Fox Collectors

Was going to bring the venerable Utica Fox SW Deluxe 16 to Hausmann's, but when I tried to pull the fore end off, the wood started to pull away from the fore end iron--I stopped immeadiately and used a long thin screwdriver to pop the iron off the barrel lug. I tightened the two screws on the iron, but the wood still wanted to pull away from it. I figure that somehow the wood got stripped and now the screws wont hold. I have never touched this gun mechanically and it seemed fine this winter when she was used to take a few pheasants. This was the first vintage double that I ever bought--around '86. It is a nice gun with the original recoil pad, grip cap and ivory beads. Any thoughts on this problem?--maybe I will still bring it and have someone look at it there.

Ill Probably catch hell for this but this is how I would fix it.....remove the screws and the forend Iron...clean area around the holes in the wood....cut up some square cut tapered hardwood toothpicks ....just short of the depth of the screw holes ....put a drop or two of wood superglue in each hole and place maybe 3 pieces around the outside of the holes.....put a lite coat of pastewax [ren wax, johnsons, tre wax] on the screw threads....put the forend iron in place on the wood put the screws in trying you best to keep the toothpicks in place.....tighten the screws down and forget about it.....if you ever have to take the screws out the wax you put on the screws will act as a release agent.....you will be good to go....

Now lets hear from the guys that will say to drill out the holes oversized and glue a dowel in each wait for it to dry and drill new pilot holes for the screws.....[to much unnecessary work]

I would call Dan Rossiter at Custom Stocks and Steel in Athens, PA and talk to him. He just made a complete new forend for my 20 ga. AE Fox which had the exact same problem, in addition to a few "custom" repairs someone made over the years which turned the wooden "raised rail", as I call it in the forend to pulp. He is also employing a unique new method of anchoring the wood to the forend iron which you definitely want to look into before the problem gets any worse. Kevin

Kevin, that is exactly what I did. Dan was at the Northeastern SXS shoot this weekend, and I showed him the problem. He took it home with him and brought itback fixed the next day. I saw some of his custom work--absolutely stunning, and a great guy to boot. Also got to meet the VA Turkey, Tom and checked out his "Abbey" gun and other custom Fox 20

I know you may not like getting referred to the Parker site, but this little tool takes a lot of the trouble of popping off forends on SWs, Trojans, anything with the snap on forend. It saves a lot of tugging and damage.

http://parkerguns.org/forums/showthread ... orend+tool

Actually, Dean Romig gave me one of those tools at Hausmanns.
I have no problem being referred to the Parker site, I am on it frequently--I have 5 Parkers and 5 Foxes
Thanks, Harold

When I use the link, I get a message that I am not authorized to veiw!!!! So what good is it? Jim

true- the link is to a thread in the members only side of the Parker forum

I had a similar problem while trying to remove a fore end from one of my Sterlingworths. The fore end was unusually hard to remove and I did not force it. I was able to insert a tool I have under the fore end wood and gently wiggled the fore end off of the gun. I discovered that the pin that holds the spring loaded latch on the barrel had moved and was a slight bit proud of the barrel lug on one side. It was just enough to catch the metal on the side of the slot cut in the fore end metal to accept the barrel part of the latch. The tolerances between the metal of the fore end and the latch on the barres were very tight. I removed the pin and slightly peen the pin on one end. This tightened the pin in the hole and prevented it from migrating. I then stoned the edges of the pin making sure it was flush with the barrel lug before I reassembled the gun. I could have easily pulled the wood from the metal if I had forced it originally. I added this to the link in hopes that it might help someone else should this happen to them. I could have pulled the wood from the metal and thought that the wood screw had just pulled out. I would then have repaired the hole just to find out that there was another problem causing the screw to pull from the wood and had to make a second repair to the wood. Hope this may save someone some unnecessary repairs.