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Boondocker
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Page-Lewis .22 single drip block????
Dec 2nd, 2007 at 6:20pm
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Has anyone every heard of the Page-Lewis Arms Company of Chicopee Falls, Mass. I have a lovely little drop block .22 Youth's rifle I'm trying to date and value if possible. It has a neat adjustable tang sight and a front sight with a lay down globe as well as regular open sights. 

I was thinking of cuting back the stock so my son-in-law could teach my grandaughters how to shoot. But befor I do that I'd like to try to value this neat little rifle.
  
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Bent_Ramrod
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Re: Page-Lewis .22 single drip block????
Reply #1 - Dec 2nd, 2007 at 8:46pm
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Irwin Page and George S. Lewis were officers of the Stevens company and appeared to have been "downsized" when Savage took over Stevens.  They promptly founded the Page-Lewis Arms Co. in Chicopee, MA in 1921.  They made three versions of a lever single shot rifle, the Model A Target, the Model B Sharpshooter and the Model C Olympic.  (They also made a bolt action single shot, the Model D Reliance for those who wanted one of them newfangled turnbolt guns.)

You apparently have the Model C Olympic, which should have the tang sight, a regular barrel rear notch sight, and a front bead sight on the 24" barrel, with a walnut stock and a steel buttplate.

The Model B Sharpshooter was like the Model C only without the tang sight; the Model A Target had a shorter barrel and no buttplate with only the barrel sights.

George Lewis apparently designed the gun.  The stock was attached to the receiver by a throughbolt and the barrel takes down with a screw, similar to the Stevens' boys .22s.  The receivers of the guns were made of steel plates riveted tightly together, and the levers were also built-up of two different steel pieces.  This avoided the use of castings, which this small company obviously could not afford to tool up for, but also allowed, as their advertising stated, "Before the War Prices and Better than Before the War Quality."

The company bid fair to at least hold its own in the marketplace, but Page died unexpectedly in 1924.  The company went downhill after that and soon after it was sold to Savage, which closed out the lever single shots and kept the bolt gun in its own line.  This info is digested from Jim Perkins' "American Boys' Rifles 1890-1945" still available in paperback.

So Page-Lewis single shots are pretty uncommon.  I have a shot out Model A I need to reline and a pretty good Model B but only a Model C receiver.  You don't see them often at gun shows, although one does show up once in a while.  If you have to change the buttstock, you would do well to have another one made and save the original one to keep the collectability intact.
  
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Boondocker
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Re: Page-Lewis .22 single drip block????
Reply #2 - Dec 3rd, 2007 at 10:58am
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Smiley WOW - thank you very much. I think I'll market this piece and pick up another kind of 22 - maybe one of those take down models. I apprecaite your reply.
  
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Green_Frog
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Re: Page-Lewis .22 single drip block????
Reply #3 - Dec 3rd, 2007 at 11:32am
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BD, I grew up seeing a Model B Sharpshooter which my youngest brother has now used to teach both of his daughters to shoot.  It is as you describe and other than needing a chamber reline and a new mainspring, it has served yeoman's duty for years.  "It ain't pretty but it sure is permanent!"

I believe you will also see it described in some detail in deHaas' Single shot Rifles and Actions as well as Grant's Boys' Single Shot Rifles and I think it even got mentioned in one of Kelver's books, but I wouldn't swear to it.

You have a neat little piece of Americana...enjoy it!

Froggie
  
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buffler
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Re: Page-Lewis .22 single drip block????
Reply #4 - Dec 6th, 2007 at 3:34am
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This kinda kicked my remaining brain cells...Frank and Mark De Haas in the book Mr. Single Shot's Book of Rifle Plans tells you how to make a Chicopee rimfire action, based on the Page-Lewis. It's not riveted, but it is plates "silver brazed" to a couple of blocks. I'd probably have it TIG welded ???
Anyhow, the drawings are all there.
Don
  

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