Fox Collectors

I admire his father. Two guns with dedicated purposes. I'd like to get down to three: one for birds, one for clays and the 94 for everything else.

That doesn't sound like such a bad deal. Trading Maine for Hawaii.

Tom, great find, and cool story of how it ended up in HI!!! Glad you were able to connect w/the seller. His Dad had a great Maine Grouse and Woodcock gun for sure!

SPE33 wrote: ↑Wed Jun 17, 2026 9:43 pm I believe that there is pretty decent bird hunting on the big island.

Indeed! - Larry Baer gushed all over the Wah King Thom Parker A-1 Special ordered by a wealthy planter in his seminal book on Parker Guns. Probably used to shoot "rice birds" and maybe the occasional dove on the Big Island. Kevin

Just for comparison on Tom's experience with the USPS, a new purchase left a smaller town in Alaska by Priority Mail on Thursday afternoon and got to the Anchorage Hub at 2 am on Friday morning. Apparently it's stalled there today for Juneteenth but tracking shows projected delivery to me on next Wednesday. Let's see if that happens. frank

One more pic I forgot to post. My understanding is some of the Skeet and Uplands have different barrel markings based on when they were made. I suspect with a Philly style top lever and this barrel marking, this is an early one.

Of the twenty-eight 12-gauge Fox-Sterlingworth Skeet & Upland Game Guns I've recorded in the 160xxx serial number range, sixteen have the SPECIAL ALLOY -- FORGED STEEL barrel marking, eleven have the STERLINGWORTH FLUID COMPRESSED STEEL marking and I didn't get that information for one. As it happens, I've seen letters for two of the guns dating both to 1935 and one has STERLINGWORTH FLUID COMPRESSED STEEL and the other has SPECIAL ALLOY -- FORGED STEEL. Twenty-four have the Philadelphia top-lever and twenty have the Philadelphia safety slide. There is a batch of regular Fox-Sterlingworths in the 1604xx to 1606xx range and I own 160644 a Fox-Sterlingworth Ejector Brush with a capped pistol grip, Philadelphia safety slide, top-lever and STERLINGWORTH FLUID COMPRESSED STEEL barrels, but of course the bulky Savage forearm. It letters to 19 Feb 1938.
Of the fourteen 20-gauge Fox-Sterlingworth Skeet & Upland Game Guns I've recorded only three have STERLINGWORTH FLUID COMPRESSED STEEL barrel markings. All of the guns I've recorded in the 262xxx range have the trim top-levers and most have the Philadelphia safety slide. The one gun in the 264xxx range and all in the 270xxx range have Savage top-levers and safety slides.

Of the eighteen 16-gauge Fox-Sterlingworth Skeet & Upland Game Guns I've recorded only the first two have STERLINGWORTH FLUID COMPRESSED STEEL barrel markings. I've seen three letters on 16-gauge Fox-Sterlingworth Skeet & Upland Game Guns. The one lettering to 1939 has a lower serial number than the two that letter to June and December 1936. All of the 16-gauges I've recorded have the Savage top-lever

Looking like a different USPS experience than Tom's. So my recent purchase from AK was picked up last Thursday afternoon by the USPS and made it to the Anchorage Postal Dist Center where it was scanned at 2 am last Friday morning. Priority Mail. No scans since then but it still shows delivery today Wednesday by 9 pm. I wonder what odds Polymarket would put on that happening? frank

Not to hijack Toms thread, but in line with Franks USPS Priority Mail experience on Monday, June 15th, I priority mailed an FFL and Check to Ohio. Said three days. Was finally delivered this Monday, the 22, seven days later. Glad I paid the extra money for Priority.

Silvers wrote: ↑Fri Jun 19, 2026 12:46 pm Just for comparison on Tom's experience with the USPS, a new purchase left a smaller town in Alaska by Priority Mail on Thursday afternoon and got to the Anchorage Hub at 2 am on Friday morning. Apparently it's stalled there today for Juneteenth but tracking shows projected delivery to me on next Wednesday. Let's see if that happens. frank

Patience, patience .....

Picked up at the Dealer on Thursday 6/18 and scanned at the Anchorage USPS Mail Dist center at 2:05 am Friday 6/19
Scanned at the Phila Dist center on Wednesday 6/24 at 7:59 pm
Scanned at the Wash DC Dist center on Thursday 6/25 at 11:19 pm (wrong direction, I am north of Philly)
Delivery was originally projected by the USPS on Wednesday 6/24

Silvers wrote: ↑Fri Jun 26, 2026 7:40 am

Silvers wrote: ↑Fri Jun 19, 2026 12:46 pm Just for comparison on Tom's experience with the USPS, a new purchase left a smaller town in Alaska by Priority Mail on Thursday afternoon and got to the Anchorage Hub at 2 am on Friday morning. Apparently it's stalled there today for Juneteenth but tracking shows projected delivery to me on next Wednesday. Let's see if that happens. frank

Patience, patience .....

