Thank you Gents for the kind words! A custom project, such as this, is a very personal thing, personal tastes will not necessarily appeal to everyone. It is comforting to hear that you, too; appreciate the craftsmanship that went in to creating it.
I use the gun just as I originally had intended, that is primarily my 20-ga. skeet gun. I also use it for sporting clays as well as 5-stand and as an occasional grouse and woodcock gun that is only typically carried down a logging road on a sunny day. As I mentioned this gun has 30" barrels, it also weighs 6 lbs. 5 oz. and has a 15" LOP which I find isn't at its best as an all day carry gun and bushwacker. So I usually carry a little 28-ga., 26", 5 1/2 lb. gun, which is much quicker and better suited to the one-handed carry necessary when banging through grouse cover.
What would I do different? I have to tell you a lot of thought and planning went in to this project before we ever started it. I had a long time to think about it, as it took about 8 years of diligently searching for the exact gun I wanted as the basis for this project---a 20-ga. Sterlingworth Ejector with 30" 4-weight barrels, so there really isn't anything I'd consider changing now that it's done. Initially, I had considered having the breech balls profiled to the barrels and a single bead filed in around the breech balls, but decided against these as I wanted the gun to be the way it might have come out of the Fox Custom Shop in 1913--if there would have been a custom shop in 1913! I believe the profiling and bead features came years later. We did make a couple of tweaks as the project moved along, the biggest one is that I originally planned for a case-colored action. It didn't take long for engraver Bob Strosin to talk me out of that and in to his French Grey finish to show off the engraving better. I'm glad he did. Stocker Toby Leeds also recommended that he not checker fleur-de-lis in to the stock cheeks as he felt they would detract from the engraving. I believe he was right and I'm appreciative for that suggestion, too. We did make a couple of very minor changes after the pics above were taken, the very small area at the bottom of the curly-cues and above the forend iron on the forend was filled in with checkering and the hinge pin area was polished.
Recently, a good friend of my mine and shooting buddy, who is also an outdoor writer was asked to write a chapter in a new coffee table type book on Grouse Hunting being prepared for publication sometime in 2013. The chapter he was asked to write is on "Grouse Guns". So my friend put on a big rib-eye feast at another friend's grouse camp and asked a bunch of us to bring our grouse guns for a photo shoot. He then submitted his chapter and a bunch of photos to the publisher and the publisher is deciding which photos will go in the book. Here are a couple of those photos:
