doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com 32" Sterlingworth..

Would a 32" Sterlingworth(Philly 12 Ga) command a premium? I can't seem to recall seeing that many. I believe it was a $2.oo option back in the day.

Thanks,
Ken

Ken, i have never seen a lot of them either! I guess they would bring more.I once owned a 32" Sterlingworth Wildfowl but it was way too big and heavy for me! A lot of 32" Smith guns around. Bobby

It would command a premium price - a much looked for gun.

Ditto on Lowell's reply. I looked all over for 2 years before I found a nice one! Silvers

Is it a regular SW or could it be a SW Wildfowl like Bobby had? Pictures?

Alex

The gun is an unmolested standard Sterlingworth with #2 barrels.
Probably 30% case and 95% barrel blue. Checkering is smooth and about 50% varnish. Wood is solid and the mechanics are crisp as new. I have lamented selling a nice HE a couple of years ago and this looks like a good replacement. Asking price is north of $1000.00....comments?

Best regards,
Ken

Buy-Buy-Buy!
I've paid more for a little less of everything.

Only in the first couple of years were the 32-inch barrels extra. By the first Godshalk catalogue, 1913, the 32-inch gun was called Trap and was the same price as the Standard (30-inch), Field (28-inch) and Brush (26-inch). In my years of keeping records of the Sterlingworths I examine, I've recorded one 12-gauge and one 20-gauge with 32-inch barrels. I've yet to record a 32-inch 16-gauge Sterlingworth. Actually even 30-inch barrels are pretty uncommon on 16- and 20-gauge Sterlingworths. The 32-inch barrels seem to be much more common on 12-gauge graded guns. I've wanted a 32-inch 20-gauge Fox (not a 20-gauge Super-Fox) for years. A couple of years ago at the winter Las Vegas show there were six 32-inch Parker Bros. 20-gauges, a 32-inch 20-gauge Crown Grade L.C. Smith and a fully loaded 32-inch 20-gauge Grade 4E NID!! Fox catalogued 32-inch barrels for the smallbores from beginning to end, but you sure don't see many.

I have a early pin gun with 32" barrels and love to shoot it at pigeons on the farm. First few pigeons are fairly easy but they get smarter and further off with each shot. By the fifth or sixth bird you earn every one. Those heavy 32" barrels really swing well once you get them moving. Your post makes me want to drop by the farm this week and educate a few more.

I do not know how rare the 32"-ers are but it has to be less than 10%. I suspect that factory original 26" barrels, not the later hacked back 28 or 30" are just a little less rare. Mostly it is a 28" and 30" world.

I have one that's going to be heavily molested. It could well be last project gun I ever do and it's getting the whole nine yards; stock, filing and engraving. So, buy it and keep it safe....it will be a little rarer when I get through.