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What are you afraid of?

Probably getting close to 40 years ago now, I owned an A.H.Fox Sterlingworth ejector 20 ga. with 32" barrels. Pistol grip and splinter forend, original buttplate. Decent condition, very plain wood, ejectors were a little weak, blue was a little thin, receiver silvered out. The chokes had been monkeyed with. Have often thought I should have kept it and had it restocked, restored, maybe engraved lightly, and had the ejectors fixed. Would be very desirable these days. No real regrets, though. Like so many other pieces, I wonder where it is these days...
JR

most of us have special attachments to "the ones that got away".

I will relate one example of just a few short years ago, maybe six years. I was really wanting a 32" Fox for doves, in 20 gauge, but I might have settled for a 16 had everything else been copasetic with the gun. I found not one, but two 32" Fox 20s at the Brays Island Exposition at a booth manned by a New England based vintage gun dealer. One was a Philly Sterly and the other an Philly A grade. They were in very, very nice condition, as I wanted. But, the prices were way above my pay grade and conscience. The Sterly was somewhere around $16K, with the A grade being well up into the $20Ks. I quickly passed, but the condition of those two lingered.

Fast forward about a year and I was contacted privately on the PGCA site by an elderly gentleman who was gradually paring down his collection of nice American and English vintage doubles. He had read and seen pictures I had posted of dove shooting with my vintage doubles and knew of my love for long legged, small-bore ones. He offered me a chance at his 1929 Parker DHE two barrel set. We exchanged many emails and a few phone calls and the DHE came to Georgia, where it remains. The gun is in extremely high condition, bores perfect, beautiful wood, and has 32" barrel sets in 16 and 20 gauge. The exact price is not important for this conversation, but suffice it to say that it was a bit over half as much as the Fox Sterly.

Take from that what you may. The Parker is a gorgeous small bore for doves and I have enjoyed it immensely.

I will hasten to mention that, in answer to observations that A H Fox guns have "crude" internals will little finish, I own about seven of them in various grades from a 20 Sterlingworth Ejector to my big HE grade super Fox 3" chambered, 32" barreled, duck gun. I have used them all extensively. Not one of them has ever had a trigger problem. The trigger pulls have always been very nice, and I am anal about shotgun triggers. The Parker had absolutely the worst triggers I have ever encountered on a vintage gun. Either one would hold the weight of the gun, with the safety off, without tripping the sear. Over seven pounds on one with the other being even higher. A fine old doublegun man from Darlington, SC sorted them out for me and they now stand at about four pounds (or slightly less) each, as they should have been.

All of my Fox doubles have ejectors with the exception of the first one I ever bought, the Sterly 12 with 30" tubes. I don't just like ejectors on dove, duck and quail guns (and competition guns), I REQUIRE them. The idea that they scatter litter all over the landscape is absurdity in the extreme. I trap all my empties as they're being ejected in my right hand and toss them either in the trash can or into the rear game bag or pocket of my shell belt or coat. This allows me to reload much faster than with any extractor gun. After shooting that first Sterly all one dove season and missing many opportunities at shots while I was digging empties out of the chambers I knew it would be ejector doubles for me, from that point on.

As much use as my Philly Fox ejector guns have had over the ensuing years I have had only one failure with a Fox ejector. On my 32" BE grade, built in 1918, the tiny guide rod on the back of an ejector blade broke off. I removed it from the guide hole, fabbed a new pin, silver soldered it into the original ejector and re-installed it. It worked, and continues to work, perfectly to this day.

Now this is opinion, and opinion only . . . . . A H Fox guns have the most elegantly designed action profile ever built on a S X S shotgun. Almost all doublegun makers started by designing the internals, then designing the action around the internals. Parkers have 16 moving parts per lock, hellishly complicated. Nicely finished, yes, but more prone to problems because of the sheer number of moving parts. In comparison, A H Fox guns have 3 moving parts per lock. As others have mentioned, they just don't break. They can be dry fired indefinitely because of their design and the strength of the hammers and rear breech area. Because of and in light of this scarcity of internal parts, the Fox action is smaller and lighter without being weaker, and can have the beautiful "sculpting" that is evident on the action sides.

