doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Board customized shotguns.

So we are all in agreement that the Fox has surpassed all other customized American shotguns here?

I just read the thread on Tut's beauty and was thinking the same thing, it seems to be Foxes that get the bulk of the customizations and I'd have to credit SDH with starting it all 20 years ago.

I wonder if he had started with an Ithaca if things would be different...

Bbman, Bobby, has done lots of beautiful restocking and checkering jobs on Foxes. He was about it long before SDH created his beauties, albeit without the publicity.

IMHO, there is a grace and a subtle beauty in the receiver of the Fox. It is smaller, for gauge, than most all the others, and it's reliability, as a basis for a custom gun, is unquestionable. Jim Carmichael said it best many years ago. He wrote something that compared a lesser engraved Fox with a "lush maiden, shed of her arrayment", and how the lower grades needed no help from engraving or inlays to accentuate it's lines.

SRH

I am doing a 20 gauge straight grip scalloped frame Fox with no engraving if I can get off my butt and get it polished and case colored.Bobby

I understand why Ithacas have not been that popular as a custom gun starting point. It is a combination of style and strength limitations. Fox shotguns have rounded sides where Ithacas Flues are so flat. The later Nids have sides more like the Fox but there are not that many of them to work with. I have considered doing a NID but never found the right gun to work with. That would be little finish remaining but a gun in otherwise good mechanical and metal shape. No one should take a high condition gun and use it as a custom gun because there are so few high grade guns. Flues are easier to find but starting with a 20 designed for a 2 1/2" shell makes me less than thrilled.

That said I have a 20 with 30" barrels which might be a good candidate if I can get over the short chambers and low pressure limitations.

The fact that the readily available and inexpensive Sterly has the same action as the Fox higher grades makes it a great starting point for customization. Gil

Those tall flat side of the Flues makes a perfect "canvas" for some serious engraving, perhaps Bulino engraving?

I think small bore Foxes are a great platform for a custom gun. they are a lightweight joy to carry in the field. There are plenty of sterlingworth small bores around and are reasonable in cost .Its not Like your taking a rare and hard to find collector item and passing it off as something else. Stocked for yourself and engraved to please you. You can shoot them for the rest of your life and pass them along to the next Generation. Tuts gun is an exceptional piece of work. I have done a couple of small bore customs that I use and enjoy all the time. One problem though is once you have a gun made for you it can be habit forming. My last and final project is a custom Pigeon gun from a drawbolt stocked 12 ga Fox should be done in a few months. This will be the last one I do though.

The guy has been holdin out on us. Two more beautiful Foxes to add to the growing list of club members.

Here's a SW 20b I did a few years back. I have a 16b SW ejector with #4 30' barrels that is ripe for upgrade. One of these days.....