Fox Collectors

just a thought - the Sterlingworth was the basic gun -and its often mentioned that barrels from one to another may not be interchangeable

but here is an example I find interesting- I mentioned it in the Sterlingworth at Beaver Dams thread - a composed gun from an auction

but - for this example there is an action and a set of 32" 2 weight barrels, both guns from the 95K serial number range that are only 291 numbers apart -

but look at the difference in the width of breach face of the action vs the breach end of the barrels
the action measures 2.3455 and the barrels are 2.3555 across - and I'll just assume the action for the barrels was a match,

so - here is a company's lowest price model, where you would expect it be needing minimal finish work to save on costs - and there is that much variance in the finished products - for two guns that may well have been in the factory at the same. That is a lot of fitting to be done at that price point, no wonder profit margins where thin

Barrel fitting from one to the other can be a real crap shoot. Dan Rossiter has done many and he said they can be and hour of work or two full days of work dependent on what you find. He said some you just can't get to fit.

Rick and Tom, I think it went this way whether Sterly or Graded gun: the barrels weren't initially fitted in the same time-consuming manner as when trying to swap barrels or when welding the hook and "rejoining" to correct an off the face condition. The barrels were jigged and clamped to the frame on a vertical mill and the hinge pin hole was plunge milled through both parts, slightly under and then reamed to size. Hinge pin was pressed in and dressed off, and the breech balls and barrels were filed and contoured together for a perfect match. The latter operation accounts for the variation in widths of the breech balls and barrels from gun to gun. All that could be done relatively quickly in a machine shop setting. Next the two parts went for bluing, engraving, case hardening, etc. and were brought together later using the serial numbers on each part.

thanks Frank

I had visions of an old master gunsmith -dirty apron - file in hand - striking down the excess, while the accountants wondered where the profits went

these fit surprising well - except for the breech width- I'll get a little soot on them to check- but it seems like a very little bit of play in the thickness of the lug into the watertable slot is the only fit mismatch - and I am not sure that's enough to worry about. After that, a little dressing up of the replacement buttstock and refinish on the metal - and the ducks will hardly notice the miss matched serial numbers

and then to the pattern board to see what, if any affect, that short little parallel section in the right choke has

Silvers wrote:Rick and Tom, I think it went this way whether Sterly or Graded gun: the barrels weren't initially fitted in the same time-consuming manner as when trying to swap barrels or when welding the hook and "rejoining" to correct an off the face condition. The barrels were jigged and clamped to the frame on a vertical mill and the hinge pin hole was plunge milled through both parts, slightly under and then reamed to size. Hinge pin was pressed in and dressed off, and the breech balls and barrels were filed and contoured together for a perfect match. The latter operation accounts for the variation in widths of the breech balls and barrels from gun to gun. All that could be done relatively quickly in a machine shop setting. Next the two parts went for bluing, engraving, case hardening, etc. and were brought together later using the serial numbers on each part.

Thanks Frank. I too wondered how they fit the bbls to the frame.