Fox Collectors

Hello all, I'm new to this forum and new to fox shotguns. I recently purchased a 20 ga SW for my wife who seems interested in shooting sxs sporting clays with me. The gun is really tight and well balanced . Upon inspecting the gun before using, I noticed the extractor has two notches at the bottom which line up with the firing pins. My question is : are these purposely there or did this gun have some timing problem at some time in which the extended pins were hitting the extractor while closing the action? Also, this is a 1936 era SW with 26 inch barrels, does this mean it's a brush gun? Thanks , also I love the forum.

The notches are supposed to be there. Someone else might opine whether it is a brush gun.

Thanks a lot. I'm in the process of rebluing and was wondering if some repair was needed first.

Yes. Your gun would be a Fox-Sterlingworth Brush. For some reason, in the Sterlingworth, the barrel length was defined with a name -- Trap (32"), Standard (30"), Field (28") and Brush (26"). These names were used in the A.H. Fox Gun Co.'s catalogues and price lists from 1911 to 1929. Savage didn't use these names in their catalogues, but did continue to use them on the production cards --

Thanks, I had heard the term "brush" with this gun but didn't know. It makes sense because this gun looks like it would be perfect on the grouse in the rough mts here in NC. If it doesnt work out for the wife, a hawkins pad is all I need.