Simmons Quail Fargo

[SPE33]

Here’s a bit of an unusual one. I read that Simmons got the frames from Fox/Savage and did their own thing with them. 20 gauge with 24” barrels topped with a Simmons vent rib.Straight grip with a gold non-selective trigger. Kind of hard to find,they were marketed from 1965-69 I read. Fewer than 1000 produced. This one is in really nice condition.

[eightbore]

Yup, a decorated Model 311, or some such. Nothing wrong with a 311.

[Researcher]

Nice closet queen!

With the ejectors and non-selective single trigger, it was a modified Fox Model BSE. The Stevens Model 311 never had those features.

[Foxnut]

I have never seen one of these before. Very cool gun! And as Dave said a real closet queen!!

[Foxnut]

Joe, what kind of nut pad is on the gun?

[SPE33]

Sent you some pictures to you.It’s a White Line pad.

[bbman3]

Dakin in Spain made a few of them.

[Researcher]

Apparently for a while in the early 1960s Simmons was the Dakin importer --

[eightbore]

The ad says it's a Pachmayr Deluxe Lightweight pad.

[SPE33]

The pad is marked “Mershon Company Inc”.I read where they started producing this style pad in the 30’s. Pachmayr bought them out in the early 50’s. They continue to make the White Line pads today.The one on this gun is marked “White Line Junior”.

[Researcher]

The latter half of the 1960s seems pretty late for a Mershon marked pad.

This page from a 1949 The Mershon Co. catalog shows their WHITELINE recoil pads.

Inside the front cover a brief history says they were founded in 1935. I've seen a few late Savage era Fox production cards that request a WHITELINE pad. At some point in time the company was Fray-Mershon Co. My March 1936 Remington Model 31 16-gauge has a WHITE LINE pad marked FRAY-MERSHON Co.

I've found this Pachmayr ad from a 1946 Sports Afield --

Sports Afield, 1946.jpg (54.52 KiB) Viewed 3402 times