Sterling-What?

Larry the Gun Guy · 02-22-2014, 10:44 PM

A gun store owner that I have bought a few side x sides from recently decided to call me and offer a Fox Sterlingworth. He said it was in good condition and had a single trigger and ejectors with 30" barrels. I asked what he wanted for it and he gave a reasonable price for a Sterlingworth. Well without seeing the gun I thought a Fox in good condition with a single trigger and ejectors ought to be worth at least what he was asking, so I said send it. I don't see very many single trigger Foxes.

The pictures are what he sent me; an all original first generation A grade ejector gun with a Kautzky single trigger, even the butt plate is in great shape. The gun is choked extremely full and full and has 2-5/8" chambers. The bores are shiny with #1 barrels.
It has several handling marks in the wood, but that's to be expected for a gun made in 1911. It came in a period leg-o-mutton leather case that has seen its better days. The barrel blue is about 98% and it has about 60-70% case colors left and as you can see the wood is just gorgeous.

You just never know what you're going to run across out there.

Dean Romig · 02-22-2014, 11:03 PM

What a beautiful Fox! Great find!

Wild Skies · 02-23-2014, 07:08 AM

Some guys have all the luck!

Twoatlow8 · 02-23-2014, 08:11 AM

Very Nice!

Big Friend Ten (BFT) · 02-23-2014, 08:26 AM

Larry,

That is an amazing AH Fox!

Mark

Mills · 02-23-2014, 08:43 AM

You did good. You can't beat the early Foxes

Autumn Daze · 02-23-2014, 08:56 AM

Larry, You sure stepped in it this time! Must be the result of good living....

charlie cleveland · 02-23-2014, 09:38 AM

wow.. what a find the fox is a beautiful gun...someone cared for this gun in its life for sure..as said your living rite...charlie

OH Osthaus · 02-23-2014, 11:11 AM

too bad it's missing a trigger

very nice - great wood for an A grade- the case may have been beat up- but it looks like it did its job protecting the gun.

Researcher · 02-23-2014, 11:36 AM

Great find!! You'll see a lot of early A-/AE-Grades before you see one nicer than that!!

We can do some speculating on the single selective trigger, as the gun is from three or four years before the A.H. Fox Gun Co. began offering the Fox-Kautzky Single Selective Trigger. Was it a trigger fitted by Joe himself? An early experimental trigger? Was the gun back some years later to A.H. Fox Gun Co./Savage Arms Corp. for the trigger? Do you have a letter on the gun from the Savage Historian?

For $40 Graded or $30 Sterlingworth (last prices I've seen quoted) you can get a factory letter on most any Ansley H. Fox shotgun (Philadelphia or Utica) from

John T. Callahan
Arms Historian
P.O. Box 82
Southampton, MA 01073.

The information exists on the factory work-order cards, probably 85+% of which still exist. Send him the complete serial number and a check, and he can do the rest. That would tell you the specifications of the gun when it left the factory.