Hi all, I'm new to the forum, but would like to add another model 44. # 66,817. It is marked 44 and 66,817 on the lower tang behind the trigger, and the serial number is also stamped on the underside of the barrel just in front of the forestock.  25-20 is stamped on the left side of the barrel with the following stamp on the right side of the top of the barrel:
TRADE MARK                (medium print)
STEVENS                     (large font)
REG US PAT OFF & FGN (small font)
I have seen one other marked like this, it was in an auction, but it was stamped on the left side of the receiver, That serial # was 71,008. (It's on gunauctiondotcom ASSRA won't let me include a link)

My gun has a 24" barrel with the first 8" octagonal. It is approximately 3/4" in diameter at the muzzle and 1" where it joins the octagonal section. 6 o'clock extractor, MSA Co leaf sight on the barrel and a MSA co tang sight on the top tang. There is a small circled I stamped on the receiver. I would describe the case colors on the receiver as rippled as opposed to mottled. 

From discussion on this forum as well as doing a linear extension of serial numbers and years of production it seems likely this was an early 20's gun from not long after Savage bought Stevens. If anyone can shed more light on that I'd like to know. A question, if records were destroyed in the late teens, why are there no production records from after that, and especially after the purchase by Savage?

My dad recalled hunting groundhogs with this rifle as a kid in the early-mid 30's. He also impressed on me that ammunition for it would be very hard to find. Too bad, he said it shot very well. 

Hope I've added a little something useful to the model 44 data.

Thanks, Lefty665

I think yours falls just before the Savage takeover, unless Savage's management shipped some rifles without the Stevens diamond on the left of the receiver.   First s/n I have that displays that feature is 69258.   

Pics of the "MSA" sights would be appreciated.

uscra112 wrote on Sep 23^rd, 2020 at 9:51pm:


Thank you. I thought the Stevens labeling was curious, and not much like the references to others I saw. There's no location, A & T or specific patent references, and nothing on the receiver itself but the small circled I. Might this help narrow the serial number window of the Savage take over?  Seems likely there's about a year+ between those serial numbers. 

I'll try to get some pics of the sights and post them. In the meantime, the rear sight looks like [url=https://www.ebay.com/itm/Marbles-W1-Winchester-1894-94-Automatic-Flexible-Joint-Rear-Tang-Sight-screws/114419762906?hash=item1aa3f306da:g:Q4cAAOSwNU9fZ4~W this [/url] It is marked MSA Co Gladstone Mich and Pat Oct 20/03. The leaf sight is much like the one on the picture link in my first post, except simpler. The elevation adjustment is a small screw fixing the vertical V notch, and the V itself folds flat. It would be a pain to adjust in the field.

Oops, sorry I couldn't make the hyperlink work right, but the URL is there.

Will do, but again it looks just like the one on the side if the receiver in the first link I posted. Except, of course, that it is on the barrel.

I'd like folks to start thinking about this, too:   When did the coil mainspring feature appear?  Scanning online auctions as I do for data there's no opportunity to find out.  Anyone who has a coil spring model, I'd like to know the s/n for the database.   

Thanks!

Phil

The 1920 and later catalogs,(Savage owned Stevens) only list the model 44 rifles as available in rimfire,the 25-20,and 32-20 are no longer listed. Also,the barrels are listed as full round.I wonder if Savage used up and assembled A&T surplus parts into rifles during the transition?

Hah! Yes that is the same barrel stamp I described. No, that stamp appeared on the receiver of a higher numbered gun I linked to in my earlier post. Mine has no receiver markings other than a very small circled I (is that a proof mark?)

Sounds like that makes mine, and the other two with the same stamp and similar serial numbers, post war, 1919 or 1920 mfr before April Fools day when Savage took over.

I'm curious, why you believe it is pre Savage as opposed to shortly after they took over? If I were Savage I might have liked that simple, low information logo stamp as an indicator of change while I was figuring out how I was going to market the Stevens line. If I was Stevens before the sale, why spend money on a new logo that would be changed by a new owner?

A linear extension of serial numbers over production years is a little more than 2,400 guns a year. That would place my gun in 1923. But, we can be sure that production was not linear, early years and post 1929 years would be lower, and some well established prosperous years higher. There would have to be a lot of very good pre WWI years to make the 66k-67k serial numbers prior to 1920. 

FWIW, I collect banjos and there are good serial number records for Vega brand production from the 1890s forward. The 1920s were very good for Vega and remarkably consistent at about 5k per year.  Volume, as expected, fell precipitously starting in 1929. Dunno if that is relevant to Model 44 production or if it is worthwhile to look at Vega pre 1920 production perhaps as an indicator of general economic conditions. Vega numbers from 1900-1920 were consistent, approaching 1k per year, but with 1914-1915 being about half other years. Dunno if there's any correlation between banjo and rifle sales (other than gun sales going up as more people took up banjo ), but Vegas are solid manufacturing numbers from the years in question.