Fox Collectors

This is my M30 20 ga. Montgomery Ward/Browning, so called because it was designed by J. Browning and sold to J. Stevens Arms Co. when Winchester wouldn't pay what he felt the rights to production were worth. Stevens produced the 20 ga. as the Model 520. Same gun, but kinda cool with the "Westernfield/Browning" on the side. This particular one has a 28" barrel, tightly choked. It is a true take-down gun. All it takes to do so is to unscrew the magazine tube with your fingers, move the forend slide completely to the front, and pull down on the barrel/magazine tube ass'y. As you can see, it is mated very rigidly to the receiver when in place. Just an ingenious design. It's a man-sized pump 20 which weighs in at 6 lbs. 5 oz. empty, and carries nicely.

Dove pics will be following on this thread this fall/winter.









SRH

Very neat gun. I'll bet it has harvested a few bunnies in it's lifetime.

Interesting pump shotgun, I never saw one.

I've got a 20 also in the back of one of my safes.

There is an awful lot of machining to make that takedown mate up properly.

Really cool to see it in your hands how detailed it is.

Nice pics and nice gun. What year?

These guns are hard to date exactly, because no serial number records exist. They all mysteriously burned up when J. Stevens Arms was about to be investigated for war profiteering, AIR. But, by catalog ads, etc. we can get to within a range of years. Doing that, this one appears to be from the latter part of the 1933-37 time frame. Researcher and Drew Hause have a good bit of info in old catalog pics, I think. 12s are much more plentiful than 20s.

Does yours have the suicide safety, ROMAC?

SRH

One thing about mine is not original. I changed the barrel bead. It had a very small brass bead. When I patterned it, it shot really high for me. All ribless shotguns, without a little block or ramp under the bead, shoot high for me. Not wanting to do anything that would modify the originality that couldn't be changed back, and wanting to get it to shoot closer to flat, I replaced the bead with a much larger (which would be higher) brass bead. It brought the patterns down just right. I saved the original bead. Can't have a gun that won't shoot where I want it to.

SRH

I took a look and mine in actually a Stevens 620, with no suicide safety.

A later variation according to what I've been told.

I was lucky and found this one in pretty good condition.

The 620 came out around 1938..........possibly as early as 1936, according to some.

Thanks for the pics, SRH

The J. Stevens Arms & Tool Co. introduced this John M. Browning designed pump gun in 12-gauge, called the No. 520, circa 1909. Higher grades were No. 522 to 535. In their 1927 Catalogue No. 57, J. Stevens Arms Co. introduced the new streamlined No. 620 version of this JMB designed pump in 12-gauge, and the No. 520 was moved to their lower priced Riverside Arms Co. line.
That was the last appearance of the humpbacked pump gun in any J. Stevens Arms Co. catalog that I've ever seen. By 1928, the No. 620 was also offered in 16-gauge and during 1929 the 20-gauge was added to the offerings. The No. 520-30 and the Model 30 seem to have only been manufactured for the government or in "trade branded" versions and included the 16- and 20-gauges, but they don't appear in any of my J. Stevens Arms Co. catalogs through 1946 and Savage/Stevens/Fox catalogs from 1947 into the 1980s. That said, here is a page from the 1951 Savage/Stevens/Fox parts catalog --

Briefly, the J. Stevens Arms & Tool Co. manufactured a 20-gauge pump gun, called the No. 200, made to handle shells up to 3-inch.

As promised..........

Wound up the early dove season yesterday afternoon. As hurricane Florence pushed it's way inland past us through South Carolina, we had temps in the upper 70s, light rain, and winds gusting to about 30 mph. Just the right conditions for an afternoon of great sport with doves!!

Decided to take the Westernfield/Browning 20 that I bought last year. I had shot a few clays with it, and replaced the bead to help get the pattern down a little lower (which worked perfectly), but it had been sitting waiting. I promised the previous owner it would see dove fields, so I decided yesterday was the time to fulfill that.

The birds were flying very high and fast. The leads it took on some were just phenomenal. I remember seeing what looked like 8-9 feet on several that I scratched down. The modified choke, with 1 oz. shot, worked great. We went too late. The field owner said we would take the field at 3. We should have been there at 12:30. I know the birds fed early because of the impending weather, but before it was over the little pumpgun managed 13 down. I paused for a break to snap this poor pic. Sorry for the quality of it, but I had something else on my mind.



SRH

What about a Stevens 522 (Trap version of the 520) that's flat out new, or at least 99.9% in all respects? 12-gauge with 30-inch solid rib barrel and factory straight grip stock to original buttplate, nicely figured. Just rough numbers, what's a fair buying price on this Stevens?

frank

I really don't know a lot about the market on these guns, Frank. It is my understanding that they do not bring much money, an indication of there not being much interest in them at this time. However, I've never seen one in that high a condition.

Check your p.m.(s)

SRH

Would it make any difference if it was a J. Stevens Arms & Tool Co. --
or a J. Stevens Arms Co.
Pre or post WW-I.