I have my eye on a possible purchase of a Fox. I am not sure what grade it is. The watertable has an "A" stamped on it (A Grade ? ) The side of the receiver has Ansley H Fox. The barrels are Krupp Fluid Steel and in another location Philadelphia Pa. It is a double trigger with extractors and a significant amount of case colors left (70%). The barrels are in good condition with minimal if any pitting (maybe on small spot). The lock up is tight and release lever is still right of center. The LOP is 13.5" on front trigger to end of wood and 14.5" to end of pad. The checkering is a little worn but still well defined and the wood on the pistol grip is darker than the but stock (oil absorbtion?) The serial # is 13xxx The seller is asking $550. Is this a good buy or should I pass? Thanks for any help.

Buy it. That gun, as described, is a good find for the money.

Excellent price. Better grab it!

I'd buy A grade Fox's all day long for that price. This of course is assuming there's nothing(hidden) that's wrong.
Jim

What gauge is it?, Not that it matters at that price...

It's got to be a 12-bore, as serial numbers 1-50,000 were reserved for graded 12-bore guns; and I see that the poster noted this gun being in the 13XXX range.

That a great deal assuming the barrels are fine on the inside. However if the gun truly has that much original case coloring I'd make the assumption the bore are in pretty decent shape as well. I'd be all over it like a bird on a June bug.

Worth that as a parts gun! Grab it!

Sounds good,almost too good,two things you don't want to do.
Put where you are located,or post where the gun might be located until you have it in your hands.

Last time someone posted a deal to good to be true,a couple of the members here tried to head him off to by finding the seller before he did.

The choice of the nickname suggests the topic starter probably is from, or closely associated with, the former USSR. This, in turn, makes me wonder if the gun in question might actually be in Russia, or any other former USSR country. If such is the case, well, the equivalent of $550 is just about the sum I'd personally expect a gun like this to sell for.

Well, I went back to the seller as quickly as I could but someone got to it first so that's a let down. There will be other good deals out there and thanks for the all the advice.

Humpty, I spent a good deal of time in the fmr USSR but am American.

That was a decent deal. They'll be more in these hard times. You might consider a 16g, if you're an upland hunter, as they were built on the smaller frame and tend to run light, probably a pound lighter than a 12g easily. They'll be more for a 16g, but you'll have a very nice upland gun.

Your optimism is commendable, but there ain't many A grade Foxes out there for $500 and change. Just sayin'...

A lot of the early border engraved A grades with extractors haven't gone for much more, if any more, than plain Sterlingworths. Some of that is because sellers don't always correctly ID the early A grades.

Regardless, I'd prefer a 16 or 20g SW over an early A grade, since I'm an upland hunter only.

A decent Sterlingworth 16 ga. just sold for $645.00 on Auctionarms. Wood was a bit of a mess with a long ago butt stock repair but the metal was very nice. Considered buying it and putting one of my takeoff stocks on it but I have too many used guns already. Still, how can you go wrong for $645.00.

I have an early A grade with ejectors and agree it's difficult to tell from a Sterlingworth at a glance.
Jim

I believe the early "A" grades were distinguished as having "better quality" barrels. Often this is seen in earlier graded guns of nearly every make. The grade referred more to the quality of barrel material rather than decoration. Interestingly enough, I read recently that Parker fluid steel (Whitworth excluded) was virtually indentical across all the grades they just stamped a fancier name for it on the rib. I.E. "Parker Special Steel" vs. "Vulcan Steel" Only tubes stamped with a maker's nom de plume had any lineage as to origin. Krupp, Whitworth, ect. Thought I would cloud the waters a bit!

The earlier Fox A Grade came with Krupp fluid steel barrels. That ended with the outbreak of WWI. After that they came with Chromox steel barrels. None better and stronger have ever been built. IMHO

Best Regards, George

George,
I own SN 200041, 20 ga A grade, it is first year and has genuine original Chromox barrels. Thats an old wives tale that early graded Foxes never had Chromox. Just wanted to set the record straight.

Well, all the speculation on barrel steel is just that. Speculation. A few years ago, one of our members committed to test as many samples of popular vintage trade name steels as he could get. I made the tensile test fixture, he was also going to do metallurgical testing for alloying agents. I don't know what became of the project or the member. But it would have surely revealed facts where only speculation and lore have ruled. I suspect early 20th century Krupp and Chromox were similar in makeup and performance to 4000 series "chromoly steels" that became popular around WW2. What might have been mystical strength of Krupp steels once, was reduced to specification made steels by numerous steel foundries in the American war effort.