Sterling-What?
 

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.:)

What a beautiful Fox! Great find!

Some guys have all the luck! :bowdown:

Very Nice!

Larry,

That is an amazing AH Fox!

Mark

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

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

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

too bad it's missing a trigger :whistle:


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.

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.

I have been trying to figure out why there is such a huge difference in the engraveing between my a grade and this a grade. if I remember correctly mine was made in 1915.

Wayne: Fox changed the engraving style on all the graded guns in 1913. The lowest serial number I have recorded for the post 1913 A grade engraving (your style gun) is 20525. The highest serial number I have recorded for the early style engraving is 21061. So as you can see there was a period of cross over. Larry's gun is well within the early style serial number range. The early style A grade was a big seller before the introduction of the Sterlingworth in 1910. I estimate around 17000 12ga early style A's were produced between 1906 and 1913.
Larry's gun is a very nice example and as Dave Noreen has noted the single trigger and 2nd style ejectors may have been installed after the original ship date since they are both post 1910-1911 features. Craig
Edit:
Opps as Frank points out below Larry's gun has 1st style ejectors--not 2nd style as I stated above.

Thank you for the info. Now I see why the seller of the first A grade mistook it for a sterlingworth. I rechecked the serial no on mine and it is a 1914 gun.

Larry, as others have said you have a great early AE. Actually it looks to have the 1st style ejectors (Fox & Horne) and in that regard it's quite unusual with those ejectors, the single trigger and in such nice condition. Congrats!

If you join the Fox Gun Collectors, you can get a free card look up per year. You will see a copy of your order card and it will basically have as much info as the factory letter-- and you will be supporting a great organization for the same price as the letter--I bet Chromox will agree with that.
I love the early A's but prefer the later A's like Wayne's--I got one in a sweet 16.

One caveat on the research letter, make the check payable to John Callahan and not Savage Arms. I got a research letter on a 20's Sterlingworth and was surprised at how much info John found

I may have to get letters on my 20ga A grade and my sterling worth. Now I am curious.

Mills, would you please elaborate a little more on the information you received in your Sterlingworth's research letter.

TIA,

Well it had all the specs, plus it showed it was delivered to a hardware store in Savannah owned by some family friends for several generations, ending about 10 years ago when the last member of the family finally retired.

This 1913-vintage A-Grade 20-gauge was found on a dealer's table along with two 20-gauge Sterlingworths, all at the same price --

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...eleftclose.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...Graderight.jpg

AE 28"
 

Well now you guys are making me curious about this one I got two weeks ago from "The World's Foremost Outfitter". They didn't see fit to have it in the gun library so it was out on the bargin rack. I call this one my barn find, totally all the case color and nitre blue on the trigger guard and 99% barrel blue. The barrel blue is turning, but the bores are bright and shiny with 2-1/2" chambers. Too bad who ever owned it didn't take it out and oil it every once in a while. Still not bad for 1925.

Two very nice, original Foxes Larry. They sure put some nice wood on those early guns for the grade.

I was at the Salt Lake Cabelas a few months ago, if that is the one you are talking about, and I do not remember seeing that there. I would have noticed something that nice on the bargain rack.

To quote Gil and Vicki Ash; they last about 4 microseconds when they're put out.

Whatever a microsecond is........

I travel a great deal for work and it allows me to fish in a lot of holes.