Fox Sterlingworth 12 guage

[Neutron]

Neighbor had this old side by side shotgun starting to rust away in the basement so I offered to clean it up a bit and oil it to keep it from further deterioration. She offered to give it to me but if I'm going to keep it I'd like to give her a fair price for it. Prices for these seem to be all over the place. Any thoughts on what it may be worth?

 

[rehtlaw]

barrel release lever

If I am not mistaken the release leaver being that far to the left shows the lock up parts are badly worn. It should be centered or a little to the right. If the barrels are closed in the picture.

 

[Neutron]

Yes I went and looked again and the lever is that far left. Everything feels tight though.

 

[Cochise]

Between 4 and 6 hundred is full market on one with wear
Philly is high end and Later Savage guns less
Cut Barrels, short wood, or really any alterations kill it
American double guns are all about original condition

 

[JDH146]

http://forum.foxcollectors.com/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=9086

Found this post with a quick search,there may be other info on the forum.

 

[Augie]

If I needed a Fox for a project I might go 200.00 on that gun. Showing heavy mechanical wear with the lever that far left, don't think I've ever seen a Fox with the lever that far. Way to check for barrels being loose is to take the forearm off and then check, I bet they will be loose. Also seeing wood issues behind the tang, not unusual for old SXS's to have damaged wood in the head of the stock.
Repairing old Fox's by a qualified doublegun smith is expensive to have the work done right.

 

[Neutron]

Took the barrels off and everything seemed tight. I can see where the latch that catches the metal tongue that the lever moves to un-hinge the barrels is worn. I don't know the proper terminology yet so bear with me. Seems like it could be fixed fairly easy though. From what I can gather, the gun was built in 1927 according to the serial number. All matching numbers on this gun too. I'm starting to like it alot. I won't get a chance to shoot it until after Christmas.

 

[Doco Overboard]

This link is for an online article but it's really a cut and paste job right out of Vickery's old book including the drawings. The second paragraph is missing a few sentences but the meat and potatoes can be found further below. Also Midway has a pretty decent video for adjusting the face and lock up but Larry keeps interrupting the old mans speech at first. You can hear him begin to describe the adjustment of the barrels underside to the frame but Potterfield is running his yap instead of just listening to the old boy. (old jack mumbling) It would have filled in the gaps of the hacked up second para from the first article.
When the old boy uses the cross pane hammer what you can barely see later on in the video is how the face of the hammers are polished clean so when the dressing is done additional pitting is not further transferred to the lump. Some of those files are also broken clean off for doing fitting on various applications. (they don't go into the tools I guess because of time so that's a shame)

https://www.bevfitchett.us/repair-of-firearms/shotgun-repairs.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXbrmmiSngw

 

[Neutron]

Ok I stand corrected on the lose barrels. With just the forearm removed,there is a little bit of wiggle side to side. Does anyone know of a good gunsmith that works on Fox shotguns? If not too expensive it may be worth fixing. The mechanism on this is different than the one in the video in the previous post.