Very odd C-grade stock....

Obsessed with Doubles · Sun Apr 06, 2008 9:45 pm

Check out this stock. It's off of a C-grade Fox. I looked it over with a friend of mine and we're almost certain it's original.

Has any else every seen a stock like this on a Fox?

Silvers · Post by **Silvers** » Sun Apr 06, 2008 10:17 pm

I haven't seen one with a radiused comb like yours, and the shape of the wrist and its checkering don't look particularly Foxy, IMO. But you never know, radiused comb stocks had a brief spurt of popularity for a time. I'd suggest looking at the inletting cuts in the head of the stock and comparing with a factory one.

Here's an odd one that was on a 32" CE that's currently getting restocked. I'm pretty sure it's an A-grade factory monte carlo that was retrofitted to the CE. The letter on the gun says it was a straight grip when it left Philly in 1909. Interesting, the serial number on the pistol grip style trigger guard matches the frame, looks "factory" and its engraving is C grade. I wish I had that original straight grip T-guard.... I'll probably do a story on the gun for our Fox Collector Newsletter some time down the road.

A lot of things can happen over 100 or so years.... Silvers

eightbore · Post by **eightbore** » Mon Apr 07, 2008 7:42 am

OWD, a Callahan letter on the gun would be step one. The famous GAM guns had stock combs almost identical to the pictured gun. I don't know where the GAM guns are now, but Tom Kidd wrote about the double barrel GAM gun in DGJ. I don't believe the single barrel GAM L Grade gun was featured in any article but it also had a stock with the identical comb.

DGKaas · Post by **DGKaas** » Mon Apr 07, 2008 9:29 am

The folks that ordered these stocks must have been reading Greener's book on his "rational stock" design which is virtually identical.

Fin2Feather · Post by **Fin2Feather** » Mon Apr 07, 2008 10:26 am

GAM guns? 'Splain please.

Twice Barrel · Post by **Twice Barrel** » Mon Apr 07, 2008 11:26 am

I can't believe this stock would have been original to a C grade with the quality of wood and poor fitting of the Jostam pad and what about that grip cap?

DGKaas · Post by **DGKaas** » Mon Apr 07, 2008 1:22 pm

It is hard to make a clear judgement without having OWD's stock in hand and looking for some "tells" in the inletting and numbering but I think it looks very much like a factory custom C grade stock very similar in shape to the GAM guns. The wood quality is not inconsistent with any number of C grades I have both owned and seen. If pads(and grip caps) were determinative of the originality of a factory stock, quite a few "real" factory stocks would not pass the test a 100 year later. however the very fact the pad is an aged Anti-Flinch Jostam might give a bit of credence to its factory heritage.

eightbore · Post by **eightbore** » Mon Apr 07, 2008 2:14 pm

Fin2Feather, in DGJ Volume 2, Issue 1, Tom Kidd describes and pictures the GAM D Grade Fox with "rational" stock. Kidd says E.C. Crossman, in a 1920 article, tells of seeing the GAM D Grade at the Fox factory and stated that "It would take a lot of looking before I would pronounce that stock to be attractive." That is not a direct quote, but you get the idea. The gun you ask about was ordered by a person whose initials were GAM, so this gun and a similar single trap gun in L Grade are referred to as the GAM guns. The initials, inlaid in gold on the trigger guards of both guns help to identify them. The single barrel also has a rational stock nearly identical to the gun Kidd writes about. The single barrel had not surfaced at the time of the article on the double barrel. They were later reunited but I don't know where they are today. Kidd did not indicate where the D Grade surfaced, but the L Grade surfaced at an auction house in Timonium, Maryland and has passed through several hands since.

loggy · Post by **loggy** » Mon Apr 07, 2008 2:28 pm

Jack Puglisi had the pair for sale at a couple of Vegas shows. The weren't there this year a have been absent from his web page for quite some time.

eightbore · Post by **eightbore** » Mon Apr 07, 2008 4:00 pm

Yup, Loggy, and I assume now they are in private hands, probably one of us. Another dealer of note had the pair for quite a while, actually had the L Grade since it surfaced. Mr. Kidd rarely reveals the ownership of the guns he writes about.

Fin2Feather · Post by **Fin2Feather** » Mon Apr 07, 2008 4:14 pm

Thank you, Sir!