Dad's Fox Sterlingworth

[Foxnut]

Looks like a nice veteran that has seen service but still in nice shootable condition. What is the barrel length?

Missed your question Researcher....this Sterlingworth has 30" barrels.

I picked it up from my gunsmith today. He replaced the butt pad with an aftermarket black plastic Fox style butt plate, took steel wool over some minor oxidation appearing on the barrels, and pushed two dents out of the left barrel. Looking down the bore its now completely spotless, he did a wonderful job pushing those outward.

He oiled the stock and did an inspection and everything locks tight and the furniture is in terrific shape for being 97 years young. Used a mic to measured the muzzles, right barrel is 0.700, and the left is 0.685, so light full and extra full chokes.

Glad to hear that the gunsmith was able to take of everything and gave it a clean bill of health. Looking forward to seeing some pics of that gun in action this Fall. Well done on preserving and caring for the gun for another nearly 100 years of use going forward! Brett

[Researcher]

The terms "high brass" and "low brass" are really meaningless in this day and age of plastic and compression formed plastic cases. Many of the light promotional shells use a smaller amount of a cheaper powder to hit their price point and pressurewise are right up against the SAAMI pressure limits every bit as much as heavy waterfowl loads.

In the early years of factory loaded paper shells the "high brass" was a mark of the manufacturers premium shot shell. By 1903 or so, things had settled out after the evolutionary steps of the first dozen years of factory loaded paper shells. Winchester's LEADER was their premium shell and our man Ansley H. Fox during 1900, 1901 & 1902 when he was a professional shooter for Winchester often shot under the name "Leader."

Western Cartridge Co.'s premium shell was the RECORD --

Union Metallic Cartridge Co.'s premium shell was the ARROW --

Their "low brass" shells settled out as the Winchester REPEATER --

Western's FIELD --

UMC's NITRO CLUB --

Within these shells there were also two versions, described by terms even more misused today, "low base" and "high base." Shells with a low base wad were for loads using bulk smokeless powders and shells with a high base wad were for loads using dense smokeless powders.

When Western Cartridge Co. introduced their progressive burning, smokeless powder, high velocity load, Super-X, in 1922, it was put up in their FIELD shell --

The Super-X load remained in the "low brass" FIELD shell thru 1935. Remington did the same and their Heavy Duck load, which soon morphed into the Nitro Express, was put up in the NITRO CLUB shell into the 1930s. Just to confuse things Winchester offered their Speed Loads in both REPEATER and LEADER cases. After the Olins acquired Winchester in late 1931 the high velocity loads became Super Speed and pretty much mirrored Western's Super-X.

When the 12-gauge 3-inch Super-X load was added to Western's offerings in 1924 it was put up in the high brass RECORD shell.