Fox Collectors

Here is N FL , seeing a fox shotgun is not a common sight.

A small shop I frequent ended up with a collection of vintage sxs' and in it were a few foxes. No graded guns and only few that had what I considered great condition.

I cut a package deal for a 1931ish early Savage Sterlingworth 20 ga with 28" barrels (serial # 263860) and a 1928ish Philly Sterlingworth 12 ga with 28" barrels (serial #124932) . Both guns tight as a bank vault and levers very much to the right of center. The bores/chokes are untouched and very clean. The guns did not look at good as they could have at the shop as someone in the past lathered on some finish across the stock and action. I saw a lot of potential under the gunk. The gunk was a very good preservative and and I was correct.

20 ga - I completely disassembled to the part and soaked the metal in acetone before a good cleaning in the ultrasonic. The metal parts came out great. The wood is not the least bit oil soaked, no cracks or gouges and stripped down very nice for a re-application of finish.

The barrels are 28" and 2lb - 14 oz so I guess this is a 4 weight barrel
" 2 1/2" chambers
R barrel bore is .618
IC Choke .611 starting at about 4 inches. So .007 constriction.
L barrel bore is .618
Mod Choke .603 starting at about 4 inches. So ..017 constriction.


Before cleaning

20 Ga after Cleaning

12 ga

The barrels are 28" and 3lb - 6oz so I guess this is a heavy 4 weight barrel
2 11/16" chambers
R barrel bore is .727
Mod Choke ..703 starting at about 4 inches. So .024 constriction.
L barrel bore is .726
Full Choke .685 starting at about 4 inches. So .041 constriction.


Before cleaning

I am still working on disassembly and cleaning but here are a couple pre clean pics. The wood is better than the pictures show.

It's great to see these old Foxes surface and for someone like you to appreciate and be able to "clean" them up for future use. Both are very nice condition from what I can see from your pictures and what's not to like about the 20ga. Congratulations.

Looks like two great Sterlingworths with good condition to both of them. From the pics it appears that the 20 gauge has a lot of case color remaining. Will you be hunting or shooting clays with your new aquisitions? Should be fun to shoot! Well done!

Congratulations on the guns. They look nice and obviously you are going to take good care of them. Nice thorough cleaning.

Both will get back in the field.

The 20ga on some S Ga quail and hopefully the 12 on some KS pheasant and ducks this winter.

I have to admit that I have become enamored with the fox shotguns. I am still an NID fan but the foxes are breathing down Ithaca's neck.

Very nice. The 20 gauge may already have 2 3/4" chambers. Many of the Savage guns did.

I've never used an acetone soak and ultrasonic cleaner on Fox parts or any other maker's for that matter. Just wondering, what's your experience with the case colors on the frame before and after? And how do you keep the re-assembled parts from internal rusting over time? Like this one, a Graded Fox.
My technique FWIW is to soak the parts in mineral spirts in an aluminum throw-away bread baking pan, and then blow off the parts with my air compressor with nozzle set at very low pressure. Pan and spirits go back into the container and are reused. This will remove grunge quite well and leave some mineral spirits in the microscopic pores of the metal for long term corrosion protection. frank

Immediately after removing from the ultrasonic I air blast them dry and then soak in a an oil bath. A mineral spirits soak is good too. I never give the parts time to rust before oil soak. I have not had any issues so far but I have only been doing this for a couple years now. Also I usually do not soak in acetone but as these had a layer of finish on the metal I started with acetone to remove the finish.

I am open to suggestions. This is not a business for me just a hobby so I learn as I go.

As far as color, I have only seen a better color after what I am doing.

Ok I got the 12 Ga fully disassembled but not with out incident. For three days I have been soaking and wrenching on the bottom plate screw and after a couple broken tips I resorted to gorilla tactics. I drilled out the screw. OH well it came out without any damage to anything else so not too bad.

I am editing my post above with gun specific information.

Silvers wrote: ↑Fri Jun 13, 2025 7:28 am I've never used an acetone soak and ultrasonic cleaner on Fox parts or any other maker's for that matter. Just wondering, what's your experience with the case colors on the frame before and after? And how do you keep the re-assembled parts from internal rusting over time? Like this one, a Graded Fox.

IMG_4373-1.JPG

My technique FWIW is to soak the parts in mineral spirts in an aluminum throw-away bread baking pan, and then blow off the parts with my air compressor with nozzle set at very low pressure. Pan and spirits go back into the container and are reused. This will remove grunge quite well and leave some mineral spirits in the microscopic pores of the metal for long term corrosion protection. frank

Frank, I recognize this picture from that great article you wrote for the DGJ 25th Anniversary issue (Winter 2014) "Right Move ~ Wrong Time" "The Road not Taken". My Fox brain is working pretty good this morning, funny because I can hardly remember what I had for dinner last night.

I agree that no matter how you clean the internals, a good oil soak is important before reassembly.

Thanks Roger. Good memory.

An alternate for a tight trigger plate screw: I’ve never failed to remove a tight one by clamping the frame upside down in a padded drill press vise, using down pressure on the spindle and using a 12" Crescent wrench to turn a hex sided arbor that's in the chuck and holds the Brownell’s bit. I need three hands to do that; one (my wife’s) to hold the vise with stocked frame from turning, and with my right hand on the spindle crank and left hand to turn the wrench. The screw is typically under tight tension, not held by corrosion, and the setup I described here makes it easy to break the screw loose. I’ll do everything I can to keep the original trigger plate screw intact because it was perfectly contoured to the plate during factory assembly, and so hard to fit/time and then engrave another one and have it look good on an otherwise original Fox. The same setup as described here can be used to re-tighten the trigger plate screw so it indexes to 12-6 o'clock.

All this FWIW. frank

12 GA all cleaned up, reassembled and is just needing a little more wood finish. What a great learning experience. BTW you can put the sear spring in the gun upside down and actually fully assemble the rest of the gun and then only know something is wrong because the sears will not cock.

I got the bottom plate screw timed, contoured and in and have a friend that can re-engrave the head for me. I will show that when done.

Wow! Nicely done. Thanks for sharing your process and pics with us. Very informative! Can’t wait to see the 20 gauge!!