If I can only have one book that talks to the history and various models of the Stevens rifles, particularly the 44, 44 1/2....What would that book be?

How about.....
"Loading And Shooting Traditional Schuetzen Rifles.....A Beginner's Guide" By R.Wright

Do any of the "Mr. Single Shot" books cover the 44?

dunno if I have ever heard of a book on stevens that is like the Dutcher/Ballard, Marcot/Remington, Campbell/Winchester, etc etc books.

most everyone seems to reference old catalogues or what ever Grant shows.   maybe just such a proliferation of mix-n-match options and styles combined with lost/destroyed/never-keept-in-the-first-place just makes it near impossible.

It seems there'd be a real market for one and we do have good writers and friendly publishers,  if it were a practical possibility.

I'm just finishing up Marcots book on the Spencer........Amazing amount of work he put into this book...Fascinating reading....Shows the government was just as screwed up then as it is now, but much more corrupt then as there was no Fox News and CNN looking up everyone's skirt.

Wish someone would do a sinilar exercise for the Stevens, but not being a military rifle, the book wouldn't be as sexy....

A friend of mine named Ed Mason had a very large collection of Steven's rifles and pistols as well as old catalogs. A man named Bill West was photographing his collection with the idea of using the pictures to illustrate a book he was writing. I don't know if the book was ever printed but if it was it would have a great deal of information in it. I was at Ed's house when most of the collection was bought by a member of this group. I cannot remember his last name but his first name was Joseph and I think he had a farm in Minnesota. He used to put out a catalog with pictures of rifles he had for sale. He also bought three rifles from me.

That could be it Dave but to tell the truth, I really don't remember. He also bought three rifles from me that day. One of them was the highest quality single shot rifle I ever saw. It was an off hand rifle with a Martini action. It had  deep relief engraving. It had gold inlays on the barrel of grape vines leaves and in front of the action on the top flat of the barrel was an inlay of a silver cherub. On the right side of the action was a deep relief of Diana, goddess of the hunt. She had two Afghan hounds on leases heading toward a stag she had downed with her bow. The left side was an engraving of Cupid shooting his arrows at a heart being held by two cherubs. I think the name KESSLER was inlaid in gold on the barrel. The butt stock had a deeply carved image of the bird that looks somewhat like a turkey but is not fit to eat. I forget it's name. The forend is carved in the shape of a dogs head complete with white teeth. The reason I sold the rifle was the fact that some idiot in the past had separated it from breach block and trigger assembly. I don't have any idea what it would cost to replace them even if it were possible to find someone who could do it. It was a museum piece but if I can't shoot it, I don't want it. The reason I am boring you with this story is to find out if anyone of you may have seen the rifle. I would like to hear that someone bought the rifle who could afford to put it back in service. This will not be the last rifle that I once owned that I will describe to you in boring detail. When I think of some of them that I sold, I almost want to cry.

A History & Digest of The J.Stevens Arms and Tool Company by Harold E Strong.
A gift to me years ago as a Birthday present.

JLouis

On a related subject, are there any books, or does any one have, pictures of the Stevens rifles that show anything but the side views?  I'm in the process of trying to build an off hand stock for my CPA and don't have a clue as to the contours of the original stocks when viewed from the top or the bottom.

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Would the pictures in my album help?
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