In the dark

[murdoc67]

I have a 12ga sterlingworth 28in barrel,checkered grip cap,1920's safety slide,ivory bead on end of barrel,whiteline recoil pad and what I was told a F T Russel forearm(which I doubt).Is this possibly a deluxe(it is not a fox sterlingworth)?Any help with info would be greatly appreciated.Iam fresh off the farm in this forum so try to be understanding of my ignorance.

[Twice Barrel]

The Deluxe did not appear until after Savage took over production of the Fox line about two years after your gun was made. There are only two things that distinguish a Deluxe from a standard Sterlingworth, a Jostam Anti-Flinch recoil pad and a mid bead on the barrels.

[murdoc67]

So someone must have replaced oringinal bead with ivory bead.When I bought gun it was not repersented as a deluxe so no harm done.

[vaturkey]

So someone must have replaced oringinal bead with ivory bead.When I bought gun it was not repersented as a deluxe so no harm done.

You could always special order an ivory bead when you ordered a gun. Also, there's always a chance the orginal Jostam pad got flat etc. and they replaced it with the current pad. I believe the Sterlingworth Deluxe came with twin ivory beads and the Jostam pad.

[Researcher]

The Deluxe was just a package deal on the recoil pad and Lyman twin ivory sights. It first appears on the January 2, 1930, Savage Arms Corp. Fox price list and on a fly sheet they included in the last style Philadelphia catalogues that Savage sent out in 1930 with Savage address paste-overs --



A regular Fox-Sterlingworth was $36.50 and the Deluxe was $39.50. So, for $3 you got the recoil pad which had been $5 and the twin ivory sights which had been $1.50. Great deal.

Savage also was offering the same package deal on their Stevens and Springfield doubles being made at their J. Stevens Arms Co. plant in Chicopee Falls, Mass.

Similarly in 1931, Ithaca Gun Co. was offering, through their Lefever Arms Co., a Super Nitro Special which had twin ivory sights and a Hawkins recoil pad for $31.25 while a regular Nitro Special was $28.25.

Manufacturers were offering some deals to try and move product in those tough depression years!!

[Researcher]

There were three different forearm latches used on Sterlingworth forearms. On the very early The Sterlingworth Co. guns from 1910, they used a Baker J-spring.





John C. Kremer & Ansley H. Fox received Patent No. 1,029,374 for a forearm fastening using a fixed loop on the barrel and a spring-loaded roller in the forearm to engage a detent in the back side of the loop. This fastener was used on extractor Sterlingworths and graded smallbores for a few years, but the spring for the roller was in the way of ejectors, so F.T. Russell (Patent No. 1,029,229) reversed it and made the spring-loaded detent on the forearm loop, and the roller stationary in the forearm iron. Even though both patents were issued on June 11, 1912, the Kremer-Fox application was filed three months earlier than Russell's. By the mid-teens the F.T. Russell fastening was being used on both ejector and extractor guns.

The Kremer-Fox forearm fastening was used on the Parker Bros. Trojan Grade forearms, as they never had ejectors. Years ago Babe showed me letters between Parker Bros. and A.H. Fox Gun Co. about this.