Picked up at the Dealer on Thursday 6/18 and scanned at the Anchorage USPS Mail Dist center at 2:05 am Friday 6/19
Scanned at the Phila Dist center on Wednesday 6/24 at 7:59 pm
Scanned at the Wash DC Dist center on Thursday 6/25 at 11:19 pm (wrong direction, I am north of Philly)
Delivery was originally projected by the USPS on Wednesday 6/24

You got the stale chocolate at the mark down bin. I've had it happen with USPS more then once. I think my case was a pure one off.

Silvers wrote: ↑Fri Jun 26, 2026 7:40 am

Silvers wrote: ↑Fri Jun 19, 2026 12:46 pm Just for comparison on Tom's experience with the USPS, a new purchase left a smaller town in Alaska by Priority Mail on Thursday afternoon and got to the Anchorage Hub at 2 am on Friday morning. Apparently it's stalled there today for Juneteenth but tracking shows projected delivery to me on next Wednesday. Let's see if that happens. frank

Patience, patience .....

Picked up at the Dealer on Thursday 6/18 and scanned at the Anchorage USPS Mail Dist center at 2:05 am Friday 6/19
Scanned at the Phila Dist center on Wednesday 6/24 at 7:59 pm
Scanned at the Wash DC Dist center on Thursday 6/25 at 11:19 pm (wrong direction, I am north of Philly)
Delivery was originally projected by the USPS on Wednesday 6/24

Wonder of wonders! The tracking scan shows arrival at my local PO at 5:35 this morning (Saturday) and delivery today! So that makes 9 calendar days since shipped from a small town in Alaska to here in PA. But we had the Juneteenth Federal Holiday intervening on last Friday and I've been told many USPS employees stretch that into a 3 day weekend. Thus we can count it 8 or 6 working days depending on how you look at it. This is a "shooter" Fox SBT K Grade 32" that has a history out west and in AK; again one with a missing factory Record Card. frank

UPDATE: So I got home from a shooting tourney just now at 2:30 and she turns out to be a J Grade. I took a chance on it based on listing as a K and very limited pics and tech info. Not to worry; I'm very happy with the find. They are where and how you find them. All mechanics and woodwork check out just fine. I'll post pics when I get a chance. I’m trying to sort the highly stylicized letters on the trigger guard bow and AI has come up with some possibilities. More detective work to come.

Good on you TUT!! Great looking SKUGG! It must have been hermetically sealed to have survived the humidity/salt air in HI. Grouse guns from Hawaii.....SBT's from Alaska, if only they could talk. Great dinner theater guys!

Silvers wrote: ↑Sat Jun 27, 2026 8:09 am (preceding posts deleted)

Wonder of wonders! The tracking scan shows arrival at my local PO at 5:35 this morning (Saturday) and delivery today! So that makes 9 calendar days since shipped from a small town in Alaska to here in PA. But we had the Juneteenth Federal Holiday intervening on last Friday and I've been told many USPS employees stretch that into a 3 day weekend. Thus we can count it 8 or 6 working days depending on how you look at it. This is a "shooter" Fox SBT K Grade 32" that has a history out west and in AK; again one with a missing factory Record Card. frank

UPDATE: So I got home from a shooting tourney just now at 2:30 and she turns out to be a J Grade. I took a chance on it based on listing as a K and very limited pics and tech info. Not to worry; I'm very happy with the find. They are where and how you find them. All mechanics and woodwork check out just fine. I'll post pics when I get a chance. I’m trying to sort the highly stylized letters on the trigger guard bow and AI has come up with some possibilities. More detective work to come.

So I was able to get the J-Grade SBT's late owner's name and address thanks to the gun shop and from its Acquisition Record book but his given and middle initials don't even come close to what (two) AI apps think from ornate Old English (Blackletter) or Germanic script on its trigger guard bow. The favored interpretation is LBL with about 60% confidence; and B is the first initial of his surname. His Father's given name's initial is D but I don't know his Grandpa's which might be more likely given the age of this Fox. Next step is to contact the town's only nearby Trap Shooting club to see what else I can find out. Sorry, I don't want this to be too mysterious or post pics right now but I'm planning to do an article on this Fox when I run out of leads and I don't want it to be old news then. Kind of neat, although its Fox Record Card is missing the s/n is only one digit away from my first Fox SBT I bought at the Greenwich CT Show thanks to Tool Man/Steve's sleuthing when our AHFCA was just getting started.

As many know, research like this can be both fun and frustrating. But I'm recovering from knee replacement surgery three days ago and I have plenty of idle time. frank

I'm sure however it turns out it will be of interest to us here who love learning about things in days gone by. Good luck wih the knee.

great Catch Tom.