doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Custom Fox Sterlingworth

Gee Joe, among American guns the Fox has curves that blend in with plate concept perfectly. This guy has eye for aesthetic beauty, and a fine sense of "visual balance". It's more than great worksmanship, becuase here in his work one sees true art form.

Did Michael Angelo paint bill boards ?

j0e, you must remember there are Brummie billboards too!

Sir, perhaps you can elaborate on why a Sterlingworth equates to a "billboard" while a graded gun would be a "canvas" as a starting point for a completely custom gun?
The differences between them are superficial, aside from the forend latch. As this gun sits right now, there is no way to tell whether it was a Sterlingworth or an F grade when it started life. I realise that you may not like this particular piece, and that's cool but to imply that a Sterlingworth is somehow materially inferior to a graded gun is simply incorrect as far as the facts are concerned.

Simply amazing, way to go!!!

Billboard--- NO, canvas --- YES. The workmanship in this piece is as fine as you'll find on any bespoken gun ( I speak only of what Dewey did). I would think anyone who appreciated the ultimate in find hand work would appreciate Dewey's labors. Goodness only knows how many hours were spent in it's creation. I for one would love to own it as I'm sure many others feel the same. Way to go Dewey, when are you going to creat another piece ? Perhaps a LC Smith or Parker ? FWIW & IMHO Ken

A man of his talent should be working from the ground up.

Dewey-and others herein who appreciate the fine Fox shotguns. Saw an 12 ga. "Pin hinge" 12 bore Sterlingworth- 30" barrels DT EXT- stock and barrels uncut-"dime" test indicates M&F chokes-area gun shop- went in because a friend told me they had a 3" Mag. M12 FOR SALE- and wanted to "check it out". I recall Phil B. (F&S Shotgun Editor) writing about buying a Sterlingworth 12 from Scheel's in Iowa- around $1800-and then had it "re-worked" and "refinished"- and had fotos- nice, but a Volkswagen compared to the "Porche" quality of your work-in-progress Dewey- Gun is on a consignment-belonged to area retired "Statie" who said he bought it from Cabela's a few years ago- he told me he'd take $1500-are the early "pin" Sterlingworth's worth more than the later Phila. Fox guns in the same grade? The checkering and fit/finish on my 1927 (Roe Clark letter) HE 12 seem to my untutored eyes to be between a Sterlingworth and the A grade- found out on another thread on this BBS that some HE Foxes were made on the std. frame and with No. 1 or 2 wt. barrels- mine are 4 wt. 32" with 3" chambers and the "Barrels Not Guaranteed" stamp- also another gentleman said that the Fopx HE 20 gauges (very scarce I am told) were mainly CE grades- 30" barrels and 3" chambers perhaps? Anyway, if anyone is interested in this Fox-or the M12 (minty- and no "dog's leg slide arm" I'll be happy to give you the phone number-dealer is well established, and does get some nice guns- passed up a M71 Win. .348 that he had in about a year ago-hindsight being 20/20 and all!! RWTF

I think you may have misunderstood the comment about "Most HE 20s are CE Grade". Also, I would think that a #4 weight 32" HE Fox with 3" chambers would be very rare or unique. Do you have a letter on that gun or would you post the serial number for research? Thanks.

If I can find it- I did get a letter from Roe Clark-he could only identify it from the measurements as to wall thickness-etc-the barrel weight stamp is faint- but looks like a 4-gun weighs 9 and 1/4 lbs. with 32 inch Chromox Steel barrels-I bought it about 15 years ago from a pawn shop in hastings MI- before the NICS and other paperworked deals-may have been a stolen gun- as the serial numbers had been ground off- and the trigger guard was a replacement- the original PG stock was "re-worked" into a Prince of Wales style (apparently by a platoon of beavers on a hot wine drunk) and a Fox-Savage 311 BE guard (my guess only) was re-hammered to fit- the original forearm may have been a splinter- as when you remove the "non-original" beavertail, you can see the blueing wear on the barrels in that area- the beavertail is not checkered, was cut by someone who used to use an axe to carve Eastern Shore duck decoys near Crisfield MD maybe-and never learned to use a rasp or draw file- finished with a Tru-Oil that wasn't true-and the stock had been cut off to a LOP originally at about 13 1/2" to a crappy Sunburst pad- fortunately, they followed the pitch line when they "bandsawed" it- and I have seen Sterlingworths with better wood grain and checkering- but the condition- and the dealer's not knowing that the stamps "Barrels Not Guaranteed" meant pattern %- not proof against rupturing- helped me "knock down the price" from $800 (plus 4% State sales tax) to $650 Out The Door- so it is not a pristine HE-but I spliced on a walnut extension and fitted a Pachmayr Olde English solid pad, refinished the buttstock and recut the 18 lpi checkering, and redressed, and refinished the forearm- but didn't attempt to checker it- I can do a "re-cut" of existing checkering-but am not a checkering expert- sent the gun to Jack Rowe in Enid OK-he stripped and cleaned the action and re-choked the almost 11 gauge barrels for steel shot-another friend with a much better HE- believe the serial number of his nice old "duck dumper" is in the 31600 range- I can faintly make out what looks like 31088 or 31033- not sure- on the forearm iron- where the grinder left some traces-I never saw the original splinter forearm, which would have had the serial number on it-I find the letter in my "odds and ends" I'll post it here-heard Mr. Clark passed on-is that correct- Some day- if I win the "big One" I'll ask Dewey VickNair to refinsih and restock this old war horse for me-like to have a $5 for every mallard and Canada it has dropped- RWTF..