It's not a single shot so will take my answer off the forum.

I had been looking for a 38/55 levergun.  Shop out in SW Virginia has several yards of Winchesters racked with the occasional Marlin mixed in.

Looking through today saw one that was a bit unusual. Like a Marlin but not. Turned out to be a Stevens High Power in 35 Remington 3 digit serial number.   Nice shape bore and all but two extra holes on the receiver top.  It was priced way less than the Winchesters and Marlins so I bought it without checking things our first.

Seems very few were made not that it makes it valuable but it is a nice looking lever gun with smooth as silk action.  Looking at the cartridge if I can get some brass seems I can shoot 357 mag lead bullets or cast some up from a heavy bullet 357 mold.  I would like to get 1500 fps with a plain base for lever gun matches short range.

Anybody have any advice give me a PM

Boats

Thks

Got it home and ran a tight patch through the bore, it's slick as can be.

Have not slugged it yet but 158 gr 38 spl factory cast bullets look like they are going to fit pretty good. Nose pushes in the muzzle down to the driving band and base won't go in the muzzle.

Ideal would be a 200 gr bullet cast to fit the bore, however the 38's I have on hand will do to get things started.

I don't plan to load anything but cast target loads, doubt if it's a strong action.

Boats

Thanks Screwloose

2400 does sound like a good choice, If you are looking for velocity in a 357 mag it's the powder to use and more predictable than Unique, This 35 Rem may well show the same tendency.

I have been pulling old loading manuals out, Mattens has quite a few loads for the 35 Remington.  Has a number for recipes for SR#80 which is very similar in performance to 4759 He tends to go for the 80 with heavy bullets Unique with light.   Has a load specifically for Revolver bullets at 900 fps too.  That's what I am going to go for first. His preference seems to be a 200 gr plain base cast bullet at about 1500 fps

Of course Mattens book was written before 2400 was on the market.  Looking at Sharp's Complete Guide to Handloading now.

My 1911 Stevens Catalog shows not only the rifle but exploded diagrams of how the action works.  I thought the action had been drilled for a mount but see it came that way from the factory.  One hole is empty the other has a buggered up screw that's going to need to be pulled

Also it's not a 3 digit number, thats the model number 425 serial number is 31XX  Lots of stuff on the Lever Gun boards about the serial numbers.   Some gun book years ago said 25,000 were made, latest opinion is less than 1000, so much for gun experts. & books.  Internet is about 50% true no different than the mass gun press.

Must have been a real expensive rifle to make and in small quanities no doubt a big money loser for Stevens.   

Boats

Flayderman is the source of the number made error, or so the lever gun forum says.  They speculate 1000 max. This model was made from 1911 to 1917 only  Could not compete with Winchester and Marlin.

Gun Shop had at least a Hundred Winchesters all over 1000 bucks 1500 dollars in the condition of the Stevens,  400 on a cash offer, it had sat unsold for a long time. I was pretty happy about it.  If it shoots will be real happy

I ought to leave the non single shot banter alone on this forum, but it is a Stevens.

Boats

6 plus one, 22 inch barrel 7 Lbs half magazine curved rifle buttplate.  best description of the rifle is in Sharpes book, The Rifle in American published in 1938.   It was chambered in all the Remmington Rimless cartridges 25 30 32 & 35 All on the same case. It's almost the same head size as the 30/1906 but much shorter

They made 4 grades,  425 like mine is plan, 430 fancy wood 435 light engraving 440 heavily engraved.  Sharpe said 1910 to 1918

Keep you guys posted as it develops

Boats

     Boats - - -

                 Sounds like a windfall to me.  If it can be fired one cartridge thru the loading gate at a time, doesn't the qualify it for discussion @ ASSRA ?  I would think so !

           Is it tube fed with the tubular magazine under the full length of the barrel ? (e.g. Win. M-94 )

           Any chance you can bootstrap a photo up on the site for us to enjoy ?  After all, it's Friday !

          Creedmoormatch

Podufa

Brophy's comment is the one quoted on the Lever gun forums.  Having a copy of Brophy's 03 book and from it realising he was a true authority I tend to believe him rather than Flayderman who was fixing values on thousands of guns.  Add the facts that production was less than 10 years and you almost never see one I think 1000 is correct.  I don't have his Marlin book but ought to buy one.

I have been looking at guns like it fairly serious for a very long time and this is the first one I have seen.  Fellow on the Lever forum is collecting serial numbers and only has a couple of dozen listed from Stevens collectors.

Creedmore will see if I can take a photo.

Boats

What are the survival rates for any unusual CF hunting rifle made in the US & sold in limited numbers (<25,000) only in the years before WW1?  1 in 10? 1 in 100? 1 in 500?  I have been chasing odd lever actions for more than 50 years and I have seen 3 Stevens 425 rifles; 2 in upstate NY years ago (1958 & 1968) and 1 in CA that I played with about 10 years back.  All 3 I have seen were in 35 Rem.  I had a Standard Autoloading rifle, also in 35 Rem, back when I was in high school in upstate NY in 1958.  How many of those do you see today?  And for many of you, have you ever seen one?

That said, I have seen only 2 original 44 1/2 rifles on gunshop racks and I have looked all over the country.  To me, they seemed pretty scarce until the Internet sites appeared.  We seem to be in agreement that Stevens made about 12,000 44 1/2 actions.  Yet Winchester made about the same number of 3rd Model Winders and those are not at all uncommon, at least among those of us in the single shot set.

My approach to the odd-ball pre-WW1 rifles is to think about who sold them (and where) and who bought them.  I think there are definite socio-economic & geographic patterns to the original pre-WW1 distribution.  How many of you have heard stories about "hunting uncles"?  Guys who were unmarried, who had relatively good jobs that gave them free time & $, who enjoyed hunting, fishing & maybe fancy ladies.  Guys who might have had a hunting cabin off somewhere in Maine or Michigan or Minnesota.  Those guys bought the rifles, used them (more or less), cared for them (more or less), lost them when the boat sank or the car crashed or the cabin burned, gave them to girl friends, left them in the attic or cellar or out in the garage, lost or won them in card games.  When the hunting uncle passed away, there was no memory of where the rifle went and no immediate family to squabble over the estate.  Did single shots go to more stable homes?

waterman