I have an early Favorite, made somewhere from 1894 to 1901--offset extractor and the screw to tighten the action.  I'd like to reline it--the gun bore was REALLY rusty at one time--12" groups at 25 yds, bullets were keyholing, strings of lead would come out of the bore when cleaning it.  I've used Big 45 cleaning strands, JB paste and JB mirror a dozen times--rust is gone but still pitted bad.  Groups are down to 4" now though if I use copper flashed bullets.

Just to give some detail on the gun so I don't get hung up for heresy;

The loweer tang had been broken and brazed at the mainspring screw hole, had a crack in the stock and a large chip in the buttplate, and no finish left on the metal, and I like to shoot my guns, I'm thinking making it a decent shooter with a reline won't lessen the value much more than it already is.  Nice part is the wood actually looks pretty good, so could be a nifty little gun again

Can anyone recommend someone to reline the bbl?  Certainly don't need a match grade barrel on it, but would be nice to make it a good shooter again.  East coast, or New England area would be a plus
Thanks in advance!

John rellined a Stevens 44 for me a couple of years back and converted it to .22 Mag at the time. Great work and good to deal with. A lot of people here have had him do work with excellent results. You can barely see the liner at the muzzzle end of the barrel. Need to get it out and shoot it some more. So many guns to shoot, only so much time to shoot. Stilck with the .22 long rifle with the Favorite.

Always interested in hearing about project guns, what are you building?
I have more than a few in the works myself but never seem to find the time to work on my own projects. I have a Ballard that needs a barrel and a Phoenix that does not want to be a shotgun but would like to be a rifle. Several rollers that need almost everything. A low wall that is going to the boy scouts as soon as it's done ( 38 special). A 71 that wants to be a 50-110 86 lookalike.

John, please tell us more about the Low Wall in 38 Special.  I've always wanted one myself.  And do the Boy Scouts shoot centerfires?   

Froggie, my sons & my grandson learned on a Winder, augmented with a flintlock and an 1861 Springfield, but when they grew up. they joined the black plastic & 10/22 brigade.  Sometimes the inoculation does not take.

waterman

waterman wrote on Apr 29^th, 2010 at 12:34pm:


The action came in several years back in a trade. My brother is the firearms instructor for the boy scouts where he lives. He told me he wanted something he could reload for so I started gathering the parts. Had a barrel I rebored to 38 and fitted to the action. A customer gave me an old beat up forearm. I have a new unfinished butt stock but I might try to talk another customer out of his stock sense he is going with new wood. I still need to cut the dovetails in the barrel and fit the extractor. The lever has a piece missing so it needs to be welded up. I'm missing the hammer pin so will need to make one. Someone bent the lower tang trying to make it a pistol grip so that still needs to be repaired. By the time I'm done with it there will be twice as much labor in it than it is worth.
The whole idea is to come up with different types of rifles that most of the boy scouts have not seen before. I was going to make everything in 22LR but it got to be more of a hassle. There's a trap door ready to send and a couple of Stevens and when I get really bored I'm going to make them a Remington Beals rifle in 22 LR. I sent down a #4 Remington a few years ago and before that was a Flowbert, both with new liners so they would shoot. My brother has not seen the 1882 Spencer shotgun in my safe or he would want it also. Was planning on making a scaled down version of the Phoenix rifle in 22LR just don't have the time. Got to work on other people's stuff to pay the bills.