Alaska Fox J Grade SBT on the course

[Silvers]

Today I finally had a chance to shoot the Fox J Grade SBT gun I found in Alaska a few months ago. I had limited time this morning, shot 60 mixed reloads and did quite well on sporting clays singles on call = 55/60. I know this will give some of our purist collectors the jitters but she's been restocked in what looks like tiger stripe maple [fiddleback walnut?] that's been finished to match the original forend wood. The stock fitting is superb. She also has a Simmons "Broadway" style vent rib that's a full 1/2" wide from breech to muzzle. I like it! A very much sturdier replacement for the narrower Fox vent rib that sits on small roundish posts and is easily pulled loose from matching dovetail slots in the under rib. Over the years I've repaired the original vent ribs on (three) Fox SBT's that were pulled through on one or more slots. You can see the Simmons rib posts on one of the pics.

Anyway, an article is planned so I'm giving limited details here. The Fox Record Card is missing. 32" barrel, original 2-1/2" tight chamber, strong full choke, tight as a tick and previously owned by a Wisconsin transplant to AK who was AK state champ and is in the AK Trap Shooting Hall of Fame. frank
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[Foxnut]

Frank,
Glad to hear you shot the new J Grade so well! That stock is very nicely done. Look forward to reading the article when published!

[Jeff S]

That’s a good looking gun, and in the pictures it appears to have more drop at comb than at heal. I’m very interested in reading your article.

[fox-admin]

Thanks for sharing. 95% of these old guns have had some work done to them to suit the different generations of owners. Well done mods/repairs are just part of the gun's history and should be enjoyed for what they are in my opinion. These are the guns most of us own.

[eightbore]

The wood is outrageous. I would buy that gun.

[Dutch]

Thanks for sharing. Some day I hope to own a sbt fox.

[Jimmy Goodtime]

Very cool history and a nice gun which you will no doubt put to good use, Frank. Just curious as to how you determined the stock to be maple as it appears as heavily fiddlebacked walnut to me.

[Silvers]

Jimmy, you're probably correct on the fiddleback walnut and I'll add it to my original post here. I'm not a wood expert by any means and my thought when I first posted is that it reminded me of flintlock long rifle stocks made of tiger striped hard maple. Thank you!

From what I understand the Simmons "Broadway" rib on this Fox dates it having been done prior to early 1964 when Simmons moved from Kansas City to Olathe. frank

[Silvers]

That’s a good looking gun, and in the pictures it appears to have more drop at comb than at heal. I’m very interested in reading your article.

Thanks Jeff and all. The Fox stock has a parallel comb at 1-5/8 by 1-5/8 to the MC dropoff at 2-1/4". frank

[eightbore]

Frank, in my opinion, that stock is fiddleback maple. It resembles the W.C. Letterman stock that Kevin McCormack installed on his J Grade. Maybe done by the same stockmaker.

[ROMAC]

it reminds me of my fiddleback maple Sterlingworth.

[Silvers]

So, I had an AI model look at close up pics of the buttstock and here's what it came back with as regards the wood species. For those unfamiliar with AI models, they usually reply in the first tense “I” as if a person was talking with you. frank

My opinion:
If I had to assign probabilities from these photographs alone:
Fiddleback/curly maple — ~65–75%
Fiddleback/curly walnut — ~25–35%
And I would specifically describe it as very highly figured curly maple that has been given a warm walnut-colored finish, if the photographs accurately represent the wood’s natural color.
There is one particularly interesting clue: the little vertical/diagonal dark “flames” within each horizontal band. They look more like the grain distortion of curly maple than the pore structure of walnut.
So, after seeing these photographs, I cannot call it walnut with confidence. My first choice is fiddleback maple.