doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Upgrading plain jane field grade guns

From what I can remember Rabbit, your SAC gun has alot of blank spaces.
Perhaps wild boar 'n truffle motif?

Is it cheaper to upgrade or buy new from CSMC?

The American shooter is so ingrained with the idea that a shotgun can be purchased off the shelf and used, much to the chagrin of our English brothers, who tried, unsuccessfully to teach us, that you can't do it that way!!!!
It will stun the average shotgunner how well they can hit and hit succcessfully when that firearm they're carrying around actually fits.
I learned through a fitted (bespoke) Spanish sidelock double while I was in the Navy over in Spain.

Probably a toss up on cost - if you use the best craftsmen and materials to get the job done. I believe that the advantage of your own custom upgrade is that you get it exactly as you want it.

Here is my plain Jane AE Fox 16 - an upgrade done about 15 years ago, and not cheap even then - about the same cost as a CSM Fox when Tony first started making them.

I think I saw those guns in NE at a gun show back in the late 80s or early 90s. They were on a table with a bunch of junk, parts, pistol magazines, etc. They were the only "good guns" this dealer had, I believe he had a factory letter about the upgrades. I was more impressed by the guns - very nice - than the dealer. I felt like asking him if he won them in a game of chance or something...but silence ruled.

How did they get from CA to New England?

Snowleopard,
I haven't heard from Outdoorlvr in what seems like over a year. He had been dealing with health issues but was looking good when we went to the Costa Mesa gunshow in 2006 (I think). I hope he is well. It seems like he has a daughter in my Torrance neighborhood and he lived in Oxnard, CA.

D.A.L.
please PM me your email address and I would be happy to send photos of my father's custom 20g Fox.

best regards,
JBP

I think you have to consider each gun individually; for instance a couple of years ago I bought a 16ga L C Smith ejector field grade that had been poorly restocked but otherwise was a sound gun with very little original finish for 450.00. Just restocking it didn't make sense so I had Ken Hurst engrave it, Classic Guns recolored it and reblued the barrels, I am stocking it when I feel like it. When it is finished it will be the equal of almost any Monogram L C made, priced one of these lately in a small bore? I know I would never be able to recover the expense of redoing this gun but it is what I want. In another case I have a 20ga field L C no ejectors, factory 26" barrels, 2 3/3 chambers; it has a lot of case color, almost all of the blue but was minus the stock when I bought it. I just happened to have a nice original stock, so it makes sense to fit it to this gun and make a nice profit. This is where my signature line makes sense

Jim

Steven Fjestad made the remark in one of his recent bluebooks, on Parkers, I think, that the guns are not rare but the original condition is. Doug Manns' Fox upgrade pictured here is gorgeous, but I hope his starting point was a well worn specimen. Of course it is his money and his gun and he could use it for firewood and scrap metal if that is his wish. Any attrition of original collectible guns only makes the remaining stock more rare and valuable. One troublesome fact is even if an owner has the best of intentions to never misrepresent a refinish or upgrade as original, he has no control of what happens after it leaves his hands. I looked at a Sterlingworth a few days ago with silver receiver, plum barrels, very worn dark forend, and a like new butt with near new checkering. The dealer swore it was original and that it was common to have perfect checkering on the grip and mere traces on the forend. Same guy had a refinished Baker with the gaudiest cyanide colors you ever saw and pronounced it all original also. This happens all too often, and sometimes the deceit is not so obvious to even the more savvy buyer. If I was Dictator of the World these bastards would be in the Gulag, but I'm not, yet, so Caveat empetor, and please excuse my warm fuzzy tolerance.