Special lightweight CE grade?

[LarryO]

Was it standard on A. H. Fox guns to have holes drilled into the stocks from the butt end?

My great-grandfather lost an arm when he was a young boy and as an adult (in 1912) he purchased an A. H. Fox 20 gauge. When I was growing up, the gun hung on our family room wall and I remember hearing something about it having a hollow stock to make it lighter for a one-armed shooter. The gun as well as it's original 1912 order form have been in my possession now for several years but I never thought about checking out the stock. Then today I was doing a little web surfing and stumbled onto the Fox Collectors site and figured out my gun was probably a CE Grade. The weight range for the 20 gauge was given as 5-1/2 to 6-3/4 lbs and it got me thinking about the stock. I pulled out the gun’s order form to see if it would confirm the gun as a CE Grade and it did. In addition, it stated the weight would be “5-1/4 not over 5-1/2” which would make it lighter than the range given on the web site. I put the gun on our food scale and it weighed in at 5 lbs, 7 oz. Then I pulled the butt plate off and there were two large professionally-drilled holes going down into the stock.

Has anyone else encountered similar holes bored into their stocks? I'm wondering if this was just standard procedure or if it was done special on this gun.

[birdawg]

I have BE with similar holes but no further province such as yours.
BTW I would love to see more photos of the gun.
Thanks for sharing this info.
BD

[fox-admin]

Thanks very much that is the first Fox order acknowledgement I have ever seen. Can you give me the serial number of the gun? Craig

[LarryO]

The serial number is 2001xx. It seems like I can only post about 3 pictures per replay so I'll send a couple of replies with pictures. I'll start with some of the gun and then I also have 2 tags that were on the gun when delivered so I'll send images of them too. Sorry if I'm going overboard posting too many pics.

[LarryO]

Here are 3 more.

[LarryO]

And 3 more.

[LarryO]

And the final 2.

[birdawg]

WOW thanks for taking the time to post those. I love the detail in your photos. Making photos around 800 pixels would make it easier to get more per post.

[fox-admin]

Very nice thanks. Craig

[MARSHFELLOW]

Very nice "documents". I too have never seen the "order" sheet before now. Thanks.

tjw

[Fin2Feather]

I can see most of the document images, but almost nothing of the gun pics; they appear to be way too close up on my screen?

[LarryO]

Sorry about the pictures being so large but I didn't know how to post them so they'd show up right. I tried to find some FAQ info on how to do it but couldn't find anything so I just uploaded them as attachments. I think if you put your cursor on a picture and right click on your mouse, you can choose to save the picture to your PC. Maybe there's a better way to view them but not sure.

[mc15426378]

Hey Fin, I had the same issue. Right click on the image, select view image...presto...just right.

Mike

[Silvers]

I once owned a very special BE with C Grade wood, 12 gauge 28 incher that came out of Philly at 6 pounds, 6 ounces. The record card for the gun said something like "bore 2 ounces out of stock, take 3 ounces off barrels". Gun is currently owned by a frequent contributor here who is a life member and dealer, and is on his website for sale.

Fox bored some stocks under the buttplate, and added lead to increase the mass of certain guns. Why not bore the stock similarly when the gun was ordered to be a lightweight?

Mike, you must have a different software on your computer than I do. When I right click on the image, I don't get an option that says: view image. Pics stay the same supersize, and much detail is lost while scrolling to and fro. Yep I know how to copy them and get them resized with photo software. Better IMO for the poster to size pics to something like 800 x 640 when taking them, or before uploading to a picture hosting site like Photobucket, etc. Silvers

[Fin2Feather]

Hey Fin, I had the same issue. Right click on the image, select view image...presto...just right.

Mike

Ah ha; perfect! Thanks Mike. Enjoyed the pics Larry!