doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Opinions Please

Today I made my rounds to the local shops looking to see if any "new" guns had come in. I do this about every month or so and because I do check so regularly, the various owners usually hold stuff back they think I might have interest in. Well today, I went into one little shop and the owner yelled out, got one for you, just came in an hour ago.

He told me an hour earlier,a couple came in from cleaning up their farm house and wanted to get rid of some of the guns they had. He bought 5 of them. Among the five was this A.H. Fox CE grade. I am sure he got them all for a song, and will make a decent profit on them, as he should.

My dilema is that I am not a Fox specialist, in fact, I will say I only know what I have read about them, never owning any higher grades myself. I sold all my lower grade stuff off earlier this year to buy L.C. Smiths.

Well this gun has me thinking. Here are pictures of the gun. Only problems I can see is that the Ivory bead is missing on the muzzle end, not sure about the recoil pad as he says it's original, I am not so sure. The worst thing I found was that it appears to me that the stock has been repaired. Immediately to the right of the lever, the wood there is somewhat lighter colored and you can see a slight change in wood grain. This "piece" I will call it is small and you can see the color change in the picture if you look at it. If this was a repair, it was done very nicely as only teh slight color change is the result, though this drops the value of the gun I told him. Pictures wash out the case color it has. IT has some, but not what I would call a high condition gun as far as case color. Upon taking off the forend, I found one chip in the forend wood, which is really not visible when the forend is on the gun. IT's tight of course and feels solid. Bores are perfect and the blue is really pretty nice too, with some wear and tear here or there. Barrels are 28" Imp/Mod. Serial number puts it as a 1923 if I am right.

I can buy the gun at $2800 as it sits...I wanted to ask the pros here first. I looked at all the sights and only found one other CE grade...which was listed alot higher than this. As the pictures show, he had out the "book" and he thinks this is way to cheap, but since I have bought so much from him in the past and not turned him down on good guns, he will let it go to me for this. I know, a sales pitch, but none the less. Here are the several pictures...sorry for so many, but I wanted to make sure the "pros" could see the gun. I look forward to your opiinons on the price and condition of the gun.























Please tell me what your opinion is on value...perhaps low end cost vs. high end for this gun. I might pick it up just to move it to buy more L.C. Smiths! LOL...not sure really, this gun appeals to me somewhat?!

BB 40% price. Is the gun 40% of anything cosmetic or mechanical that you aspire to have?

jack

My opinion should be considered as that of an old guy who loves American doubles and hasn't paid $2,800 for two, including some really good ones. It looks great and probably worth it but for that kind of money I would be looking for something at least original and not a candidate for further repairs.

I really don't aspire to own it as it's out of my "scope" as far as collecting goes. I truly only collect L.C. Smiths. I thought if this was a good buy, then perhaps I would add it to the "pile". If it's not a great buy, then I will just have enjoyed looking at it.

From the pictures I would say that gun is worth the money easily. Looks to have a fair amount of CC left. Is it a 12 or 16 gauge? I just paid $2250 for a Sterlingworth which was in excellent shape by the way and know others that have paid that or more for a very nice Sterly if that helps. I am sure you will have many PMing you about the gun if you pass at that price. It would be in my closet already, especially with a straight grip.

I would certainly take it for that price on that grade.

Wheres all of the case that is left except on the inside where it is supposed to be left? I can't see it in the pictures.

It appears as if the head of the stock is not sitting tight on the frame. It also appears as if a chip was repaired on the bottom of the stock next to the trigger plate and bottom of the frame. Resolving stock problems can be expensive and the repairs (if required) will not enhance the value of the gun. $2800. seems fair if you are willing to take a bit of a gamble on the stock or can move it on in a trade. Pretty piece of wood to bad about the damage.

That "damage" to the stock head appears to be light grain in the wood. Perhaps it is not damage at all and has had no repair.
Best,
John.

I think it's definitely short grain chunk at the head which sheered off and was lost and then replaced with carefully selected non-matching. Heck, John, you could glaze and faux grain that in about ten seconds if the glue line's nice and skinny. Take me longer by ten minutes. I don't think a bitty chunk of wood would be a deal-breaker for me unless the lack of full bearing at the frame shoulder means there's going to be similar in the future. It's not collector "quality" so you've got some leeway to do what you want. Good bores/good lockup/stock that more or less is right on the comb means good gun to me.

jack