Fox Collectors

I face a quandry many of you face with gun collecting. I like to shoot my Foxes but I like to preserve orginal condition whenever possible. Sometimes I have no choice but to mainatain shootablity in favor of original condition. Case in point 21209 DE 12ga 30". When I purchased the gun it had a crack in the head that needed repair. My first approach was to try a repair that did no damage to the original surface. A well know wood man tried a super glue repair. After about 1000 rounds the crack opened up and became visable. The only way to keep the gun shooting without doing more damage was a full refinish of the stock. This involves a long soak in solvent and then a crack repair with epoxy. Brian Dudley did the full refinish and repair. Brain has a process that results in a finish with a nice satin tone to match the condition of the rest of the gun. I could'nt be happier with the result and plan to shoot clays and hunt with the gun for a long time.

.........you made a splendid choice Craig. We're fortunate to have Brian around here.
tjw

Here are the DE' s that both needed crack repairs and refinish, both done by Brian Dudley. Both are hunting guns and clay target shooters.

Craig, that is stunning wood on that gun. From the pics the finish looks fantastic! As Tom said ya’ll are fortunate to have Brian so close. He does great work. Here’s to many years of happy shooting with that gun!!

My goodness that’s a beautiful stock. Beautiful gun and Brian did an amazing job.

Whoofta, what an amazing stock. I’m glad you had it taken care of and done so well.

Craig, that is the kind of finish I am getting now when I use the Pilkington's style sanded in finish, using a 50/50 mixture of marine spar varnish and pure tung oil. That's what Pilkington's Classic Oil Finish was when he was using and selling it. It is beautiful, indeed. You can have any amount of gloss you desire, from a fairly dull satin to more of a glossier satin, by controlling the number of finishing coats. It's really fun to do a few stock sets each winter.

What a beautiful stock, looks like it is on fire.

One of these days ......