Fox Collectors

I looked up a serial number circa 1911. The specs are A 28"bbls, 2 1/4DAC, 3 1/4DAH 13 1/2LOP 7lbs to 7lbs 8oz, C/F, "Want straight rib, do not want rib to dip with taper in barrels. Want 3/8 cast off for right hand shooter. Select nice stock.
Does this sound like a gun set up for slug shooting out of the right barrel. Sure is an odd duck.

Rifled slugs hadn't appeared on the scene at that time. Pumpkin balls were still the order of the day. Up thru my 1935 Winchester and Western paper "single ball" loads were what was offered. By 1937 I see both "single ball" and "rifled slugs" being offered. By 1950 I only see 'rifled slugs" in the offerenings. I don't have any Remington-UMC or Peters paper for this period, but there are no rifled slugs from American ammo manufacturers in my 1934 Stoeger catalogue, and Remington, Peters, Western and Winchester all offer rifled slugs by the 1939 Stoergers.

Thanks Dave for the clarification, so was the gun made to shoot pumpkin balls? Was a cyl. choke recommended for pumpkin balls?

I agree that the rib configuration is a bit odd, however, Cyclinder and Full choke combination is not that unusual especially on English Game Guns. What else would lead you to believe that this gun was set up to shoot "ball".

My Grandfather's heavy 1890-vintage PH-Grade 12-gauge Parker Bros. was built on a 3-frame with 30-inch barrels that swamped in very fast and was cylinder bored. Grandpa got the gun in 1901 and family legend always went that a previous owner bored out the choke. Well, I got a letter on the old smokepole from Ron Kirby and it left Meriden cylinder bored in both barrels. I've always though that gun may well have been ordered to shoot "single ball" loads. It was great on ducks over decoys and pheasants over pointing dogs --

Dave, This is sort of off the subject but, is that a water spaniel with your Grandfather?

That is my Father with Grandfather's gun and I'm pretty sure that is Curley their rat-tailed Irish Water Spaniel, but it could be Flib, Curley's son. The picture is early October 1932, at King Lake, Minnesota. Fourteen years before I was born.

Researcher, that sure does not look like any Irish Water Spaniel that I've seen--are you sure? I'd have to believe that it's an American Water Spaniel.

I have no idea. All I know is that my Father and my Uncles called those dogs, in all their stories, rat-tailed Irish Water Spaniels. Everyone who knew those dogs is dead now. They were farm dogs that were ready to go hunting whenever someone grabbed Grandpa's Parker from its resting place on the back porch of the farmhouse. I doubt there were any pedigrees or papers involved.

Here are a couple of pictures from March 1934 --


Curly, Sport, Rusty (my Father Russell), and the pups


Curly and the pups.

so great that you have all of those pictures! Great looking dogs no matter the pdeigree and from the first picture... looks like they were good retrievers!

Researcher,

I note there is an apparent live mallard drake (maybe 2 of them - 1 appears to be laying down) in the lower right hand corner of the photo at King Lake, MN.

Did your family raise caller ducks for hunting or perhaps had some tame mallards on the farm?

I recall that caller ducks were legal until about 1935, but of course hunters would using mainly hens for calling during hunts as males only make quiet rab calls.

Here is a recent IA article on callers for those interested: http://www.iowadnr.gov/news/09sep/decoy.html

Again, my Father and Uncles always mentioned having "English call ducks."

They sure look like Irish Water Spaniels to me. I run my dogs in AKC hunt tests and there is a couple from Ontario that run these dogs. They are considered a retriever by the AKC and run with the Labs, and all the other retriever breeds. My understanding is they were a very popular hunting dog in the late 1800's until better breeds for the job came along. Most of the "hunt" was breed out of these dogs and this couple from Ontario is trying to re-establish a hunting line. The ones I have seen run are very biddable dogs with lots of go and very well behaved. By the way they do have a rat tail.

I've had some English Call Ducks. They are smaller than wild mallards and are VERY vocal.
They are easy to keep and just the ticket for some good shooting!!