Fox Collectors

Thanks Bill for having me remember this old vignette: I once visited Tom Gibbons aka "Never a Screw Turned" at his business place in Lancaster PA. It was on the second floor of a rather non descript building with just a conventional street level door and a buzzer to be let in on appointment. I quickly learned that Tom was quite a character and it turned out we had some things in common when he told me he grew up in a small town next to my childhood town and he’d roamed the woods in some places that were familiar to me. I looked at some long barreled Foxes while there but they were a notch or two below their descriptions in the period Shotgun News adverts for his “Executive Buying Service”. Tom also had a Parker 16 bore VH or VHE I don't recall, that he claimed was owned by Babe Ruth and he based that on a old photo of the Babe with a similar looking Parker taken at the LVRR train station a little north of me here in PA, Laceyville on the station sign and where it seems Ruth often trained to from NY to hunt small game. I was skeptical on the Parker provenance and passed on it and also the Foxes, and although Tom was disappointed at no sales he bid me farewell like a gentleman. frank

Good stuff Frank.

Thanks for sharing.

I was interested in the BE20 and one of the Supers. Pat returned my call and answered all my questions. As a result, I didn't bid on either gun and am grateful for his transparency.

Frank, years ago I was on Tom Gibbons' second floor with a buddy who was picking up an SA Parker. Tom, joking, told me to look in the left hand room where the guns were in my price range. I looked at the guns in the room, but didn't find anything I wanted badly. There was a prewar Black Diamond Trap Grade Model 12 holding the door open. It wasn't the prettiest Model 12, but a stock to die for, and it had some engraving on the receiver that I thought would reduce its value. I asked Tom how much he wanted for it, and he said "Give me $225 and it's yours". I got it home and examined the engraving. It turned out to be a factory engraved presentation gun to William Moore, the many decades editor of the newsletter of the Amateur Trapshooting Association, The Sportsman's Review. I can't recall, but it may have been a retirement gift. If I had to make a comment to Tom, it would be "You win some, you lose some."

eightbore wrote: ↑Wed Aug 10, 2022 4:45 pm Craig, thanks for your comments about Patrick and his business. I was good friends with the owner of a good percentage of these guns. Our homes were separated by about a half mile of corn and we were long time members of the same gun club. I think he bought them in good faith for serious money. I can't give any further comment. I am just glad that Patrick Redding is on the selling end this time. Oddly, Tom Gibbons and I were friends also, but I understood his business model, as did many old timers. He gave us many hours of entertainment both in his ads and in person.

Eightbore, Your friend had good taste!! You made me laugh as I hadn’t heard the old “never a screw turned” in a long time. Brett

I still have a Tom Gibbons ad from the Shotgun News somewhere!