doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Fox Sterlingworth Philly 20ga ????

I came by a basket case of a 20 ga fox with 28" extractor barrels. The only good news is barrel locks up very tight and bores are not pitted. Wood is shot, ribs are loose, forearm loop is loose and action gunked up.

The barrel chambers are 2.5 " and right barrel measures cylinder and left barrel is modified.

Man this gun is light. Do Foxes tend to run on the svelte side? What would you expect the barrel set to weigh? I have not measured the bores yet, but the bores do not look like they have been polished out.

Many thanks

Yes, they are svelte BUT this gun will be a money pit. Putting it right will cost much more than the gun will be worth.

Yeah I would not be having anything done by others. I will more than likely put it aside for a future do and learn project.

I am just surprised at how light the gun is.

Bores measure out .643. I would immediately think the bores have been gutted out but both chokes start at about. 3.5 inches from the muzzle ends.

Was the overbore a fox feature to make them light?

The serial number looks like a 1913 gun. The gun weighs in at 6lbs 2ozs which seems in line with other 20 ga sterlingwoths with 28" barrels.

Ok I am starting 2025 with being a bonehead. I had my bore gauge measuring in mm not inches. The bores measure out at .617 inches. Now that makes a bit more sense.

Travis my custom 20 gauge Fox 26 inch barrels weighs 5 lbs 4 ounces. Bobby

Bobby, that makes sense.

I think the gun is all there just rode hard and put up wet. I have a couple other barrel sets that I am going to attempt to relay the ribs and if all goes well I will give a try on the fox.

Very cool old gun. I hate it being such bad shape but hey that is why it was given to me.

Travis

They are so much lighter then a Parker or NID in 20 gauge. I have several and most are about 5 lb 13 oz.

Yours sounds really beat. I have not heard of many that trashed frankly. Relaying both ribs and resoldering the lug is a Lotta work.

Relaying ribs is a lot of work, but mostly prep work. Everything must be spotless and working neatly eliminates a lot of cleanup. I have repaired several ribs, not the best thing to do and relayed one set completely. Do not rush the job. Clean, scrape, prep the metal, all the rust out, make everything as good as you can before tinning and relaying the ribs. A home made jig, to hold the barrels will help since you are doing this for the first time. Cut nails or iron wedges, with soft wire helped hold everything in place. And a good heat source is the key. You do not want a cold solder joint. I got one and had to strip everything off and do it right the second time. There were a couple YouTube videos that showed how to do it. I think ChuckH showed doing this once on this board.

The proverbial “free gun”.

What could possibly go wrong?

Well, let us know….


Best,
Ted