Fox Collectors

A friend of a friend has a small gun shop I occasionally drop into and today I saw he had a Fox single barrel J Grade. I've never seen one before and it was interesting. We took a minute or two to figure out what the little spring loaded slide was on the side of the block (tang release?) and measured the barrel at 31 5/8". The serial number is 400154 and I guess they were made from 1932 to 1942. He thinks it's at 85 % cond, it operates fine, no cracks in the wood or forearm. Can someone ballpark what a good selling price may be?

Thank You

S1

He also had a nice Parker DH w 30" Barrels, very nice condition at 4k

Yes the spring loaded slide on the side of the frame bears against the trip pin that holds the top lever open. When pressed down it allows the lever spring to be decompressed, lever to move to center, and stay there when the barrel is off the gun for traveling or storage. Neat design!

Interesting, it seems that some Fox 32" SBT barrels were finished off at fractions under 32". I know of one that is 31-5/8", same as you reported. Another 32" SBT I know of is about 31-13/16". In both cases the machined base that is integral with the muzzle hasn't been shortened, and the muzzle crown is canted backwards - which would be EXTREMELY difficult to do (because of the front rib base) if the barrel had been shortened post-factory. It's my opinion that the fractional length is the result of individual barrel or rib machining and/or assembly techniques employed by Fox. With the very low production stats, SBT's certainly weren't being done on a production basis like Fox SxS guns. I suspect the 31-5/8" is "right" for the gun you reported but a macro pic or two of the front rib base and the muzzle crown would allow us to confirm that. Regarding what it's worth, that's a tough one without seeing pics of the wood, bluing and color case. Also to see if the gun has typical trap shooter modifications. For a ROUGH estimate I would say the sell range could be 1k to 6k or more, with guns in high original condition and/or with provenance to some noted person priced up toward or beyond the high end number. JMO of course. Silvers

Thank you Silvers, I'll pass what you've said onto the owner. S1