Fox Collectors

I was just doing a little reading about some Parker shotguns with factory 24" barrels over on the Parker Forum....I dont ever remember us discussing original 24" Fox guns here?? Anybody have any experience with any A H Fox guns with factory two foot barrels??

tjw

Tom....As you know, a factory 24" small bore with some choke would thrill me as much as an FE would to most of us. About 10 years ago, maybe 12, I was at a certain dealer's place in a certain town in Pa. and he had a Utica era A grade 20 with what he claimed to be factory 24 inchers. "Made for a small boy" was the ad that lead me to his place. I didn't buy the gun.....long story......but that remains my only encounter with a possibly original gun. Who knows if it really was or not.

A gun to be wary of when shopping "In Pennsylvania". Once, our friend Mr. Noreen and I were shopping "In Pennsylvania" and we happened upon an uncommonly short barrelled Fox and a like barrelled Smith. Fortunately, the order card for the Fox had been made available to me, so I knew the gun was real. Unfortunately, another astute collector in the bidding audience also knew the provenance of the gun and outbid us. The same person had some inside knowledge of the Smith and ended up going home with it.

.......ok Murph, so what was the Fox????....any details come to mind?

I need to go shoppin in Pennsylvania with you guys, it sounds fun. Pick me up on the way thru Sizemore.

Anybody else have any "lettered" two footers??.....

tjw

Not a 24" Fox, but there's some info in the Members Forum on a Fox 16 gauge AE with factory 25" barrels. Card was marked SPECIAL and it was ordered for a customer who "had only one arm". Choked Cylinder and Modified, shipped October 1930. I no longer own this gun so that's all I'll post on it, but any member interested can use the advanced search function, use my name and search for "one arm". Not PC today but that's what the card shows. Again, that's in the Members Forum so the threads will not come up for any searchers who are registered users only. Silvers

I did a Card of the Month back in 2010 with a late Savage-era CE-Grade 16-gauge, built on the flat-sided SP-frame, with 24-inch barrels. Subsequently, the gun surfaced and we had a long string on it. It seems that Card of the Month and the thread on the gun were lost when our server crashed as I can't find the August or September 2010 Cards of the Month in the archive.

Silvers, the 25" gun that you had came to mind...I remembered you writing about it. I bought an SPE Skeet & Upland 12ga gun one time that was a two barreled set...25" & 28", the 28" set was with the gun, the 25" set were/are lost in space. Too bad.

Researcher, now that you mention it, I remember that "CE engraved" flat sided SP gun....I had forgotten it mentioned 24" barrels.

tjw

This is a pretty nice little gun.........

tjw

Remember Gene Hill's story about a little double with 24" barrels: "...it was sold, special order...through the long forgotten Boston Hardware Company...How I'd like to know the man who had it made! He must have been an independent Yankee cuss. I'll bet it was the only 24-inch side-by-side in all New England. There must have been some laughs and jokes around the cider mill when he first showed it off!"

A few years ago, I bought a great little Parker GHE Damascus O frame 16 gauge with 24" barrels. A year later, the fellow who sold me the gun called and asked if I wanted the other two barrel sets and forends that he had recently come across. The other two sets were 28" and 30". The gun letters as a 26" gun to A.G. Spalding. Apparently the gun at one time was a four barrel set, pretty scarce in "little guns".

.....only you Murph, have that kinda luck with barrels!!

Clean living, Tom. Too bad you missed seeing the CH Parker two barrel Bernard set that I displayed at the Fall Southern shortly after reuniting the fronts and the back. The factory case was missing from the display since it is taking a short visit to the case hospital for a new lid border.

.....I knowit....I was following the thread on the P-word forum. Great story. Yeah, clean livin!

Here's an unusual one . . .

Pictured below is an Ithaca looking Fox 20 gauge with 24 inch barrels. Sorry about the quality of the pictures.

The gun was put together in the Ithaca Gun Company factory in 1936 by Ithaca Gun employee Joe Cramer. Joe had a brother who worked for Savage Arms then in Utica NY just about 100 miles northeast of Ithaca. Story goes Joe got the required Fox parts from his brother and ran the parts thru the various departments at Ithaca Gun to get the gun finished. The only markings on the gun were the numbers "12925". Have no idea of the signifigance of those numbers.

Hard to see in the pictures but if you look closely at the top rib, it has the circular matting that was used on Lefever guns made in Syracuse and the real early Ithaca guns. Not sure how Joe worked out that deal. It also had the period correct Ithaca sunburst pad.

Very light gun with those 24 inch barrels. Don't remember how it was choked. Pretty neat gun with a lot of condition. Tom Kidd did a story on the gun in the DGJ way back when. Researcher or someone else with the index might be able to pin down on when Mr. Kidd did that article so you can read more about the gun.

How's that for a "lunch box gun"?

Jolly

What a cool gun and story. Thanks for sharing. I don't suppose you have closer pictures of the engraving....primarily the belly?