New Life for an Old Favorite - Stevens Favorite Model 1915 .22

Am Shooting Journal ^ | 7/27/20 | M Nesbitt

[w1n1]

Decision to hold 'old-style .22 match' leads to an adventure in restoring legendary Stevens single-shot.
Among the guys I shoot with, there is an increasing interest in old or old-style .22 rifles. The guns we like the most are the old single-shots, such as those made by Stevens, Remington and several other makers. One friend of mine said he thought that the popularity of shooting .22s would rise in the near future, and our feelings and interests certainly follow what that friend had predicted.
The reason .22s are being focused on in this black powder column is simple: most .22 rimfires can be considered black powder cartridges. The .22 Short is our oldest self-contained metallic cartridge, appearing in the first Smith & Wesson revolver in 1857. The .22 Long followed within a few years, and in 1885, the greatest cartridge of them all was introduced: the .22 Long Rifle. Both the .22 Long and the .22 Long Rifle used 5 grains of black powder and the only real difference between those two cartridges is their bullet weight, usually 29 grains for the Long and 40 grains for the Long Rifle.
There are kits available for reloading .22 Long Rifle cases with black powder. I have not tried one of those yet, but now I'm thinking that I should. If I do get to use one of those reloading kits, a report is likely to follow.

WITHIN OUR SMALL clan of black powder cartridge shooters, one of the guys thought about putting on an "old-style .22 match." We talked, and then set about putting such a match together. Our plans included two novelty paper targets (a "turkey" and a "beer can") to be shot at from just 25 yards, shooting offhand. Five or 10 shots would be taken at each of those targets. Then we'd move to 50 yards for a bull's-eye target, which would be shot at from the sitting position while using cross-sticks for muzzle support. The bull’s-eye target would absorb another 10 shots.

THIS LED to my search for a used old Stevens Favorite Model 1915 and I found one for just over $200. A friend looked at it and, having a well-studied background in the details of Stevens Favorites, told me my gun is a “parts gun,” made up from parts on hand, which is just fine with me. This one has the part octagon barrel, which I do prefer. Other Favorites had either round or full octagon barrels. And on my gun, the outside of the barrel was in better shape than the bore. Actually, the bore of this old, well-used .22 wasn’t that bad, but the chamber area had some disturbing pits in it. When the gun was fired, those pits in the chamber made extraction of the fired case rather difficult.

The pitted chamber was quickly cured by simply relining the barrel. That was inexpensive and it gave me a Favorite with a brand-new bore. This old rifle was too far gone to be considered a collector's item, so relining the bore was a completely positive move; it brought new life to the old gun and made it serviceable once more. Read the rest of Stevens Favorite Model 1915 .22 caliber.

[MeneMeneTekelUpharsin]

A friend owns this one:

[imardmd1]

A few years ago I bought a Savage falling-block 22-shhoter similar to the one pictured, had a peep sight as also sdhown, tried it out on the 50-fott post-Christmas blast-the-old-ornaments match, where it worked just fine. Then I gave it to my son to theach his kids with.

We were too poor when I was little for my parents to buy me a toy cap gun to play with. so they gave me a broken-stock .25 falling block single-shot rifle (with no firing pin) to play with. Learned how NOT to point it at anyone at all, or any otyher thing I wouldn't like to shoot at.

The best lesson to learn, when you are four years old, one you will never, ever forget.

[imardmd1]

Maybe this one:

Stevens .25 cal Rim Fire (click here)

After the war, I got a six-shooter cowboy cap gun, and the Stevens, being so old, got tossed. What a shame! That's what conservatism is all about. Retire the old guys, but don't toss them. Eh?

[Big Red Badger]

Rebarrel,,,

Wonder how much?

[imardmd1]

The .22 I bought recently obviously didn't needrebarelling. Those on the link I posted probably could be easily rebarrelled by a good gunsmith. Maybe $200-$300 to get a completely octagonal barrel?

I really have no idea on cost, but it would be an interesting project, wouldn't it?

[imardmd1]

The one I had as a little kid had a split stock. The shooting part was probably OK, but all that is just idle thought. Happened before Pearl Harbor, my FRiend.

[Big Red Badger]

Stevens 1915,
I’ve held one IIRC,very lite and balanced with a
Very small forward stock.
No grooves in the barrel
But a gunsmith said it’s
Safe to Shoot. 300 bucks
for a rebarrel ,,,?

[Big Red Badger]

Gunbroker has a
Beautiful one in
.22 caliber for
750 bucks.
Yikes!

[imardmd1]

No grooves in the barrel I think I've hears that some guns were specifically made to use .22 shot shells for little nuisance animal or bird pests. Seems like I read about that lss than a year ago . . .I dooubt that the grooves could have beem shot out all the way down the barrel. I think maybe your gun is supposed to be a smoothbore, not meant for solid bullets.

What do you think?

[Big Red Badger]

Could be,
I’ll check.
Fun little piece.

[Tijeras_Slim]

It’s impossible to wear the rifling out of a barrel shooting soft lead at .22. velocities. Garden guns (.22 smoothbores) usually had a shotgun bead in place of front and rear sights.

[Big Red Badger]

Definitely
Blade front sight.

[imardmd1]

Correction to Post #10:

grooves lands

[imardmd1]

Reprisal--found this nice, plainly presented video on the Stevens piece:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBXVfTse3v8&feature=emb_rel_end

Title: "Stevens Favorite 1894" (click here)