Fox Collectors

Just wondering if the escutcheon was always installed on ejector guns? I have a Utica made Sterlingworth ejector that
has the escutcheon and crossbrace evident when the forearm is removed.On my SPE the crossbrace is also evident but
there is no escutcheon on the forearm.I have a Callahan letter for my SPE and there no mention of the beavertail fore-
arm [which it has] but the letter also calls for the bore and chamber length to be marked on the barrel [which is not].
The SPE is an early one with no engraving and I was wondering if Fox guns always match up exactly to their letter.
Could guns have slipped out of the factory not exactly as the letter says?

If your gun has the latch type release it is correct with no escutcheon.Only snap on ejector forends had them. Bobby

The latch-type release is what it has so I guess I'm good.Thanks Bobby
Happy New Year to all members of the AHFCA!

and I was wondering if Fox guns always match up exactly to their letter.
Could guns have slipped out of the factory not exactly as the letter says?

On occasion they pulled a gun from inventory and modified it to fill an order. I have an example of this in a 16-gauge Fox-Sterlingworth Ejector Deluxe Field in my collection. Both the original card for the way this gun was built --



and the "Fox Special" card for the modifications survived in the records --



Very seldom do both cards survive. I have a 1938 vintage 20-gauge A-Grade with a straight grip and 26-inch barrels choked IC & mod. On the original card which is all that survives, the F & F for chokes and the Half for the grip are scratched out. I'm sure in my mind that the straight grip stock and long tang trigger guard are 100% 1938-vintage Savage work, and by the scrapes on the sides of the barrels I speculate the order also called for a beavertail forearm as well as openning the chokes. The gun now sports non-original forearm wood sort of made to look like a Philadelphia era slim A-Grade forearm. Beats the few cards we've found marked "cut barrel to fill order"!!