doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Fox pin gun forend delima.

Current project gun is a Fox pin gun, #5139X, 1 weight barrels, 30", Miller trigger, Choked .025 and .042 with a restock that fits me well., It is going to be a backup gun for this Falls trip into Canada. Bought it for a very decent price knowing that the for-end would not stay on the gun.

I am at a cross roads. It has the early J shape spring fore-arm and a very thin beaver-tail. Best guess is that the J spring was not holding the fore-end on so someone started working on it. He has filed it down and bent the spring and the turned it into scrap. Now I can make another J spring latch but is that going to cure the problem? I suspect that the stress on the loop needed to keep a J hook engaged, with a beaver-tail, is the real problem. It might not be possible to use a J latch with a beaver-tail. Recoil causes the fore-end to pop off too easily. No hand on the barrels to help reduce the problem.

So I can make the latch and find out or consider other options. I guess that I could convert to a Deely-type latch or a Kremer-type roller latch. I do not want to replace the loop unless I have no other choice. So neither of these will be that easy but both look possible. Question is will a roller type snap on fore-end stand up to heavy recoil and a beaver-tail foe-end or am I stuck going to a Deely fore-end?

After many seasons, this one came off in my hand for the first time last year. I fired at a grouse before the gun hit my face and was left hoding the forend in one hand, gun in the other (missed, too).



That said, this one has never loosened or come off once in ~ 10,000 rounds at clays.



And I trust this one won't either. It's digested ~ 5,000 snappy 1 ounce loads so far.



All are SW's with snugly fitted minimalist beavertails and no latch modifications.

Ooooo, I love that wood, Mike.

Jon,
I'm thinking an Anson latch like the Euro guns would be easier than a deeley.

Savage found that the recoil of a 12-gauge would dislodge a beavertail forearm even with the F.T. Russell, latch Patent No. 1,029,229. You will find the later 12-gauge Fox-Sterlingworth Skeet & Upland Game Guns with factory beavertails have the Deeley & Edge latch. My 16-gauge Fox-Sterlingworth Deluxe Ejector has a beavertail with the F.T. Russell latch and you can feel it move in recoil.

That is not factory wood is it? Just joking. As nice a pair of stocks as you will see anywhere.

So both have the roller type fore-end. Mine has the j type spring latch that I am afraid is not going to be as strong as your type. I was trying to figure out if they changed to the roller type because it was easier to fit at the factory or if it saved them money to make. I suspect that they did not have to have an exact fit to get the fore-end to stay on with the roller-end and that saved them time and money. The Sterlingworth was a bare bones model and if changes were made the bottom line had to figure into it at some point.

Sterlingworth fore-end metal I have. Need to find some one to remove my J hook loop and replace it with a Sterlingworth roller cam loop if I go that direction. Not the end of the world, but more than I am set up to do at my home. And I am getting tired of buying $500.00 of tools to do a $50.00 job that I might do twice in the next five years. the rising price of lead and gas is starting to cut into my project money. If gas gets to $10.00 a gallon I have to stop all of my hobbies. But then so will everyone else.

Nice looking guns Mike...I doubt we ever get to see Ky's project.

To save money buy and fit a new J hook from Brownells and then put a hand guard on the gun which will hold the tip of your forearm down

A couple of things....

One, my "beavertails" are as slim as I can make them while still filling the palm of my hand and offering heat protection. The wood along the top line is < 1/8" thick, so a lot of the time my fingers still wrap over the barrels a touch and I don't have such a solid grip on the wood alone as I might have with a beefier forend.

Two, I'm very conscientious about fitting them tightly. When I first completed the big 12 I had to drive a wooden wedge between the forend tip and barrels to get it off. That got old quick so I relieved the wood a little. Both the 16 and the 12 have suffered a little bluing loss from the friction fit, but I've seen no evidence they will ever loosen from a lot of shooting.

Post deleted by Run With The Fox

Researcher is it Patent No. 1,029,229 or 1,029,374 that they used on the early pin Sterlingworths? One I know was by J.C. Kremer and the one is F.T. Russell. Does one have more holding power than the other? If I am going to bite the bullet and change I better pick the best one to start with.

I did make a J spring latch today and have to say that it is decent but not what I want. Just a few more hours into my gunsmith education that I am sure will be of value someday. It does hold the fore-end on but you can feel the play and I am sure that heavy hunting loads will cause the beavertail to drop down. The harder you pull the fore-end towards receiver the less it engages the barrel.

I know that I could take the fast and easy route and add a set screw and screw the fore-end directly to the barrel loop. Plenty of metal to work with and it would be a simple matter to make a treaded bushing that I could glass bed into the fore-end wood or go through the fore-end metal and fasten it directly to the loop via a set screw. In fact if this was a clunker I just do it and use this gun as a backup gun that way. But Sterlingworths were made with much larger beavertail than mine and they do seem to stay on just fine. I think that the spring latch is just the worst system to hold this one on.