Fox Collectors

So I bought an early B grade from a gent down south, sight unseen. It's a long story but the gun sounded pretty much original, full pistol grip and HRBP, moderate hunting wear but restorable. Fairly cheap. I thought I'd part it out if the barrels turned out to be bad or if it had other major issues. The gun arrived today, s/n 7692. It's much better than I expected. The red gods have smiled! I'll post more details later.

An interesting thing is its 26" barrels are original length and have the regular long tapered chokes, but after 3" or so each choke transitions to a reverse taper out to the muzzle. It's the same setup as the Winchester patented WS-1 choke. I've measured them in the past.

Anther curiosity is the barrel flats are BOTH stamped with a circle with an X in it. We've all have seen random factory stamps on one of the barrel flats but I've never seen the same stamp on both flats. Pic of one flat below.

I ask if anyone has seen this circle-X stamp before, or has any information on Fox experimenting with or actually offering unusual chokes as I've described here?

Also, any speculatation on why this reverse choke might be useful when using paper shells with felt wads? Silvers

That sounds like the Savage-era Skeet-cylinder in the right barrels of both my Fox-Sterlingworth Skeet & Upland Game Gun and my SPE-Grade Skeet & Upland Game Gun.

Hi Dave, thanks for your reply. This is really weird. Chokes are much tighter than you might expect to use on a skeet field and if memory serves me skeet wasn't even around when 7692 was made.

Both bores are .730".

Right barrel is .730" -> .708" -> .718" at muzzle, choke length = 3-1/2"

Left barrel is .730" -> .703" -> .713" at muzzle, choke length - 4"

Frank

Frank,
Is it possible that some experimentally minded ace did a bit of choke work with a brake hone or some such? A choke flairing outward is just what you get when the centerline of the hone goes past the end of the barrel.
Congrats on the B grade. Have you patterned the gun yet? Might be interesting to see what sort of pattersn it throws.
Cheers, Pete