Fox Collectors

Ya got the wrong guy Jess.

mmm, I would a thought some of those straight griped, beavertail guns would have shown up with Miller triggers. Or don't you like them?

.....I stick with the Kautskys, as the way I understand it, they were the only "original optional trigger equipment" from the factory. Millers may be just fine. As I think of it, I dont recall having many opportunities to buy a nice Fox with a Miller in it around here.....I can only think of one. Have you seen many?

Tom,

As owner of that many Kautskys you are in a unique position to answer a question of mine, if you will. What is your opinion of the quality of the Kautsky? Have you had to have many/any worked on due to malfunctions?

I have had very good experiences with a number of different selective single triggers, but never owned a Kautsky (after seeing that picture I can understand why! ), thus my curiosity.

Stan

I love them and I respect them. I will say that I have only shot maybe 7-8 of them and have only had a problem with one "doubling" on me....and it happened to be a 12ga....yuck, plenty of recoil.....a SPE S&U I do believe. It had to do with the inside spacing of the wood. (it had a previous repair so I found out upon disassembly)

I have shot a pile of rounds out of many of them with never a hiccup. I understand that the geometry between the tangs is critical to good functioning. I am no mechanic, this is what I have been told.

tjw

I have a 1920 16 ga Philly Sterlingworth ejector that has what I presume to be a Utica forend wood piece married to the original forend iron. The serials match throughout the gun, but I'm guessing someone stamped the wood to match. It's a nice looking gun, but it drives me crazy to know that the forend is most likely incorrect. The wood is pretty much identical to the 2nd forearm down from the top in the photo above, and I'm guessing it should be like the 4th.

Thoughts? I'm guessing it's impossible that the wood is original. Anyone know where I can get a replacement (new or old wood) that's more appropriate to the gun?

If your SW 16 Ejector was built with a splinter, it was likely similar to the fourth one down on that one pic. Not to discourage you, but all these Foxes were more or less fitted by hand, and often there are subtle differences that make swapping forend wood a challenge. I do have an original finish smallbore ejector splinter (wood only) I'd be willing to part with. But because it may have to modified slightly to fit your iron - it's a firm "as is/no return" type deal. One consideration is the back end of the wood - is your f/e iron straight as in the third pic here, or curved? Both types were used across the years, and dates of transition to and fro are not real firm. Also, study these pics for the f/e iron inlet, and it you want to chance it fitting, send me a PM and we can talk price. P.S. some long ago owner carved three small crosses inside the wood, on the ridge between the barrels (see second pic). If you do want the wood, you'll get the lucky charm that goes with the crosses. Silvers

Silvers---

The plot thickens! Yes, mine has the curved end cut into the wood. The recesses on the inside of your wood look right otherwise for my iron. The savage era fit clearly is not right to my iron. Question is would scooping our the wood there make it fit or is it altogether off otherwise?

A major problem will come up at the back end of the wood, with the cut outs for the ejector sears. The answer is NO, I don't believe there's a way to modify my straight back forend wood to properly fit your curved forend iron..... just too many inletting cuts that would have to be altered. It would never work out. Silvers

Shame. Thanks for your effort and knowledge. Keep an eye out.

Mark,your Utica forend can be shaped like a Philly one.I have done several of mine.Bobby

I have a curved Philly ejector forend like yours, but it might have to be inletted slightly to get it to fit properly.Bobby