And, amazingly, the gun was designed and patented by an eighteen year old Ansley H. Fox. He evidently didn't have the business acumen to compete with Parker, Smith, and Ithaca. But, he was a brilliant inventor and designer. The fact that the Sterlingworth outsold the Trojan,by so many multiples, is evidence of the respect the Fox guns had in that day.

I enjoy my Parker greatly, but first place in my American built stable will always be my Foxes. I will not let go of the big HE until forced to, or death separates us. It is the only gun I have ever taken a 6 duck limit with, in flooded timber in Arkansas, with six shells. Only another 20 ga. Fox Ejector could take the place of my Sterly quail and woodcock gun, and it would have to be a graded gun. I have won with the BE Fox at Regional NSCA S X S concurrent events, and taken ducks and doves with it.

All of this just my observations and opinions.

All my best, SRH

Stanton,

Thank you for posting this.

I fully agree on ejectors as well. That are never a problem, always a joy to use and at times add materially to a hunt.

I don’t leave empty shells anywhere and when grouse or quail hunting on public land I seldom return to truck without more empty shells than I fired. I pick up every one I see.

In a wood pigeon blind during the course of a busy day ejectors can yeild dozens of extra shots and add many birds to the bag.

Another point you mentioned is the joy and satisfaction you get from a big 12 bore double. I also have one and treasure it. 32”, stocked to fit me exactly, a shade over 8#, double triggers, ejectors. It’s choked M/F. .022 & .045. Though over choked for American shells its shoots absolutely beautiful patterns with British felt wad ammo it was built for. I sometimes think I’d prefer F/F chokes.

It is seldom the gun that visitors admire in my gun room. It’s usually not commented upon. Few appreciates it like I do which is fine with me.

Thanks again for posting your actual experience with Fox guns. I will reconsider my opinions regarding them. I suppose internal finish is unimportant if no one ever needs to work on them.

I think my aversion to Fox guns stems from the poorly regulated first one I bought with very hard earned money at age 16.

As I am somewhat looking for a Graded Parker 20 bore I picked up my copy of "Parker Guns" by Ed Muderlak. In Chapter 16 "Doves and Extractors" he talks about his GH Parker and how he prefers non ejector guns.
Which brings me back to my early days bird hunting here in central NC. I was hunting public game lands here in Butner, NC and pulled over to a "birdy" looking spot. Grabbed my double and let the dog loose. In to the patch we went Not long into this I looked down and saw two 12 gauge hulls laying next to each other. I bent over and picked them up and low and behold "Birdshot"! Not even another 30 yards I busted the covey. I knew the birds were there from those two spent shells.
Needless to say I was shooting my Ithaca / SKB Model 100 non ejector. I made sure I left no trace any other bird hunter had been there so I could return the following week myself.

I know I will be in an extreme minority with this position, and I don't mean to hijack the thread, but I've never worried about leaving the odd hull in the field or coming across someone else's. In fact, I find it somewhat pleasing to come across the one in the grass or dirt that was from another day or another year where someone fired off what was a thrilling shot at whatever the pursuit entailed, rolling it around in my hand and pondering it a bit before dropping it back near its resting place for the next wayfarer to encounter. Of course, I never leave a pile of empties around my spot in a dove field, being sure to gather up all I can find. But I don't consider empties in the field a bad thing; to the contrary, they remind me of what it's all about...
JR

John, do you think the same way about candy bar wrappers and empty cigarette packs ?

I'm with Mr. Roberts on this one, with perhaps a few modifiers.

A single shell found way out in the middle of nowhere makes me smile just a bit. The older and smaller the gauge the better. But...I will pick up shells (along with the other debris I find on the grouse trails up here) because too many can bother me to see them, especially in a beautiful and otherwise unsullied place.

I always come back with a few more empties than I shot.


Best,
Ted