Actually, all the cocking/lock features of the Ansley H. Fox gun were in his Patent No. 563,153 granted June 30, 1896. That was the design used on his gun made in 1898 and 99 by the Fox Gun Co., Balto., MD., U.S.A., a Maryland corporation. In that gun the cocking piece was a spring-loaded pin through the barrel lug instead of the sliding plate on the bottom of the lug as used in Philadelphia. As Ansley matured in his designs he moved from the V-springs of his Baltimore gun to coil main springs as well as to drive the rotary bolt he pilfered from A.T. Brown. Actually the A.H. Fox Gun Co.'s A.H. Fox & G.A. Horne ejectors gave a lot of problems with a delicate sear, and were replaced in 1911 with the F.T. Russell designed ejectors.
In early 1900 Ansley joined up as a professional shooter for Winchester, leaving his partners in Baltimore to reorganize as Baltimore Arms Co. and reincorporate under the laws of West Virginia. They then brought in Frank Hollenbeck and built a gun of his design with Frank's 5/8 inch wide barrel lug and sears pivoted from above as both Lefever and Tobin used.
