1918 Fox Sterlingworth

[RLP]

I recently acquired a F/S that originally belonged to my father the serial number places it between 1917 - 1918. The gun is in excellent condition and I was wondering what are the shooting limitations, ie., modern ammunition, that I need to adhere too. (Should I ever decide to shoot the gun)

Thanks
Ronnie

[RLP]

Come on boys, I really didn't think that question would be that hard. I know that the gun was used in the mid 1950's to hunt deer, ie high brass buck shot. It's primary use was as bird gun for which my father maintained it was the best he had ever brought to shoulder. The shot would have been 8's (7/8 oz.) and probably low brass. I don't believe the gun has actually been shot much since the mid 50's, but there's been so much change/improvement in shotshells, that I need some guidance, if its ok to shoot and what would be the load recommendation for the shotshells?

Thanks
Ronnie

[fox-admin]

If would have a qualified gunsmith give it a clean bill of health and shoot RST's. Here is a link to their web site
http://www.rstshells.com/

[ASavageFox]

Ronnie,

I am no pro and the other here will likely help you better in due time... my guess is the holidays are not helping response time.

The full and safe answer is that you should take the gun to a competent gunsmith and have the barrel wall thicknesses checked as well as the bore diameters and the chamber lengths. This will tell you a lot about the shootability of the gun.

If the gun has never been "messed with"... there are two schools of thought and the battle can get quite heated:

1. Shoot only shells of appropriate length. Most Fox guns are not chambered for 2 3/4" shells so you "should" only shoot 2 1/2" shells in order to ensure you do not create too much chamber pressure. 2 1/2" shells loaded for vintage guns are available from a number of distributors online. Do a google search for RST or polywad.

or

2. Due to the difference in vintage, thick paper versus modern thin plastic shells, shooting modern 2 3/4" shells out of a gun chambered for 2 1/2" shells is not really a big deal, the chamber pressure difference being marginal. Even these individuals tend to agree to using only light loads and not shooting steel.... if you choice to waterfowl hunt there are options other than steel available.

Go at your own risk or get yourself informed by a gunsmith. The gun was originally proofed tested to around 18000 ft-lbs but its really hard to say what it would take these days if its been honed, restruck, the chambers messed with, had lots of heavy loads put through it in the past, etc.

In my opinion... if you want to shoot the gun a lot and not be "inconvenienced", take the gun to a very good smith that works on doubles regularly, ensure you have plenty of barrel wall thickness, have the chamber lengthened for 2 3/4" shells and have the forcing cones lengthened slightly... then shoot light game loads.

For a "more informed" answer...from this website, I recommend that you search (top right corner) for "chamber pressure" "chamber length" "barrel wall thickness" and/or pursue the archive posts...there are MANY, VERY knowledgeable individuals here... my guess is most are not responding b/c they feel this subject has been beat to death.

[mike campbell]

The full and safe answer is that you should ...

That's a very good answer; worthy of copying and pasting into a word document so you can quickly post your "canned essay" as others of us do.

[RLP]

Thank too all, that certainly points me in the right direction.

Ronnie