Fox Collectors

Is this barrel stamp only used on Super barrels? McIntosh shows a better picture on page 219.

I just went down to the gunroom and I found that I have three guns with an "inspector's mark" ,for lack of a better term, in that location, all three 1920s vintage 12-gauges. My Super-Fox has the same mark as you show --



and supply of pictures I see this Super-Fox that the Headricks use to have also has that mark --



My other two guns with a mark in that location are a heavy 12-gauge XE-Grade and a fairly light 12-gauge Sterlingworth Standard. They both have the square with concave sides mark. I don't have a picture of it loaded in Photobucket.

Researcher wrote:I just went down to the gunroom.....

How dearly I hope to utter that phrase some day

Thanks Dave. I noticed that mark on 30069 when McIntosh's book was first published. Also on a Super that I had at that time. I have thought the mark represents two "B's" - back to back. Maybe the Inspector's name had two B's? I wonder who that could have been?

Checking the 3 Supers I have had/have they all had that particular mark. I did check one Wildfowl I photographed and it did not have it.

tjw

These two have that mark:

HE12 - 31561 and HE20 - 202290

Sorry to break the chain Gents but I have an HE handy from ducking last month. Late Philly gun. It doesn't have that "8" stamp but does have two other marks in that location: the double Keystones (aka fir tree), and the square with concave sides.

Interesting. My XHE has "the mark", as well as the keystone and an acorn.

tjw

Thanks for the info guys. If this "8" stamp did belong to the 'finest gun-borer that ever lived' it would likely be applied to the early Super barrels. This doesn't mean that all Supers or Savage Fox Wildfowl guns would have Becker's inspection stamp.

Having never seen a Becker Fox I have no idea how they are marked. I hope that more responses will shed more light on which grade(s) of guns have this inspection stamp.

HE's 29502 and 29578 have this stamp.
Bill

More information. The Alaska Super-Fox in the Winter 2012 DGJ article has two sets of barrels. Original barrels have the "8" stamp, and its #2 set have the double keystones and the concave square stamps. The barrels are ~ similar except for bore diameters and weights (mass). IMO these stamps correlate to the name of the hard fitter or final inspector or maybe something else. Just FWIW, I don't think the "8" stamp has any connection with Becker. Besides I seem to remember that Tom Kidd wrote - from correspondence he got from Becker's shop - that after the Super-Fox prototyping was done Mr. Burt personally bored/massaged very few regular production barrels. Silvers

Super #32531 has the "convex-sided" square to the left of the 'H"; Super 29900 has the "wavy 8" to the right of the 'H'.

I looked back at my poor definition photos of 31088, BoWhoop, and the markings. There is a mark in that exact location on it, but at the time I examined it, in October of '07, that mark was unclear to me. It somewhat resembled a "2", but if you consider it, the stamp that made those "8" marks would resemble a "2" if it had been leaning to the right as it was struck.

SRH

Here is the stamp on BoWhoop --

That's definitely not the same as the "figure 8" stamp is it?

Thanks, Dave

SRH

Thanks guys for all the barrel stamp info provided above. My curiosity is still alive so I went online to view as many H's as I could.

I found: 32531 submitted by Sporrns above the earliest H with the concave square stamp. 3252x submitted by Researcher above is the latest H I viewed with the 8 stamp. In my small sample, 13 guns, there was no mixing of the two stamps between serial numbers.

There is a clear picture of Bo Whoop on one of the auction sites. That picture clearly shows the barrel stamp to be the 8. The Crossman XHE also has the 8 and the keystone stamp. Interesting that the Crossman XHE and Bo Whoop also have a stamp which I have not seen on any other gun. That stamp may be the "acorn" as on the XHE described by Marshfellow above.

While viewing these Philly guns I noticed that the concave square and keystone stamps are also used on grades C and higher. This includes 16 and 20 gauge guns.

Perhaps the acorn person only worked on the higher graded, specialty guns. The 8 stamp seems to be limited to the earlier H guns, both 12's and 20's.