Sterlingworth Company pin gun
 

I saw one of these today. At first glance I thought it was a Parker, and couldn't hardly believe it when I saw that it was one of the early Fox pin guns, roll stamped Philly. The left barrel appears to have several straight line "ruts" in the bore that travel from the chamber down the majority of the barrel. Not very deep, but also easy to see. These look like someone shot steel shot down the barrel, and perhaps after several shots when the barrels scorching hot, the steel shot was able to sink in to the metal to leave what I might also describe as gutters in the bore.

Has anyone else seen this, and am I correct about the cause? Makes me think the gun might not be safe to shoot.

could be somebody sfixed this gun to shoot slugs..but your probly right about the steel shot..i ve shot steel shot in several differant old doubles and its never hurt any of the barrels...charlie

A few years ago I saw a GH parker with dam barrels that had the same lines going down the barrels , I also thought maybe steel shot made them, they were deep enough that I turned down the gun. What else would cause that?

I have a set of Damascus barrels on one of my Parkers with one groove from the forcing cone forward about twelve inches or so. It is a spiral groove that isn't very deep but would take some honing to remove. It would be about one complete spiral in sixty inches maybe. It is not deep enough to compromise the integrity of the barrels but I can see why someone would turn down the gun if it was for sale. I have no clue what caused it.

Interesting. I purchased a Fox 12 one time that had scoring down the insides of the barrels. We surmised (my gunsmith) that someone had loaded nuts/bolts/nails into a shell and shot them at trespassers or stray dogs etc. They could be plainly seen on the insides and were fairly deep and irregular in shape. Nuts/bolts/nails loaded into a shell would probably do that. I returned the gun to the dealer and had no problems.

Yup, trespasser loads. However, whatever caused the scratches, it is up to you to deal with them by way of wall thickness gauges, bore gauges, and gunsmiths. Deal with it. Offer the proper price for the guns you are interested in. Buy some bore micrometers.