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Joined: 23 Nov 2006 Posts: 58 Location: Northeast

It might be too late but before you take the stock off are you sure the primers in the 2 misfired shells weren't set too deeply in their hulls when they were loaded at the factory? Protrusion of the hammer nose is about .040-.050" on a Fox (which is plenty) but a primer that is set too deeply will only get a light dent from the hammer nose/pin. The firing pins do not "float", and the hammers do not rebound, as on some other guns - therefore they cannot go farther forward than the end of the hammer travel. I ran into a batch of factory shells (not RST's) that had that problem. About 1-2 per box of 25 were too deep.

Taking a stock off a Fox or any vintage double gun is not for someone who doesn't really know what they're doing and isn't equipped with a set of gunsmith screwdrivers and a arbor press. I've seen a bunch of Fox receivers that have marks on the sides of the receivers where the punch slipped when hammering the sear pin. Silvers

Member Joined: 02 Feb 2006 Posts: 602 Location: western pa

I have Fox guns from 1919 to 1936 vintage and can pass on a bit of experience to you. I might add that 2 of them have been hard hunted by me for about 25 years. In dry years,when goldenrod and other seeds make a lot of dust and crud on the guns, I've had the light strike problem. It always shows up on one barrel and it's usually the right. Your guess that crud is the problem is correct. Disassembly needs go no farther than removal of the trigger plate. Piece of advice: grind a square shank screw driver to fit the trigger plate screw and save it for that specific job. Put your action upside down in a good vise, push down hard on screwdriver(so it won't slip), use a 6" Crescent wrench on the square shank to turn it. If it hasn't been out in a long time or was never removed, it should be tighter than hell. After removal of trigger plate(watch out for the tiny spring in the screw hole as previously mentioned by Rev), spray it out with a good degreaser. Blow dry with comp. air. Spray with WD40( it displaces moisture, but will acumulate crud) and blow it clean again. Now oil all friction points with a drop of oil(don't go crazy with it). Reassemble and it should work fine for a number of years.Sometimes the internal parts will have a rust accumulation. PB blaster (penetrating oil)and a tooth brush will loosen this up. Hope this helps you. It works for me.

Joined: 23 Nov 2006 Posts: 58 Location: Northeast

Just trying to help. You said your gun misfired twice in 50 shots on the left barrel. Really, that's not much of a "data base" to conclude it's positively the Fox's fault. Could be coincidence that two low primer shells were both put in the left barrel. Please humor me - get out a precision 6" scale and put it on the back end of some new unfired shells. Look to see how much daylight you can see between the scale and the back end of the primers. If you check 25 or so shells and all are nice and flush, then by all means go after the gun. Incidentally I have used Fox guns for many years and currently have a bunch of them. I've never had dirt, grit, hayseeds, or anything else cause light primer strikes. Of course there's always a first time, and that scenario certainly can happen.

Personally I would invest in a "mag tip" screwdriver from Brownells and get the exact bits (width and thickness) I need to work on all the Fox's screws. Too hard to keep the sides parallel when grinding a regular screwdriver by hand. Silvers

Member Joined: 01 Dec 2006 Posts: 524

Yeah, i will be interested to know. That critique of your idea about freezing was made because we all know that for example:

Let's say you leave a gun out in your car uncased overnight and it freezes outside. Then, you wake up in the morning and kind of go "oh S$%, I left my gun out in the car". Then, you bring in the now very cold gun, into the very warm house and put it away in the cabinet, or worse its case. Condensation will start to form on that gun - that is a fact. I have no practical experience with the freezing of pins in this matter. But common sense just tells me that it could be a problem - but maybe not.

Duncan: A 16g custom Princess-of-Whales Sterly jilted me big time, but I've still got my 12g Sterly S. Dakota pheasant whacker Rolling Eyes

(Please don't share with the LCSCA fellas Wink

)

ya know, txshootist, George will fix it for you probably for nothing, you should give him a ring, he's treated me nothing but right....

Duncan

Joined: 18 Mar 2007 Posts: 280 Location: Southern Ohio

Jig: maybe in theory, but I just looked into an NID that I put Cold pins in about 10 years ago,no rust.. Assuming you're out grouse hunting all day in 20 degree weather, you come home and put you double in a 70 degree gun case. I'm sure you don't completely dissemble your gun, take out the sears, pins etc..Same deal. However, if you're concerned, don't do it. MDC

Well, I have made a decision to have the gun worked on locally. Just up the road about 5 minutes, in Plano, there is a gunsmith who is very comfortable working on Sterlies. We talked a bit about the teardown procedure, etc., and he knew exactly how to proceed. When I asked how much for a thorough cleaning, he said $45. I hope I haven't let my cheap Scottish heritage get the best of me. That was a bargain in my opinion. I could do $45 worth of damage in a second by trying to do the work myself. He has a 2 month backlog of work, so it won't be ready until May or June. I was hoping to have it by our North Texas Shoot in late April. Oh well, the Elsie and Model 12 will have to suffice. He also said that parts were readily available if it came to that.

I will report back in a couple of months with the results. Hopefully we will have discovered another good double gunsmith on which to depend.

Marc