Fox Collectors

Morning all,

Some of you folks who went to the Southern saw this on display on Dan Rossiter's table at Custom Stocks and Steel. For those who didn't I thought you might enjoy some details.

Picked this up from Dan on Sunday evening who did everything from Soup to Nuts. Started life as a Savage made Fox Sterlingworth 20 gauge extractor gun with full/mod 26" barrels. Certainly lots of work and I've posted before on this gun. Details are the gun was restocked in Circassian Walnut I provided to Dan. Extensive metal shaping by Dan to say the least. Metal sculpting pattern was made up by my devious mind and Dan had to figure out how remove a ton of metal and then how to inlet and stock this. Goal was to make a light Grouse/Woodcock gun for trudging up and down Va mountains. Because of the density of the walnut Dan had to remove weight out of the buttstock which was further complicated by this gun having a skeleton buttplate. We went for small beavertail foreend as well so I'd have a bit of something to hand onto and also to give a bit more weight on the front end to make it balance correctly. Gun was made to my dimensions. Barrels were opened up by Mike Orlen to .004 and .012 as I recall and twin ivories added. Gun weighs exactly 6 lbs.

Wonderful engraving by Bob Strosin who I gave pretty simple instructions. Keep it within budget and I wanted some of his super scrollwork and also a Fox with a Grouse in its mouth on the bottom and a Woodcock engraved on the Forearm Escutcheon. Dan removed most of the case coloring so the engraving would pop. This is number 2 of my custom Foxes and my bird gun. My Abby gun has already been mentioned many times before. Have one more in the mix down the road (16 gauge) and that will be my dove gun. Anyway, enjoy the lousy pictures I just took outside. Will take some more down the road.

PS. That's a Parker Repro Case with a Galazan reproduction Fox label. Really works well for this gun although its a bit tight.

Very nice, Tom!! Another beautiful Custom Fox! No shortage of projects within our membership ranks! Thanks for posting.-----S

PS---I'd love to have a display rack at Hausmann's featuring Customs. Will you be attending? If so, we'd love to display in our booth, which you may have heard, will be migrating out front to the BW/Letterman shooting stands. I already know of two other superlative Customs that will be in attendance. They should make for some great conversation!

TOOL MAN wrote:Very nice, Tom!! Another beautiful Custom Fox! No shortage of projects within our membership ranks! Thanks for posting.-----S

PS---I'd love to have a display rack at Hausmann's featuring Customs. Will you be attending? If so, we'd love to display in our booth, which you may have heard, will be migrating out front to the BW/Letterman shooting stands. I already know of two other superlative Customs that will be in attendance. They should make for some great conversation!

Thanks for the kind words. I'll be bringing both it and the Abby Gun to Ernie's. One can go on the fox table and the other one will be on Dan Rossiters table (perhaps alternate). I'll be there Thursday morning when the vendors set up.

Very nice and tastefully done! Love your choice of the Fox with Grouse, as well as the Woodcock on the forend escutcheon, Bob Strosin did a masterful job with them. I believe this is the 1st extractor custom SW with a forend escutcheon that I've encountered.

bamboozler wrote:Very nice and tastefully done! Love your choice of the Fox with Grouse, as well as the Woodcock on the forend escutcheon, Bob Strosin did a masterful job with them. I believe this is the 1st extractor custom SW with a forend escutcheon that I've encountered.

Thanks for the kind words. On a custom Dan very much likes to do the forend escutcheon even on an extractor gun. It allows for a much more robust securing system for the forearm metal to be attached to the forearm wood and adds as sort of "Belt and Suspenders" aspect which adds strength and additional canvas for the engraver. My forthcoming 16 gauge is also an extractor gun and it will also have escutcheon as well.

Tom, as I had written on another thread I saw your new custom Fox in Danny's booth at the Southern, and it sure looked way cool. Congrats on another outstanding Fox. Also, those nitre blued pins look great! And thanks for taking and posting the pics. Frank

Tom, great photos of a great gun.

Thank god it is done though! Yours and one other were in front of mine at Dan's shop so my custom's progress has been slow.

Dan told me a few weeks ago that he should be able to really get moving on mine before the NE SXS Shoot in June.

I'm hoping to see something then.

Roger

ROMAC wrote:Tom, great photos of a great gun.

Thank god it is done though! Yours and one other were in front of mine at Dan's shop so my custom's progress has been slow.

Dan told me a few weeks ago that he should be able to really get moving on mine before the NE SXS Shoot in June.

I'm hoping to see something then.

Roger

These projects eat up some dollars as well as time. All I can say is its certainly worth the wait. This little gun will be headed to Maine in October along with a very young Llewellyn Setter.

VA, nice gun and photos. I didn't see the fox with the grouse in it's mouth? Jim

Jim Cloninger wrote:VA, nice gun and photos. I didn't see the fox with the grouse in it's mouth? Jim

Sorry, here it tis:

I am envious, coveting thy neighbors gun!!!
I cant wait to have mine in my hands. Dan does great work.
the next one should be starting soon

Thanks VA. I really do like that fox/ruffed grouse engraving! Jim

Tom I saw your gun at Dans table. It's simply outstanding. The engraving is magnificent.
Dans work is the best.

Great work that resulted in a sweet gun! Congrats!!

Lovely just lovely!