doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Fox BDE questions

I pulled out my 20g Fox BDE, 28" M&F, AE, ST (purchased new in 1964), thinking it would lend itself for clues to help answer qq. posed by Pilger, "Fox B-SE" post.

Looking it over, I discovered that there are but few markings on the forend iron, bbl. flats and water table, with no serial number to be found anywhere.

Should there be a serial no. stamped somewhere? I did not remove forend iron.

Stamped into forend iron, bbl.flats and water table is A E Y S (both the A and the E are encircled).

On the water table, close to the standing-breech, an S is stamped on the right (below the right chamber) and a fancy B or b or p or & is stamped (below the left chamber).

Was my gun mfg. in 1964?

John

The BDE was only catalogued in 1964 and 65.

John, your gun should have a small roughly stamped date code on the bottom of the action either just in front of the trigger-guard or just behind the hinge. It is in the form of a letter (the year) and number (the month) in a circle or oval. "A" is for 1949 and each subsequent letter represents the next year. "O"and "Q" were not used. If your gun was built when you bought it in 1964, the date code would be "R". Hope that helps...Geo

Thanks, Researcher and Geo. Geo., I found the R and the number 4 by the hinge, thus Year of Mfg. = April, 1964. Did Savage assign serial numbers to the Fox BDE? I still cannot locate a stamped s/n.
John

No serial numbers till 1968, when required by the Gun Control Act...Geo