A little about me and the story of how/why I got this gun.
I grew up on the water and in the woods. Hunting and fishing have always been my passion. Live in RI so it was stripers/trout and grouse/rabbit growing up. Had an old 870 for hunting but never had a dog. My father was given a very nice Parker 16g 30” M/F that he was going to give to me and at that time (35+ years ago) I had no idea what a Parker was and I was just getting into skeet shooting and what was I going to do with a SxS choked M/F? So my father sold it dirt cheap. Don’t know the grade but it was not a plain Jane one. All I remember is it had engraving and was in great shape.
I then moved to NJ and spent 25 years trout fishing the Delaware and the limestone creeks of Carlisle/Newville PA with very little skeet or hunting.
Moved back to RI 7 years ago and fast forward to now. I got back into upland game this fall quite by accident. Just over a year ago I adopted a 2yo female pitbull from a rescue (Maggie). Then 6mo ago I adopted an 8wk old supposed pitbull mix female from the same rescue (Mollie) that I now think is a mix of Lab/Weimaraner/pitbull but someone said she looks like a Texas Blue Lacy). Anyway, I never dreamed of hunting either so you kind of know where this is going).
Well, in October I was walking both along the edge of a field in a state management area that gets pheasant stocked and suddenly Mollie turns and starts pulling the leash making a beeline 50’ into the field and flushes a pheasant. I’m wondering luck or skill? Well an hour and 5 more flushes plus one “Hey dad I finally got one of these things before it flew away” later I realized I unexpectidly had the upland hunting dog I always wanted She’s done extremely well (even did a water retrieve) and I tell that story because she is the reason why I now will soon own an AH Fox.
Why? As I grew older and got more into skeet and spent more and more time around the old timers reminiscing about the old classics, I finally realized what a Parker was and what I could have had. So since then I always wanted an American classic SxS but until Mollie came along I never had a reason to buy one. So going into this it obviously was between the Lefever Nitro, LC Smith Field, Parker Trojan, Ithaca, Winchester and the Fox and after considerable review of this forum, the Fox it was. I’m not sure if I ever will become a collector of high end grades, as the guns I have I like to shoot and some are just to nice too shoot, but I’m glad I soon will have a Fox. I get it. It’s a living piece of American shotgun history.
Oh yes, Maggie the pitbull has even got into the action and found and flushed a few pheasant on her own.
