doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Anerican Classics - What Would You Pick?

Early Fox Sterlingworth or maybe a later A grade.

Enjoyed TwiceBarrel's quote above.

Are you saying there are "Classics" out there which aren't marked "Lefever"????
Winchester??, Oh Yea!! That was that New England "Shirt Maker" who was aved from bankruptcy first by Henry & then by Browning wasn't He??

Parker mania has passed, and so will Lefever.
The lower grade Lefevers are still around, and hundreds & hundreds less than Sterlingworths which go like hot cakes.
Think the Sterlingworth might just be the tops for the ruralists, farmer and backwoods loafer.

Entry guns, all those unadorned American classics with the same insides as the elegant graded ones, are the ones that appeal to me. I own 20-, 16- and 12 gauges in that category and keep my eyes open for Lefever, rare around here.

I'm with Davis and Newbern--smallbore NID Grade 1 or smallbore LC Smith Featherweight "Ideal" (yeah, at my age even "gun porn" needs to be in LARGE PRINT).

Having owned both Parker Trojans and Fox Sterlingworths, I'd personally take the Trojan most times. With either, unless I'm purely in it for collection, I won't buy either unless the stock has shootable dimensions for me, which has to be no more than 2 3/4" of DAH. Ideally,2 5/8" max. There are renditions of both out there with 3" or more of drop - no thanks.The only time I will opt for the Sterly is if it's a subguage gun with the lightest bbls because I'm purely looking for the carry. The trojan is in my opinion, a much better looking gun, especially the bbls. I don't think one has the edge over the other mechanically speaking. Love that Parker rib though. Also, 1930 is the cutoff date for me with Sterly's, since I believe that's about when the quality started to dip. Both are great guns it just comes down to opinion really and what you personally like. And like the guy above, I too like the entry guns that have the same insides as the graded.

Don't think smallbore NID Grade 1 guns like this 1935-vintage 28-gauge are going at entry-level prices

I guess beauty is in the eye of the beholder and,to me at least, the Parker Trojan is butt ugly and doesn't begin to compare to the graded guns in the style and grace categories. The Sterlingworth,on the other hand, looks exactly like what it is. An entry level Fox gun but still very much a Fox.
Jim

Lefever all the way. So graceful, well engineered, and supremely functional. A svelte Fox would be a close second.

I will someday own [at least] one of each.

Researcher, that NID 28 is real dang handsome and you're right, probably doesn't "go for entry-level prices," (to say the very least!).

But when I say "smallbore" I mean anything that isn't an 8, a 10, or a 12. Is that common practice, or does "smallbore" mean only REAL SMALL bores, say 20s, 24s, 28s, 32s, and .410s? In that case what do we call a 16? Or is the term "smallbore" just confusing, obsolete, and to be eschewed in serious shotgun discussions? (I note that it means VERY different things to different people in RIFLE discussions--some guys think it means anything smaller than .308; some only use it to describe .224 and smaller.).