doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Foxless 'Sterlingworth' 1209xx with 4140 steel...

silver soldered barrels. it's 12ga 28" cyl/mod gun with ca. 1928 wood and action plus Chicopee Falls made replacement barrels numbered to the gun. if the price is right i will bring this charming "chimera" home. can i use light upland steel loads through those tubes w/o causing damage?

Those barrels may not be replacements. It seemed to be the policy of Savage that Fox guns returned for repair were often returned with barrels roll-stamped with Savage's Chicopee Falls address and a 2 3/4" chamber stamp. I once owned a 1913 vintage Sterlingworth 12-bore that was sent back to Savage at some point for repair/barrel blue (?); for a long time I too thought Savage had replaced the original barrels, then one day I noticed what appeared to be traces lettering. Close inspection revealed that the words "Sterlingworth Fluid Compressed Steel" had been carded off and over-stamped, but three or four letters of the original stamp still remained. The Savage Arms address had also been roll-stamped on the left barrel, along with the 2 3/4" chamber stamp. This fact actually worked to my favor a bit, as the seller thought the barrels had been replaced and priced the gun accordingly.

Over the years I've seen a few of the redone my Chicopee Falls barrels. I think in some case they were indeed replacement barrels. I've also seen where gun's were sent back and the barrels were extended by Savage to 2 3/4" and so marked on the left barrel (rather crudely in some case). Regarding steel, I'm sure purists would shudder, but with that choke constriction and it not being a high grade gun to start with why not. You said light loads after all. PS. Some of the Parker guys have done the same thing with Trojans after all.

the barrels which were put on the action some 20 years after its been made are marked proof tested 12 gauge savage arms corporation chicopee falls mass usa. the gun is very tight and 1960s vintage pachmayr pad which replaced broken heel plate will come in handy. i'm sure occasional use of upland steel or skeet steel loads will do no harm. i would like to add more notches to stock as it already has two of them.

I cringe at using steel shot in anything other than a Remington 870 Express. For the few times that you will actually need non-tox shot why don't you just spring for a couple of boxes of Bismuth or Nice Shot and leave the poor old Fox alone. After all she deserves to be treated like a lady.

This will ad little to the discussion; but in the early 1990's I experimented with steel shot in an early vintage (sn #7511, as I reacall) A Grade Fox extractor gun with less than perfect barrel bores. This gun had a heavy frame; so I lengthened its chambers to 3" and opened the chokes of it's 28" tubes to IC/Lt. Mod. I then proceeded to shoot Winchester 3" steel shot #4 mags thru those tubes; the old Fox handled those steel loads with ease and there was no futher damage of any kind noted to the tubes. Obviously I would not have attempted this experiment with a vintage gun having pristine bores; but the thing I remember most was how light was the recoil from those steel loads relative to 3" lead loads. Who can say what results you may receive from your Fox, but I do know steel load quality has progessed light years since the late 80's.

Yup, I also shot much steel in a Sterlingworth with .040 chokes and could detect no damage, interior or exterior. My friend not only shot steel shot in good quantities in his $250 early A, but drilled it out to 3" chambers and shot those shells without damage. Oh, he's still doing it.

steel can come in handy when shooting clays at clubs that require non-tox shot.
loaded in right barrel it would do nicely for closer shots at flying game. there is big difference between >$20 per pack of 10 and <$10 per box of 25. i'm convinced that using fresh right quality load will result in no damage to this gun.
old loads with oxidized pellets flying in clumps would be different matter entirely.

yeah and I have a lovely gun in right now, a pre-war Merkel O/U with both chokes bulged from steel shot. My recommendation would be no more than .020" of constriction with steel shot.

yeah and I have a lovely gun in right now, a pre-war Merkel O/U with both chokes bulged from steel shot. My recommendation would be no more than .020" of constriction with steel shot.