"What are the Differences Between The Various Grades?"

Mechanisms Directory

" The accusation has often been made that a high grade gun is just a cheap gun with a lot of fancy engraving. This is absolutely untrue of any really high grade gun, and it is our object to honestly explain in what points the cheaper gun is like a high grade one and in what particulars it differs.

In the Fox Gun the main and basic features of design are the same in all the grades, from the cheapest to the highest. The amount of raw material in any gun is not very great compared to its finished value, and a manufacturer who aims to build a reputation for quality will not hesitate to use high grade materials in all his grades. For this reason there cannot be a great difference in the raw materials used for the different grades. The real difference lies almost wholly in the workmanship, and it is here that the gunmaker has opportunity to display his skill and ability to the utmost.

It will probably surprise many, including even those familiar with the general excellence of the Fox Gun, to know that there is no model made having more than 20 per cent of machine labor.

The rest is handwork requiring skill and ability. In fact it can truthfully be said that all grades of Fox Guns are distinctly out of the machine-made gun class. All of the gun parts are, of course, machined in the most modern manner, using the latest types of specialized machinery. The parts are carefully inspected, gauged and held to close and interchangeable limits, in accordance with the best American practice. Let it be said right here that in this respect the practice in the best class of American factories engaged in the manufacture of high grade mechanical specialties is far superior in methods and uniform high quality to those of any other nation.

It is after the parts are machined, provided they are of proper design and quality, that the true merit begins to be built into a gun. Perhaps no comparison gives a better idea than that of a high grade watch, wherein a few ounces of metal of comparatively small value are transformed by skill and patience of the watchmaker in the fine and costly timepiece. We have the cheap machine-made watch as we have this type in the cheap gun, both of which, for a time at least, give fair results. We have also the case of the watch which may be fancy and ornate and may be compared to the engraving of the gun, a very pleasing and even a beautiful covering, but only valuable for the merit of what it holds. Fox Guns are very artistically engraved and finished; their beauty of line has delighted the heart of many a sportsman; yet it is in fitting of the locks, the frame and the barrels, the careful building part by part of the gun and the close, accurate timing of every working part, that the true value lies. A pair of barrels can be reamed and polished in a few moments; yet from several hours to two days' time are spent in finishing a single pair of high grade Fox barrels, and that by a gunsmith of years of experience. After all, the final test of a gun is in its shooting qualities. Such painstaking labor with many actual tests of the barrels for evenness of pattern and just the proper choke is bound to build into that particular pair of barrels the inherent ability to continue to make close and even patterns to the end of its days.

A machine-turned stock can be fitted to a gun in a few minutes, yet it takes over three full days of our best stockfitters' time just to fit the Circassian Walnut stock of a "F" Grade Fox to its frame. Not a drop of paint, varnish or shellac is ever used on a high grade Fox Gun stock. Instead it receives coat after coat of pure oil, rubbed in it by hand. This means much labor, but how beautiful the finish and how durable when exposed to wind and water and sun! Many hours are spent with fine draw file and emery cloth in finishing the various parts. Naturally the higher grades receive the most time on the finish. Parts which are hardened so that they cannot be touched with a file must be finished on emery and polishing wheels of special shapes.

Each sear after being heat treated is so carefully fitted that it will release the hammer with just the right amount of pressure. This determines the trigger pull, which is carefully measured on every Fox Gun by means of small scales, and having been obtained will always remain the same because the hammer and sear are of good material, properly hardened, so that they will not wear. No trigger creep is allowed in fitting the triggers, and Fox Gun owner never knows the annoyance and missed shots caused by trigger creep and variable pull."