After checking chambers and chokes (2 1/2 w/ M & F) and making sure the mechanics were all there and functioning properly, I "upper echelon"-balled (as opposed to low-balled) the seller and we had a deal. After I bought the gun, boothmate Tom T. (VA Turkey) handed me a Sterly stock he had taken off one of his upgraded guns and said, "See if this'll fit!" All of you know how that usually goes!
When I went to see my stock man, he examined the gun then went to a drawer in one of his work cabinets and pulled out three Sterlingworth stocks, all in pretty good shape and with decent wood. None of the three fit the way he wanted in terms of work required to refit them without major alteration(s). FInally he said "Let's try your donor stock." After some careful measurement he said, "Leave it with me; I'll see what I can do."
A week and a half later he called me and said, "Your gun's ready, come get it!" When I picked it up,, he told me all he had to do to it was some mild reductions internally with sandpaper and a little minor relief gouging; no rasping or other radical relieving of wood surfaces. What are the chances!! Two big bonuses: the refit yielded my measured stock dimensions (off a try gun) to within 1/8" and we preserved and reused the original NoShoc pad!
On the way back from a shoot in Addieville RI just before Hausmann's, Daryl Corona, Stan Hoover and I talked about the allure of long-barreled smallbore guns, especially Foxes, Daryl of course being a huge fan of 30- and 32-inch guns. As a tribute to Daryl's influence on me by ."extolling these virtues, I have dubbed this gun the "Daryl Corona Autograph Model". Thanks to he and Tom T., I now enjoy a 16 ga version! Attached are a few pics of the revived Sterly. Kevin
