Seeking Information

[73ranger100]

Good Evening,

A friend of mine is cleaning out their parents home and found a couple of shotguns stuck in the attic. Once is a "Trade Bran Name" single shot. I was thinking the other was too however I found A H Fox Gun Co Phila PA stamped on top of the barrel, along with Krupp Fluid Steel. Anyway a little research brought me to your website. I was hoping to get more information about the shotgun.

From what I found it has a Grade stamp of A SN# 7718
It also has the double trigger and the half pistol grip
I am 95% sure it is a 12Ga however I need to measure the bore to find out, I cannot find any markings to confirm.

I would call the condition fair (i am in no way an appraiser)
It has quite a bit of surface rust and some pitting, the checkering is worn, and the stock and for end are quite beat up.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[jolly bill]

Ranger,

I'm pretty certain you have an early style A grade A. H. Fox double and it is a 12 gauge. Sounds like it has seen some poor storage and your assessment of the condition as "fair" sounds about right. Pictures are nice even tho the gun may not be as pretty as it used to be.

Pictured below is what the gun probably looked like before its current fate. It too is an early A grade Fox, Krupp barrels, half pistol grip and it is a 12 gauge and has serial number 7983, just 265 guns higher than yours. They likely would have been in the production process at the Philadelphia Fox factory at the same time, around 1906 - 1907.

Hope this helps.

Jolly

[Researcher]

That would likely be a 12-gauge gun from 1907. The present working theory is that Ansley H. Fox doubles with serial numbers 1 to 3000 were built, or at least started, in the original A.H. Fox Gun Co. factory at Wayne & Bristol Streets during 1905 & 6. In late 1906, they bought the old Philadelphia Arms Co. factory at North 18th Street & Windrim Avenue. They began numbering the guns they started there at 7000. About 85% of the production cards for Ansley H. Fox doubles survive, but only about ten below 9600, so no factory info on the gun in question exists. In those years the guns were only made in 12-gauge and in five grades identified as A-, B-, C-, D- or F-grade. The grade letter should be stamped on the watertable near the serial number. A-grade was the entry-level gun. From the 1907 A.H. Fox Gun Co. catalogue --

[73ranger100]

Jolly / Researcher,

Thank you for your time and information. I will try and get some descent photos of it tonight.

[73ranger100]

I took a few photos this morning with my phone, however I am not sure how to upload them, I apologize I am not familiar with the process.

[SmithShady]

We don't have a way to upload photos directly to our site (yet), so the photos have to be uploaded to a photo sharing site like Photobucket or Flickr (these are free). From there you can post a link to the pictures and display them in a thread on our board. Use the search feature on this site and look for Photobucket. You should run across several posts that have directions on how to post from there. If you already have an online account where you store pictures, look for a way to copy the html or BB Code from the site and drop it in a post here.

Mike