Fox Collectors

Was at a gun show here in northern Wisconsin, and found a fox,serial#133669. Very nice shape, barrels have a very little wear on them by the forearm. Some of the case is wore on the hinge area, great wood, nothing fancy. My interest in older shotguns is to say the least interesting, this one has not seen a lot of use. Should make an ok bird gun although for grouse up here I'll have to use a spreader load as it is choked mod and full. Just kind of wonderin' why would fox throw some drawbolt guns in there and not stay with what seems to me to be a better system of attaching buttstock. Will have to say the chubby look of the tang is not as good looking, in my opinion, as the Philly guns or non drawbolt Utica's. Sorry I am not set up for camera, but I just could't not pick her up due to the condition and price. I am by no means a expert,so I thought someone may be interested. All the serial numbers match and it should be a great gun to swat a few grouse with and maybe a turkey or pheasant.

Congrats! Sounds like you picked up a real dandy! I don't love the drawbolt as much as the earlier guns (and I can not answer your question as to why except to guess that it was easier and in the long run cut down on hand fitting to some degree)... that said, I like any and all Fox guns with condition! What barrrel length was it?

Sounds like you are happy and that is all that matters. Hope you swat a turkey with it this spring!

Cheers

Congrats also on your Fox. The market had changed, double guns were well out of vogue, too much hand fitting, rising costs, and many of the old timer/craftsmen who assembled guns were going, going, gone. IMO Savage had no choice but to look at alternate designs to turn a dime profit. That's one reason we love these classic Foxes, Parkers, Smiths, etc. that were made with relatively primitive machine tools and assembled by skillful human hands. Incidentally drawbolts do have some advantages and some may not know that CSMC's excellent RBL is a drawbolt design. Silvers

ASavageFox, the lengh of the barrels is 30" right to the mark.

I've been recording observed Fox-Sterlingworth numbers since the late 1980s when I was feeding info to McIntosh for TFBITW. In the high 132xxx range I have a run of 30-inch guns built on the flatsided SP-frames, then in the 133xxx range all the guns I've recorded are 30-inch guns on the Drawbolt frame. Everything I've recorded in the 134xxx range are Fox-Sterlingworth Wildfowls, and then in the 135xxx range all Fox-Sterlingworth Skeet & Upland Game Guns. Then from 136xxx to 141xxx range all "normal" Fox-Sterlingworths, with the exception of 138010 which is on the flatsided frame. Then there is another batch of Drawbolts in the 143xxx range, with both 28- and 30-inch barrels. Then finally in the 160xxx and 161xxx range is an amalgunm of 26-inch barrel guns -- Skeet & Upland Game Guns, capped pistol grips, capless pistol grips, flatside frames, regular frames, and drawbolt frames. All the drawbolt guns I've recorded have the capless pistol grip, but I've recorded plenty of other frame styles with the capless grip as well.

Reseacher, the Fox I purchased looks quit like the one you have posted, cyanide case,capless grip,checkering pattern, although like I mentioned, mine has some wear on the hinge case area. I have read that the cyanide case colors are somewhat better for endurance than bone and charchoal, although if I had a choice I much more prefer the bone-charcoal finishes. On another note, my grandfather grew up in the Penn, N. Dakota area. He was born in 1900 so as a young man he did a lot of waterfowl hunting. I have a picture of him and a friend and a old ( I think Ford model A), the side of it of which has hanging a good bunch of birds.They are standing with a couple of s+s shotguns, of which I know he had a couple of Remingtons that always hung on his wall, although after him and Grandma moved here to Wi, he bought a Browning lite 12 which he used when he went back home goose or pheasant hunting. He would come home after going to N.Dakota in the fall, I will never forget watching him pull up his shirt and he would be various shaded of black and blue half way down his ribs. My uncle got his sidebys when he past to the happy hunting ground, and I have his Browning, which I still use once in a while. Yes the Browning is a full choke as is a Model 97 I have from my other Grandpa. Shot a turkey with the 97 last year in northern wis last spring. I joke with my huntin' buds now, tell them their pumps and autos are nothing but machines! As I grew up using (machines) I have now gone back in time to the more(to me) classics, I have a older L.c. smith that needed some epoxy work done to the head area, shoots good. I also use a BSS Browning a picked up in the early 80's which works good for grouse, as one seldom gets more than 2 shots at. Once in a while I will take the lite 12 out when the grouse covey up some in the winter time. A hunting friend of mine says there is something about a double s+s that they just look "mean", I tell him there just is nothing more classic than toten' a good pointin' double!

Researcher,
How many flatsided SP frame Sterlingworths have you recorded? I assume the Flatside frame guns are not drawbolt guns, is this true?
I also have a Drawbolt Sterlingworth it is # 133533 12ga 30" barrels with a flat pistol grip to add to your records.
Scott

I've recorded two flat-sided 16-gauge Fox-Sterlingworths and nine 12-gauges, seven from 132788 to 132902. They apperar to be SP frames finished up as Fox-Sterlingworths.

Dave
heres another.
Throughbolt 12 ga Sterlingworth
SN 133022
30" barrels choked R-.020 L- .031
chokes are 1.5" long
weight 7 lbs 7 1/2 oz.
LOP 14 3/8"
Drop 1 1/2" x 2 1/2"
Flat knob

Already had 133022 attributed to Dave Pettyjohn on my table of observed Sterlingworths.

Okay. its mine now.!!! nice shape too.