Busticated Fox Model B in for repair
Friend John's brother goes to a local junkyard and shoots rats with a 12 gauge Fox Model B shotgun. The stock in places is wafer thin, and it eventually splintered in 5 places. The right barrel also wouldn't work. When I got it, a couple of receiver pins were not in place. When that happens, springs do crazy things to remaining parts. I was able to put it back together, and the reason the right barrel wouldn't work was due to a worn sear / hammer relationship. I could get a new sear, but couldn't find a hammer, so I put it back together witht the left only working again. I didn't want to spend a lot of time on it because I didn't think the repaired stock would have a lot of longevity. I soaked the oil out of the stock and broken pieces, then reglued and clamped. I noticed it had already been repaired once in its life. I steel wooled the excess dried glue off then recoated with a couple coats of Tru-Oil.
A few weeks later when dropping off the gun to John, he showed me his brother's latest junkyard find. In a locked and rusty metal box were three handguns, pretty worse for the wear. The first one was a Spanish "Buffalo" .25 that I may have a chance to get working after soaking in oil for a lifetime. I'll need a magazine spring minimum for full function if everything else goes okay. The next was a rusty old Iver Johnson that should work if I can make some kind of trigger return spring and clean the corrosion off. Then he pulled out an old S&W break top and I almost wet myself. So far I think it's a New Model Number 3 in .45 Webley. It has the NOT ENGLAND stamp above the trigger guard, so it was an export, and the forcing cone ring in the cylinder tells me it could be that rarer cartridge. I sent drawings and pictures to Roy Jinks, the S&W historian for a letter of authenticity, which, by itself, should increase the value by several times. It may even be worth it to send out for a restoration. It is mechanically perfect with a great trigger and what looks like original stag grips. What a find! We should be so lucky!
I appointed our man Trevor as Training Coordinator, and he completed his four Binoculars 101 Training classes last week. He did a great job, and he'll start the Riflescopes 101 trainings this week. Kudos to Trevor!
Our Product Intelligence department does a lot of filming for our Marketing department. Take a look at WWW.Youtube.com/OpticsPlanet for the latest. Chase just completed a spot using an OTIS kit to clean a black gun that may prove helpful, and more are filmed every day. I take one of the small OTIS kits with me on all my hunts.
Enjoy spring!
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