There were a fair number of Sterlingworths being so-employed in the land of my youth. The lighter (& very light) sub-gauge versions were much loved for ruffed grouse there, the heavier ones were more general purpose and turned up almost everywhere else (much like the Field Grade Smiths). I always wanted to try one of the Fox 3 or 4-weight barrelled guns in 16 but they were priced into the stratosphere then (at least in the eyes of a newly-minted hunter/college student in the late 1970s), most were pretty beat-up looking too. I always thought the earlier Philadelphia versions (the ones with the "eye" hinge-pin) were very well-made and attractive.
One of my uncles started storing his Sterlingworth 12 at my grandfather's home about then too (late 70s) so while I got to examine it closely, I never got to use it (I stayed there in the summers during my college years, working at a nearby lake & resort). His wife at the time filed for divorce shortly thereafter (which likely explains it's presence in my grandad's gun cabinet). My grandfather's one-gun solution was a nicer NID Ithaca in 16, which he used only sparingly in his later 60s. He didn't hunt anything but upland by then. His other gun, a saddle-ring carbine Model 94 (in .32 Winchester Special) sat quietly in the black cherry gun case that I now have sitting in my home. The last time I'd seen him carry it for deer was in the late 1960s when he was the age that I am now. Hmmm, a sobering thought.
My grandfather's brother-in-law (from Mercer County, Pennsylvania) had a one-gun solution as well. It was a Diamond Grade Charles Daly in 12 that he'd left to my grandfather when he passed in the middle 1960s. It sat in my grandfathers gun case where I could carefully (and quietly) ogle it but... I never saw it used by anyone, ever. It looked as new.
Last edited by Lloyd3; 07/06/23 09:44 PM.
