Fox Collectors

This is it after a gentle cleaning to remove decades of grime, surface rust and tobacco smoke.

Romac, nice finds on this one and the B grade too. I favor straight grips myself. I love that deep chiseled early X engraving and the head-down Fox is way cool too. I saw the pics you posted yesterday and had intended to answer then but got sidetracked. Then the server problems made those pics go away. The one pic from yesterday showed the back end of the breeches with the ejectors back, and I noticed the guide pin on the left ejector seems to be pushed through into the shell rim countersink. Or maybe the guide pin was broken and replaced, and the smith drilled thru the face of the ejector to install a new pin. Last possibility is, that the ejector face was damaged by something compressed between it and the standing breech. I couldn't quite tell which it was from that one pic. In any case I'd suggest you get that looked at along with a general safety/function inspection before trying to fire your XE.

Also, thanks for stepping up to membership. I'm sure you'll see the benefits. Silvers

I took a close look, everything seems in order. I'll post a few pictures and tell me exactly what you see. What you described might be the grooves in the ejectors that were either put there on purpose or from striking exposed firing pins. Each ejector has a groove where they would sweep across the firing pin if it was not rebounded. They look as if thye were filed. These are the best pitures I have for now. I'll try to take a better look later.







By the way, this is better than the condition as found

The additional views clarified it. What I saw yesterday on that one pic, now looks to be a light reflection from the groove in the left ejector. These grooves were cut at the factory and are not the result of dragging across the hammer tip (firing pin). A H Fox hammers do not rebound. Once the hammer is dropped it stays all the way forward under pressure from its mainspring, until the start of the cocking cycle. The grooves mainly come into play when a Fox is assembled or closed when the hammers are decocked. Again, congrats on your finds.

WOW!!!

Straight grip XE with the nose down are my favorite Fox guns of all time. Be proud of that gun.. Donnie

Romac,

Permit me to hijack and use your thread to show a couple pictures of your guns brother: another straight grip XE 12 with deep engraving, head down fox and in the 22XXX serial number range- 22416.

Jolly

Jolly anytime you want to put pictures of that gun on I get excited. It is a joy to look at! Donnie

Pretty gun, for sure!

Awesome condition Jolly Bill!!

Great guns both. We need to see a picture of an XE-Grade with the Pigeon in the oval on the bottom. That is my favorite. My old 32-inch 1 weight XE boomer has a nose up Fox.