doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Is this the best Sterly you ever saw

A. It is a Savage gun of less quality than the better quality Philadelphia Fox Sterlingworths.

B. This gun has been restored and someone case colored it with bone and charcoal rather than the original Cyanide case color factory process that both Savage and Fox originally used on these guns.

C. Blued triggers that were originally factory polished and not blued.

D. Refinished satin wood finish that was originally varnished. Recut checkering. Fluted comb which Sterlingworths did not have, so probably restocked at sometime.

E. 7 lbs for a 16 ga Sterlingworth with 28" barrels...?....My 16 ga Philadelphia Sterlingworth with 28" barrels weighs 6 lbs...........Maybe it's just a typo....?....

So, for me, it is far less than the best Sterlingworth I have ever seen, shot, held or owned. JMHO since you asked........

I do like restored guns, just ones that are refinished with some attention to detail and by people who have done their homework first.

I'd say I had a "best" candidate which John Mann lined up for a sale. "It belongs to the same elderly gentleman that I got Trout's LC Smith from. It is an original featherweight, one of the most beautiful Sterlingworths I have ever seen. I would call it a benchmark gun. All original and all but pristine. The gun could be used to judge the finish of any other."

I bought the 1925 gun for $1200 and John shipped it across the border clearly marked "shotgun" on declaration papers. Imagine chancing that today! The gun was with me when my buddies and I capsized 200 metres offshore an hour before daylight in choppy waters in snow squalls a week before Christmas about five years ago.

Recovered it by diving six fathoms six months later and had Nick Makinson restore it except for case hardening action. I wouldn't chance twisting in the process, on his advice.

I thought the serial number on the TG didn't look very sharp,but hard to tell not in hand. As mentioned; Looks like the blued triggers are a dead giveaway.

Huh?

SRH

PA24,

D. Not quite true. The Sterlingworth "pin guns" had fluted combs, and I don't have a Sterlingworth between a 1913 "pin gun" and a 1922, so I'm not sure when A.H. Fox Gun Co. dropped the fluted comb on the Sterlingworth. Also, the Savage Fox-Sterlingworth capless pistol grip stocks had fluded combs, but not the capped pistol grip stocks or the straight grip Fox-Sterlingworth Skeet & Upland Game Gun stocks.

Dave

Here is my (Utica) Sterlingworth after a full restoration by Buck Hamlin. It looks similar.

I think it is difficult for most of us to differentiate between "old original" and "professionally redone."

Jerry

In addition, weren't the early Sterlingworths casehardened with the bone & charcoal process?

Researcher:

Not quite true.....



FACTORY SAVAGE STERLINGWORTH WITHOUT PISTOL GRIP CAP - NO FLUTES:


FACTORY SAVAGE STERLINGWORTH WITHOUT PISTOL GRIP CAP - NO FLUTES:


FACTORY SAVAGE STERLINGWORTH WITHOUT PISTOL GRIP CAP - NO FLUTES:




I also see quite a few early Philadelphia pin guns without fluted stocks.......



And YES Wild Skies, the early PIN guns had bone and charcoal case colors....all Cyanide CCH after about 1912.....

New to me, too, but quoting John's correspondence.

What's with the trigger guard bow shape? Looks like a 311 shape.
Nice and shiny anyway.
Plenty of shellac gooped all over the charcoal case colors.
Even left the brush marks in the bottom.

Real nice.