doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com What is this fore end for?

A friend of mine found this in a box of various stuff that he got at an auction.

He is curious what gun it might be for and if it has any value.

Looks to be for a side by side and the number �45532� is visible on the iron and part of that number is on the wood.

Any thoughts and/or opinions?

Thanks

Sure looks like a Savage 311 early model forend

https://www.gunpartscorp.com/gun-manufacturer/savstevspgfld/shotguns-sav/311-series/311

Skeettx,

Right on the money.

Thanks for the ID and the link to the parts breakdown.

I would agree. I am unfamiliar with this kind of checkering on a 311 forearm. Skeetx, or anyone else, can you determine which model it is, i.e. A, B, H, etc.

When The model 311 was first introduced it was a plain version (no checkering) of the model 315/330. These were the 1915 patent, Lewis design which had inline strikers.

If memory serves me correctly were not those early 311s made under the Lewis patent sold under the Springfield name rather than Stevens.
I had one of these many years ago but it was "Badged" as a Central Arms Co name. It was a 28" barreled 20 gauge but weighed a full 7 lbs. Even though I could shoot it reasonably well I sent it on down the road, as I felt if I were going to carry a 7 lb gun it may as well be a 12.

It is most likely for the G.S. Lewis patent guns, Riverside Arms or later Springfield Arms No. 315 or the J. Stevens No. 330. When the Springfield Arms No. 311 was introduced circa 1928-9 it had plain wood, no checkering.

Thanks for the correction Researcher. I do now recall that the early Lis design which was sold under the Springfield name was the 315 & not the 311, but let it slip my mind. Correct me on this if I am wrong, but were not all of the 311s hammer-fired rather than strikers, regardless of which name they carried?

J. Stevens Arms Co. began phasing out the G.S. Lewis striker fired guns in 1936 when the J. Stevens No. 330 and the Springfield No. 315 were replaced with the hammer rotating about an axle (marked 5000 or 5100) J. Stevens No. 530 and the Springfield No. 515. The G.S. Lewis striker fired Springfield No. 311 and numerous "trade branded" guns on that action continued to be made up to WW-II. For 1939, Savage took the internal parts of the J. Stevens No. 530 and put them in a bit nicer profiled and decorated black gun metal finished frame, with a bit nicer stock and introduced it as the Fox Model B. For 1940, J. Stevens Arms Co. added the Tenite (plastic) stocked version of the No. 530 to their line and called it the No. 530 M. By 1947, Savage Arms Corp. consolidated their arms making at the J. Stevens factories in Chicopee Falls, Mass. and the gun that had been the J. Stevens No. 530 M was cataloged as the Springfield No. 311. By the 1948 Savage/Stevens/Fox catalog the Tenite stocked gun was called the Stevens Model 311. By the 1951 Savage/Stevens/Fox catalog the Stevens Model 311 got a walnut finished wood stock and forearm. For a few years Savage continued to offer essentially the same double in three levels of finish -- Stevens Model 311 & Model 530 and the Fox Model B. By the mid-1950s the Stevens Model 530, the gun that started the family, was dropped and they continued on to the 1980s with the Stevens Model 311 and the Fox Model B in a number of varistions.