the Foxes and was saving my shillings to bid on the Foxes which were the last guns in the auction. If the Foxes had been sold first, I would without a doubt bought at least one Parker. Anyway, IMO the one 16 gauge Lefever looked very nice and didn't bring much.

Regarding Parkers, they had a straight stock DH 12 gauge that sold for $1,300 that needed a bit of work but was probably a very good buy. The walnut on that gun was fantastic and the bores were good. Barrel finish however didn't look right to me (almost like blued over damascus), but it was a later gun so that didn't make much sense to me. The trigger guard had also been buffed and then hot blued and it really needed to have the engraving recut to look right. However, for probably $800 more after the fact you would have had something pretty special. They also had an early 10 gauge DH that was really nice with great looking barrels. It sold for I believe $1,700.

PS. Wish the auction hadn't been this Saturday. I would have driven down and spent Friday night and been there when they opened yesterday and therefore had a lot more time to look the guns over. Couldn't do that with the Bay Bridge traffic Friday night because of Memorial Day weekend. I wouldn't have gotten there until about midnight and it would have turned a 5 hour drive into a 7 hour drive.

eightbore · Post by **eightbore** » Sun May 25, 2014 7:43 pm

Graded 16 gauge Lefevers with steel barrels don't show up very often. Unfortunately, they don't show up with 32" barrels as often as Foxes.........or Parkers.

Fox Collectors

32" sterlingworths??

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