Fox Collectors

A FEW THOUGHTS ABOUT A 1933 20 GA FOX STERLINGWORTH

I was sitting here looking at a newly acquired 1933 20 ga Fox Sterlingworth and having a few thoughts The nostalgia of hunting a brace of setters with a 1933 20 ga Fox Sterlingworth could be down right mystical. It makes you want to put on a pair of 16 inch pair of Maine LL Bean boots, a hairingbone sport coat and a tie. Top it with one of those wool bucket caps, and you are there. Can it get any better? Well, find a covey and see those dogs quivering on point. Pointing and backing. Straining ever muscle with eye poping intensity. Taking a pair on cocks on the rise. Breaking it open while those fine setters search and bring you each his own bird. Wow what a day it could be...........................

I have got all that why is the summer so long. Yea I have had a couple of glasses of wine too.

I'll pass on the tie when hunting.....

tjw

This is how I like doing it. That's a 28" 16 ga. CE Fox on the right, take my word for it. See how much quicker the gunner can bring it to shoulder than the Parker the fellow on the left is using. (A Fox Gets the Game)



All my best, Stan

Wow, kind of hard to keep my mind on my patients after reading that post--now I'm dreaming about the great northwoods in the fall. I've got 2 SW 20's(utica) and a brace of setters that would fit right in that setting, or maybe rather use my 16 A grade or one of my SW 16's. Also have a couple of O frame 16 Parkers,equally adept in that situation.

MARSHFELLOW wrote:I'll pass on the tie when hunting.....

tjw

Philistine !

I get you Stan; here's me on the right with my 16ga Fox; that's my Bro-in-law on the left with his something-or-other autoloader. He ain't even ready yet !



I like your thoughts ranmcc!!

Great painting Stan!! From everything I hear, wild Bobwhites on a going back to nature old farmstead like in that painting is a thing of the past in this time of clean farming and managed forests.

C'mon now boys.....I live for Autumn's magic too but don't go wishing away my Summer!!!! My walnuts are just about thawed out from all that white stuff AND the left-over cleanup from Sandy!! Still a week or two of good fly-fishing left in my streams then onto some serious fluking and back to the fly rod for Stripers, Bonita and False Alb's with a few days of blue crabbing thrown in for good measure. Hell, it's only 95+/- days till The Vintage Cup at Addie!!!------TOOL

Tomorrow is hump day, guys, June 21. Longest day of the year. From there on it's downhill to hunting season.

Dave, that is called Shooting The High Field by Robert Abbett. It hangs in my house. Birds (quail) are not completely gone, around heah'.. They are tough little fellers, that is, the ones that are left. I heard four separate nesting pairs calling around my house one recent morning. Nothing like that sound. Clean farming, like I practice, and pine plantations, have certainly taken a toll on Mr. Bob, but there are many, many other factors that have come together in a "perfect storm" to sound the warning call for the wild bobwhite. They are not about to go extinct, at least not around here. I hunt them now and then, as a way of paying homage to their grit and refusal to perish. How I love them!

Stan

Stan Hillis wrote: That's a 28" 16 ga. CE Fox on the right, take my word for it. See how much quicker the gunner can bring it to shoulder than the Parker the fellow on the left is using.

Good to see variety in the hunting interests of the Fox Collectors whereas many other groups can't seem to see beyond the northern woods and the deep brown (and sometimes gray) chickens.

I think this guy's using an Ithaca:

Oh for the good old days of the 50s,60s,70s, in Georgia when you could find 8 or 10 coveys of birds on a three hour hunt! Bobby

Bobby, I actually had that experience in Southern Maryland and on the Eastern Shore in the early 1980s. And, over some very nice English Setters to boot!!

Dave

bbman3 wrote:Oh for the good old days of the 50s,60s,70s, in Georgia when you could find 8 or 10 coveys of birds on a three hour hunt! Bobby

Bobby you might want to plan a trip out to North Central Kansas this year. After a pretty dismal season last year my bird scout (the local UPS driver who is an avid bird hunter also) says he is hearing quail calling about ever stop on his rural routs. Can't guarantee number like in the 90s but 5 or 6 coveys a day ain't bad. In addition to North Central Kansas I'm going to give south west Nebraska a bit of a workout also. Won't be wearing any vintage gear but my hunting kit is pretty old and field worn with sufficient character to distinguish me from the tourists. With a bit of work this summer and some bird work in September durring the early Prairie Chicken season my Llewellin should be back in a respectable form by November.

bbman3 wrote:Oh for the good old days of the 50s,60s,70s, in Georgia when you could find 8 or 10 coveys of birds on a three hour hunt! Bobby

Bob, a friend out here in Nebraska used to get very good days in both SE Nebraska and NE Kansas, crossing the state line if a limit was filled early enough in the day in one of the states. Nothing much like that left, at least in SE Nebraska. I found some birds in the mid-1990s, but more in SW Iowa while hunting pheasants there. Wouldn't it be sweet to get our dogs into covies every trip out?

How 'bout a Fox XE 16, a Britanny, and a bobwhite?



This is my shooting student Joe Wood, my Red dog, and a covey rise of bobs: