I've disassembled and cleaned mine numerous times, I have seven of them. I've never had the need to repair anything in a Fox action, with the exception of a silver soldering job to repair a broken guide pin on an ejector, which I did myself some 10-12 years ago. I've never had, nor heard of, anyone who had a Fox hammer/striker to break, and I've never seen a Fox action with "mushroomed out" firing pin holes from dry firing, though I have seen that on many other makes of doubles. I've asked old doublegunsmiths what make of vintage double has come into your shop for repairs the least in your career. "Fox" is the common reply, not because there weren't many made, Fox sold multiple times more Sterlingworths than Parker did Trojans. Part of the reason is so few moving parts in a Fox lock . . . . four, as compared to a Parker with sixteen per lock. You may not care for Fox's design in peening the threaded end of the yoke screw, but I personally do. It will never loosen itself and cause the gun to be non-functional. A simple way of heading off the possibility of a screw backing out. Why would you want to take it apart anyway, if it's not broken or worn out? An ultrasonic cleaner will totally clean the assembly without taking the screw out.
Personally, I'd much rather strip and clean an A H Fox than a Savage Fox Model B. Maybe I've just been messing with Foxes long enough that they don't seem to be difficult.
Take care, Dustin.
Hi there Stan. Why would I want to completely take down an action when I do a strip and clean? Because that’s how it’s properly done. End of story. A sonic cleaner will do a good job, especially a commercial grade one like the one I use. It isn’t the end all be all in regards to a thorough cleaning!! The action will still need to be taken completely down to clean out the nooks and crannies. All kinds of stuff gets stuck in the brown rotary bolt/drum and that all needs to be cleaned out too. When I do a strip and clean, everything gets taken out, cleaned, polished and lubed. All of the old corrosion needs to be removed from each part too, that includes the top lever, the rotary bolt, the clevis, etc.
I’ll stand by my thoughts on the peening of the clevis pin and say that the clevis pin being peened over is a wonky idea. I wonder if CSMC did that on the guns they made? I’d be curious to find that out.
I wasn’t disparaging the Fox. I own them too. I don’t think it matters how many Fox’s a person owns. Owning a grundel of them doesn’t make one anymore knowledgeable on them than the next guy. I can’t say I have had many problems with a Fox either. The issues I’ve encountered have been with the rotary bolt, trigger pulls, ejectors and cracked stocks, etc. Fox must’ve know about the cracked stocks too because they decided to inlet a corrugated staple in the head of the stock (on some guns).
Again, there’s nothing in a Fox action that would lead me to believe that it’s ok to dry fire. The similarities to the FP Greener are obvious, maybe the reason you don’t see many issues with the hammers and firing pins is due to the shear size of those parts. You don’t see many Greeners with those issues either.
