Project from Hell

[Brian]

The following are photos of a Fox Sterlingworth project that was started in October of 2017. The actual quote was dated Nov. 2017.
I gave this to my stocker back then. The gin arrived yesterday.

here is the backstory in a nutshell.
My stocker told me he was going to work for someone In the fall of 2019 I was told that this would have no bearing on the completion of my gun. That his new employer said he could finish any commissions he had on the books when they hired him.
The stocker transitioned to working for someone else instead of himself in the early 2020 .
After he went to where he went, I would check in once every 6 months. Just a quick phone call.
at every call I was told he would be getting to it soon.
in 2022 I told him I wanted my gun that year. He told me that his company was going to finally allocate him time to finish it.
I was promised the gun before opening day of 2022 bird season; Oct 1. that came and went, no gun. his shop manager emailed me and told me they were going to get it done and I would have it before end of season (Feb 28, 2023) never happened. April 2023 I contacted stocker and asked status. he assured me he was going o get on it. in May I told him I wanted hard date of 1 July 2023 or send my parts back to me. he insisted he was the guy to do it, please let him finish what he started , blah blah blah. he assured me 1 July I would have it. Against my better judgement I agreed to his new date.
15 July, no gun.

I have dealt with enough shit in my life that this doesn't spin me up. I may be pissed and frustrated but I have guns to shoot and all that. Not the point.
The stocker made promise after promise and never came through. His employer lied to him to get him to work for them. and he lied to me numerous times with self imposed deadlines he didnt meet. I understand setbacks, delays and all that. but dont blow smoke up my ass.

I went from having two previous custom Foxes done by this person; which were done in a reasonable time and of excellent quality to this shit show. beautiful but 6 years??
and on top of that, and this is the real kicker; I get an invoice form his employer for the gun that is more than twice what he agreed to do the gun for. I made the agreement with him, not them.
needless to say, I wouldn't pay what they wanted. I stuck to the original quote. When I voiced my displeasure to the stocker, he said that it wasnt an invoice, only a starting point for a dialogue. WTH?
needless to say, I didnt give in. now i have the gun.

Technical details:
Fox 16 Ga. 28" barrels.
Turkish walnut. extractors
weight 6 lbs 1 oz.

[44whiskey]

sorry for what you went thru but what a beauty you have for seeing it thru ,i hope you can enjoy it now ,regards fred

[vaturkey]

That is a bummer for sure. It appears the end result is quite nice. Wonderful engraving.

[gunsrus]

Wow , this sounds almost word for word the same experience I had with a stocker . Same dates , same promises , the difference was that he had two CE's 16 w 30" I was waiting for . He had completed half a dozen complete Fox restorations for me and several other stock replacements . I honestly thought we were pretty tight .
The last three years I have had some major heart issues and "stress" was my enemy . My prognosis wasn't good and was explained to him . It didn't matter . My hands were tied even though he knew of my condition . Finally I said enough , just send me the firearm . The second CE arrived last month .
As Brian said , the projects were started back in 2017 and the quotes were what they were . The final bill (I had no choice , I could not wait any longer should something happen to me , I did not want my family involved with the negotiation) was substantially higher because the new employee insisted that was what the hourly rate was .
I feel more hurt than anything . I thought he was my friend .

[MARSHFELLOW]

Bri, I cant even begin to imagine 6 years, Nice lookin gun.... enjoy it finally.
tjw

[Foxnut]

Brian, I re-read your post and looked at the pics tonight. I am so sorry it took six years to get your gun back. Beautiful gun and I hope you are finally enjoying the fruits of your project!!

[Brian]

While it is a nice gun, the ordeal has left a bitter taste. This due to the length of time but even more so from the promises broken, lies and BS I dealt with for the 6 years. I took this person at their word and never pestered. My feeling ios that if a person cant man up and just say they cant do it, say so. And for his current employer to lie for him and try to appease me with a day of shooting at their super duper world famous shooting grounds was an insult on top of al of the others. Needless to say, I would never utilize his services again nor even contemplate a purchase from those grifters & harlots if they had an XE 20 on sale for 5K.

[Chrisss31]

Hopefully the tough feelings don't dull your enjoyment of the gun. It is very nice and the work looks top notch!

[simcgunner]

Very sorry to hear what you had to go through. A beauty of a gun. I'm in the Same boat with some custom 4 GA. cases now.

[vaturkey]

Epilogue to my situation is I ended up selling my AE 16 at a loss. I frankly had my blood pressure increase every time I looked at it. Two things stood out. One was the new buttstock has flat top checkering like a Sterlingworth and the original forearm did not. Also the new buttstock had a horn grip cap instead of the Fox grip cap that was on the original gun, that was supposed to be used on the new buttstock.

I ended up paying Mathew to build a new forearm with wood that matched the new buttstock to make the gun look right, and then had him sell the gun for me.

Chapter of that book closed and blood pressure back to normal.

Life moves on.

[Mills]

That sucks, but at least the end product is good and you at least got your gun back.

[Carver]

Seems like a few of us have been burned in the process of having custom work done on our Foxes. It's time to start naming and shaming these "professionals". Not out of revenge, but to save another guy from wasting their time and hard earned money.

I too am also less than pleased with the results from a stockmaker in Wheatland MO. Early in the project he sent me photos of several blanks to choose from, none of which ended up on my gun. The checkering looks to have been done with an x-acto knife, barely scratching the surface of the wood. The "wedge tip insert" is actually either stained or more likely painted on. I'm starting to see the woodgrain from the forend show through.

Your gun is beautiful though.

[Brian Dudley]

I know exactly who you are speaking of and believe me, you are not the only one in the same situation. It is completely laughable and he should be ashamed of how he is treating customers that trusted him with their commissions. Nobody seems to have any issue outright lying to people these days in this business. But people just continue to put them on pedestals. I may suggest that you do that same thing that I suggested a few others to do. That person is part of a certain guild of "custom gunmakers". Part of their supposed credo is to maintain proper business practices and such. so maybe they would be interested to hear your story. Maybe not, their bar has seems to have been lowered a good deal in the last few years.

[Mike of the Mountain]

Same guy has had my Lefever thumb pusher since I bought it at our Northern SxS. It was in my possession for maybe 10 minutes. It too has been at least 6 years. It’s a repair, not even a customization.

I stopped asking about it.

[vaturkey]

Same guy has had my Lefever thumb pusher since I bought it at our Northern SxS. It was in my possession for maybe 10 minutes. It too has been at least 6 years. It’s a repair, not even a customization.

I stopped asking about it.

Have a feeling your gun can be picked up at the shop in Pa. I doubt seriously whether it went to NJ. Its stuck in one of those big safes in the shop no doubt.