Here's a real brain teaser.    This rifle, according to the seller, a retired Vermont gunsmith, was found in an old farmer's estate,  twenty or thirty years ago.  It has absolutely no external markings that might identify the maker.    Seller thought it might be an "artisan gun", but the design and complexity of the frame castings, and the fit and finish of most of the parts, argue in my mind for a factory.  There are lightly stamped numbers on internal surfaces that just have to be match-marks.   

It is functionally a Maynard, but has a sideplate like the  pre-New Ideal Stevens. The firing pin arrangement is like the Mann-Niedner,  and there's that interesting hook arrangement which cocks the hammer as the lever is opened.  The extractor is like nothing I've ever seen.  Clever and very functional.  The mainspring is missing.  The trigger spring that's there is way too heavy, and too short as well.   

Barrel is spigoted into the lump.  The seams are quite visible.  Bore and chamber are the old S&W .38 pistol cartridge, without any doubt.     Octagon and round sections are within a few thou of a Stevens 44 barrel, which gives me ideas.   Bore is bright, but does have a very few pits.  Certainly  better than "good enough to shoot".

Any ideas? Clues? Anything?    Could it be a repurposed shotgun?

It needs a new link, (the one piece in it that looks home-made) and a  new springs. The rest of it is in such good condition that I will make it a shooter again

Hi Frank - 

Lessee - yes, the drop is another feature that make me think modified shotgun.  It came with a crude home-made stock on it that is so ugly I didn't want to show it.   

Yes, standing breech is part of the casting, and yes, it looks pretty weak.   The sideplate adds no strength to it at all, what with those tiny screws that hold it on.

There is no bolt.  The toggle is all that holds it closed, just like a Maynard.   The link in it is too long by .020 at least, so right now it is sloppy loose.   Said link looks "agricultural".  Obviously filed-out by hand, and is soft.  Nothing liked the rest of the internal parts in that regard.

I really doubt it's anything Stevens made, but certain features are eerily similar.   

For all the cleverness that it does show, one feature that is very weak is the hammer pivot.  It is a short pin that screws into the main frame casting, and is very poorly supported.  I cannot conceive of Joshua Stevens doing anything like that.   

That little lozenge on the lever is the "head" of the pin for the lower end of the link.  There's a small screw on the other side that releases it, and with it removed you can detach the barrel, again much like a Maynard. 

What you may be seeing as the bolt is actually the extractor mechanism.  There's a spring-loaded hook in the breech piece that engages a "tumbler" in the lump as the barrel swings open.  The tumbler pushes the extractor out about 3/16 inch, then snaps back as the barrel reaches full open.   Again rather shotgun-like.  Hard to get a picture of, but if I can I'll post it.   

Cheers !

Phil

Davenport shotgun?  Not like any Davenport rifle I've ever seen, and I own a couple.    The shotguns on the other hand I know nothing about......

Thanks, still working on it.  I love a mystery,

Yes, the machining is excellent. The more I look at it the better I like it.  

Have a new firing pin made and installed.  The homemade link is soft, which let me squeeze it in a press to close the hole spacing up. It now locks up nicely, as tight as any well-adjusted Maynard, and feels smoother.  But a length of A2 steel arrived today to make a new link anyway. Also ordered spring stock from Brownells to make new trigger and main springs.   

NEW CLUE
Chamber is like nothing American, but I find in Barnes an old British blackpowder cartridge called a "380 Long" that is reasonably close to the chamber cast.   My grooves are .375, chamber is straight with a .388 diameter.  Maximum case length in the cast is .900, and the .380 Long is nominally .965.  So maybe it's a British animal ?   I should P/M Harry Eales to see if he can make anything of it.  

Spark test strongly suggests that the receiver casting is steel, not malleable iron, which in turn suggests that it's not quite as weak as it looks.  

Weight without wood is 6 lbs, on the bathroom scale. 

Shot an email off to the Cody museum people about ten days ago, but no reply.    It used to be that the NRA would look at things like this, but will they still?  NRA today isn't like it was when I were a sprout.   I did ask Harry Eales, but he came up dry, too.

I was wrong about the chamber length.  When I came to actually making a case to fit it it, turns out that the maximum case is .790 long, not .900 as I had measured with a caliper that must not have been zeroed        That lets the old American .38 Short CF back into the running, I think.  

Bought a little electric kiln with a PID controller for heat treating, an acquisition that I've put off for years.   First job was tempering a mainspring that I filed up out of some stock from Brownells.  Success first try, which was gratifying.   No more guesswork on temperatures.   

Squeezed the link in a vise to bring the holes closer together, so it now locks up tightly.  So with the mainspring installed, it can be function-fired.  Or could be if I had any .375 heeled bullets.   Maybe I can breech-seat a round ball?

Phil

This one:
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Just right for small parts, too small for most receivers.   Only 800 watts, so it can be used on any 15 amp outlet.   Delivery was quick - 4 days, all the way from England, via DHL.   Instructions are minimal, but their people are very helpful when you email questions.   (I had to ask how to switch the readout from Celsius to Fahrenheit.)   

Phil

Phil, thanks for the link about the kiln.

ron

The lack of maker's markings fits with another German "artisan rifle" that I have, but I'd expect to at least see a proof mark if it were German.   None that I can find, and I've been over it pretty thoroughly.

I have now fired it a few times.  Using cut-down .38 Special cases and breech-seating a swaged pistol bullet.  Subsonic load, to be on the safe side.