Hey folks, it's been awhile since I've posted any sort of content but here goes...
First off this rifle isn't mine. It belongs to a friend of mine who inherited it from her grandfather. I was given the task of getting it shootable again. It needed a new firing pin so after placing a small order from Numrichs and a little filing work she finally shoots 100% again.
The backstory of the rifle starts during the depression. Her Grandfather was a farm boy who saved up all summer to buy this rifle. He used to speak of it alot when I was around and I cleaned his rifles a few years before he sadly passed away. He used to look at catalogs for the things he wanted unlike the convenience we have today with the internet. He would be all starry eyed when he'd get it out to show it off much like how I imagined he was when he was a boy when he got it.
It was the rifle he used to put small game on the table and control the pests around the farm until one day the firing pin broke. He replaced it with a nail which milled down and made it work the best he could. Fast forward to today and the crude homemade firing pin did nothing but mangle ammo without touching off the primer. I didn't throw away the memento of her grandfather though. It will forever be housed behind the buttplate in some oil soaked cloth.
Anyways, Onto the overview!
This is a J Stevens Arms Co. Model 14 1/2 "Little Scout". These are considered boys rifles. Stevens in particular made quite a few different styles of the venerable old single shot 22 caliber weapons such as The Marksman, Favorite, and Crackshot.
These are the only markings found on the gun. There is no Serial Number as it wasn't a requirement of the times. The model 14 series was produced from 1906 until 1941. IIRC most of Stevens records were destroyed in a fire which makes finding the age rather difficult. This one I've narrowed this one down to being made between 1916 and 1920 by the name of the company. Previous models were made under the name J Stevens A&T (Arms & Tool) and starting around 1921 the receivers would be marked SVG after Savage bought Stevens but the Stevens product retained the original name. Oddly enough during the time this rifle was produced they were built by New England Westinghouse for Stevens.
Most of the Stevens designs of the period operating on the principle of the Falling Block. The most notable and similar design to this would be the Remington Model 6. It is chambered in .22 Short, .22 Long, and the the more common by today's standards the .22lr. Though it is not recommended to fire higher velocity loads as this version of the mechanism isn't notoriously strong. An interesting sidenote is that it was Stevens who in 1887 created the .22lr cartridge.
Comfort comes from a steel buttplate
It is also a takedown rifle. You simply unscrew the big screw head until it no longer comes out as it is a captive fine threaded machine screw and it comes apart
Just like so...
Close up of the Ejector. It is simply pushed back by a small metal nipple on the Falling Block. If youre quick with it it will also kick the empty casing clear from the rifle.
Receiver guts. That protrusion on the end of the breech block is what operates the ejector.
First off this rifle isn't mine. It belongs to a friend of mine who inherited it from her grandfather. I was given the task of getting it shootable again. It needed a new firing pin so after placing a small order from Numrichs and a little filing work she finally shoots 100% again.
The backstory of the rifle starts during the depression. Her Grandfather was a farm boy who saved up all summer to buy this rifle. He used to speak of it alot when I was around and I cleaned his rifles a few years before he sadly passed away. He used to look at catalogs for the things he wanted unlike the convenience we have today with the internet. He would be all starry eyed when he'd get it out to show it off much like how I imagined he was when he was a boy when he got it.
It was the rifle he used to put small game on the table and control the pests around the farm until one day the firing pin broke. He replaced it with a nail which milled down and made it work the best he could. Fast forward to today and the crude homemade firing pin did nothing but mangle ammo without touching off the primer. I didn't throw away the memento of her grandfather though. It will forever be housed behind the buttplate in some oil soaked cloth.
Anyways, Onto the overview!
This is a J Stevens Arms Co. Model 14 1/2 "Little Scout". These are considered boys rifles. Stevens in particular made quite a few different styles of the venerable old single shot 22 caliber weapons such as The Marksman, Favorite, and Crackshot.
These are the only markings found on the gun. There is no Serial Number as it wasn't a requirement of the times. The model 14 series was produced from 1906 until 1941. IIRC most of Stevens records were destroyed in a fire which makes finding the age rather difficult. This one I've narrowed this one down to being made between 1916 and 1920 by the name of the company. Previous models were made under the name J Stevens A&T (Arms & Tool) and starting around 1921 the receivers would be marked SVG after Savage bought Stevens but the Stevens product retained the original name. Oddly enough during the time this rifle was produced they were built by New England Westinghouse for Stevens.
Most of the Stevens designs of the period operating on the principle of the Falling Block. The most notable and similar design to this would be the Remington Model 6. It is chambered in .22 Short, .22 Long, and the the more common by today's standards the .22lr. Though it is not recommended to fire higher velocity loads as this version of the mechanism isn't notoriously strong. An interesting sidenote is that it was Stevens who in 1887 created the .22lr cartridge.
Comfort comes from a steel buttplate
It is also a takedown rifle. You simply unscrew the big screw head until it no longer comes out as it is a captive fine threaded machine screw and it comes apart
Just like so...
Close up of the Ejector. It is simply pushed back by a small metal nipple on the Falling Block. If youre quick with it it will also kick the empty casing clear from the rifle.
Receiver guts. That protrusion on the end of the breech block is what operates the ejector.
