Fox Collectors

Were Silvers recoil pads used on early Fox guns? If so, did they or did they not have a spur at the top?

All the early Fox catalogues mention the option of a Silvers recoil pad for $5. I've never seen an Ansley H. Fox double with the spur but my
Philadelphia Arms Co. C-Grade Fox had a very deteriortated spurred pad which I had replaced with a new spurred Silvers pad 24 years ago.

Thanks.

My very early A grade A.H. Fox came to me with a non-original butt plate covering a notch in the heel of the stock that I'm guessing was from a Silver's pad. It's too early for a letter so no way to know if it was original. I'm planning to have a Silver's pad fitted to the gun soon.

By the way, 1) does anyone know if the spurs on the Galazan reproduction Silver's-type pads are the same shape as those on the originals? and 2) which color new pad would best approximate the original Silver's pad (I believe they can be had in both orange and red)?

A.H. Fox Gun Co. didn't seem to discriminate. You got the same butt plate from Sterlingworth to FE-Grade. Generally C-Grades and above had increasing amounts of engraving on the butt plate screw heads.

AHFGCo. also offered the option of a skeleton steel butt plate, somewhat similar to those commonly found on D-/DH-grade and higher Parker Bros. doubles. If one of those were removed and a pad fitted you would either have to trim off quite a bit of stock, or use a pad with a peak.

So far in my Fox career (45 years since I bought my first) I've seen and handled two Fox guns with skeleton steel butt plates that I believe to be original. The first was a very early B-Grade at Green Top Sporting Goods north of Richmond. That gun was barely more then a junker, though I imagine nowadays it would be someones restoration project. The other was a very nice early DE-Grade that Tony G. had at one of the early Vintage Cups at Sandanona.

The Silvers to Galazan spur might require some fitting. Black Acraglas can take care any gaps. The original Silvers pads were orange. All the early British and American guns I have seen with ancient but perished Silvers pads were orange. I have an unfitted NOS fox factory skeleton buttplate from the Beilen stash.

Don, does your Fox skeleton buttplate look like it came from the Meriden factory? I have at least one Parker order in my files showing the Hunter Arms Company as a customer for a Parker skeleton buttplate. Did Fox do the same?

Bill: Tom Kidd did an article in the Autumn 1995 DGJ that shows a Fox skeleton butt. Not a great picture but looks like a Parker style. Craig

See The Double Gun Journal, Volume Ten, Issue 1, page 126.

Some SP/E grade guns were fitted with a "widow's peak" hard rubber buttplate....many used the conventional "flat" h.r.b.p.

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Here is a factory skeleton buttplate on a XE (16ga), the gun was also ordered with DE style checkering too.

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