1918 BE Fox
 

Shot Thursday afternoon in a big sunflower field with the A H Fox BE grade 12 ga. with 32" barrels. Lots of doves, I mean LOTS. Killed my 15 bird limit with 21 shells......... Aguilas, one ounce of no. 8s.

Used the same gun and shells today on a millet field and brought the total for the two shoots up to 24.

https://www.jpgbox.com/jpg/62298_800x600.jpg

SRH

Stan, that sure looks like fun, especially with such a nice Fox.

Garry, that old Fox is kinda special to me. Not because it is an heirloom, or anything like that. It has the name and date W B Hart 1919 crudely engraved on the trigger guard bow, probably the first owner. It's been restocked, has numerous repairs ........... just an old warrior that won't quit. It's one gun I have that will never have any restoration done to it under my watch, just repairs as needed. Every time I take it hunting I look at that name on the guard bow, and wonder where he lived, and what he hunted with it. Searches I've done for him have yielded nothing, so far.

SRH

Garry, the Cody Museum has the Fox records and probably get you some history for your beautiful Fox.

Stan:

You say name is engraved crudely. Is there any chance that the middle initial could be an "H", which now is "closed" into a "B", by way of handling wear and scratches?

I don't think so, Russell, but when I get a chance I will take a couple pics, closeups, and post them back here. I was going by my memory and that's a bad thing for me to do. I'm questioning now whether I even remembered the first initial right. In any event, I'll get some pics up here and maybe other's eyes can help.

Thanks for asking.

Stan:

The reason I was asking if the middle initial could be construed as a “B”, [ correction, "H"] was on the off-chance that the gun had been owned by, transferred or gifted to, the grandson of William B. [correction, "H"] Hart, whose name was also William B. [correction, "H"] Hart. The grandson would have been 24 in 1918.

The senior Hart was the king-pin of Stanley Tool Works, in New Britain, Connecticut, following the retirement of company’s founder, Frederick T. Stanley. (“Tool Man” likely could elaborate on Hart’s influence on the company’s rise, during a career Hart had with it that spanned from 1854 to 1918.)

The Hart family has long had an enclave on Martha’s Vineyard, and a member of the family has told me that the family did have a lot of bird hunters, but he does not know if either William was one of them.

It is a long-shot, but may be worth scrutinizing that trigger guard, since you maintain a curiosity about the gun's former keeper.

B? H? I'm confused.

http://harthavencommunity.com/centen...m_H._Hart.html

I sincerely apologize for not getting back to you several months ago, Russell, with the accurate initials. I just now looked and, my memory was wrong indeed, but on the first initial, not the middle one. The correct name that is crudely engraved is clearly "L.B Hart". Beneath that is says "Oct., 1919".

If you had not brought this back up I'd have never remembered it. My bad. But, thanks so much for resurrecting this.

Today the old Stanley Tool Works is home to CSMC.