You're going to worry this bone to death if we don't bury it. 1) How many gun catalogs of any period have you seen in which the words "field grade" are actually used? Perhaps there's a latterday effort to distinguish field from target use (a Superposed "field" as described by Schwing can be as high-grade as they come in terms of wood and decoration), but generally I'd consider "field grade" a convention of convenience to differentiate entry level guns with few frills. 2) Why do you think, as you've previously stated elsewhen, that a Fox S/W was a "farmer's gun"? You could have attended a million farm auctions and estate sales in the midwest of the 50's and 60's and picked up break-open single shots by the boxcar load, most of them three or four decades old, but very few doubles. Farmers, if not dedicated upland hunters in the modern privileged mode, needed only a utility gun and bought accordingly. 3) Why would not a ten or eight gauge be a "working" gun if you're standing in two feet of water? 4) You win on the .410; what of the 16 and 20? 4) Are you really talking about a GP do-it-all gauge and confusing the issue with talk of stratified levels of decoration and price commensurate? I think so.
jack
