Fox Collectors

Came across an early (1909) A grade (s/n 1315x) that spent the bulk of its life over in England. It's an extractor gun with 26" (Krupp) barrels that with my internal dial caliper (only 3 1/4" long) seems to mike at about 20 thousandths and 32 thousandth and the barrels ring nicely (and touch at the ends) and have most of their original jet blue IMO with just a bit of fading. LOP is 14" to buttpad and DAH is 2 3/4". Wood is nicely figured.

The questions are these. The barrels flats are marked with 3 1/2 tons, various british proof marks and 2 1/2. As well as some other markings. Guessing that was what was required for it to be "Proofed" over in England. Also, the trigger guard has what I can only describe as a very dark rich (almost hot dipped Jet black blueing) Anyway, screws are quite good and the engraving is there but faint. The only other concerns/flaws I can really find on the gun are a cracked buttplate and a small crack/dimple behind the safety up against the tang. BTW, case coloring is probably 15% at most.

Guestion for all of you is $1,600 dollars reasonable for something like this given all the british proof marks in the condition I've described.

vaturkey wrote: Guestion for all of you is $1,600 dollars reasonable for something like this given all the british proof marks in the condition I've described.

Depends on how bad you want it. I can't say British proofs will add anything to anyone that is not an advance collector and the grade and overall condition won't attract any of them. If when you throw it up to your shoulder it talks to you buy it, if not wait for the one that does.

Va,
Any shotgun imported into England must pass English proof. Proof marks can tell you quite a bit about the gun. In this case you seem to have a gun proofed from 1954 -1989, which is when chamber length in inches (2 1/2) was used. Normal proof pressure for a 12 bore light game gun is 3 tons, so this gun was subjected to a higher 3 1/2 ton proof for some reason. Perhaps the owner wanted to use heavier loads for ducks or geese. The bore size at proof should also be on the barrel flats, something around .729". If the bores are unchanged then you know no one has honed out the barrels. There should also be either an arm swinging a sword mark with NP under it or a crown with BNP under it. The NP mark indicates the gun was proofed in London, the BNP mark (more likely) indicates the Birmingham proof house. The advantage of proof laws is that you know what pressure that gun was built to take and the dimensions of the barrels and chambers when the gun was proofed. Thus you know if the gun has been messed with since it was checked out by the proof house.
Cheers,
DoubleGun