Fox Collectors

Do you dry fire before putting your gun away or do you use snap caps and leave them in the gun during storage?

LOL Probably been asked a hundred time!

I do not dry fire or use snap caps when storing. Bobby

So you leave tension on the springs, even through the off season?

Most of these guns sat around cocked for the first fifty to eighty years of their lives. The ejectors are always cocked. That said, mine all have snap caps in them.

[quote="Researcher"]Most of these guns sat around cocked for the first fifty to eighty years of their lives.

Yup, I can believe that.

Top lever spring always has tension on it. Bobby

I always drop the hammers on mine with the barrels off and a hardwood block to take up firing pin resistance and travel. Then replace barrels and forend and into the safe; no snap caps during storage. Kevin

I drop hammers with spent shells (after I tap the spent primers flat from the inside to simulate new primers for impact), disassemble, drop barrel locking hook via lever to take that strain off, and store in 3 pieces.

In the article "Why Should I Buy A Fox Gun?", in Volume 11, issue 1 of DGJ years ago, Tom Kidd wrote (in quoting Fox literature, I think), that it will in no way damage a Fox gun to dry fire it, because of the way the hammer is designed and the way it meets the rear of the standing breech. As I recall it was described as having a substantial boss for the hammer to meet, not allowing the rear of the firing pin itself to ever contact the steel around the firing pin hole, preventing any possibility of "mushrooming" the steel around the hole as is seen on so many other old doubles.

Do you all believe that to be true, or advertising hype ...... not that it isn't built that way, but that it won't possibly damage it to dry fire it occasionally? If built as substantially as described by Fox, it would seem the only thing that could go wrong would be for the firing pin itself to separate from the hammer and break off. Who has seen that occur?

SRH

I have snapped a lot of them when restocking and checking trigger pulls of completed guns and no broken firing pins. Bobby

I use snap caps because A) they're just another one of those cool accessories we all like to fool with, and B) they're like chicken soup for a cold: may not do any good, but what harm can it do?