Fox Collectors

Could some one explain the difference between the Sterlingworth

Hinge Pin configurationr and the Draw bolt gun?

Thx u,
Geo

I appreciate ur help

The "Drawbolt" guns were a late Savage attempt to make the Fox-Sterlingworth more economical to build. They have a much wider top tang and the profile to the side of the frame is slightly different so that once one is familiar you can spot them.


The "Drawbolt" guns were covered in two The Double Gun Journal articles -- by Tom Kidd in Volume Eight, Issue 1, page 117 and by Frank Srebro in Volume Twenty-five, Issue 4, page 129.

Savage built the Fox-Sterlingworths in blocks. Mostly 30-inch barrel "Drawbolt" Fox-Sterlingworths are in the 133xxx serial number range, mostly 28-inch barrel "Drawbolt" Fox-Sterlingworths are in the 143xxx serial number range and 26-inch barrel "Drawbolt" guns are in the 161xxx range. There are also a handful of 28-inch barrel guns in the 1380xx range. Every "Drawbolt" Fox-Sterlingworth I've seen a letter on show mid-1939 or later production/shipping.

So far, one graded gun has surfaced on the "Drawbolt" frame, an A-Grade 35266 --

The Sterlingworth "Pin Guns" are about the first 12000 Sterlingworths, serial numbers beginning at 50000. When the Sterlingworth was introduced in 1910, it was marketed as a product of The Sterlingworth Company and guns up into the mid 53xxx serial number range are found so marked and the earliest guns carried a Wayne Junction address instead of Philadelphia --
For 1910 they even produced a catalog for The Sterlingworth Company --
This separate company subterfuge apparently wasn't working and the Sterlingworth was included in the 1911 A.H. Fox Gun Co. catalog --
With the introduction of the smallbore A.H. Fox guns in 1912, they phased out the recessed hinge pin on the 12-gauge Sterlingworth.