I couldn't see the caliber markings on it. My guess would be it is a .25 Stevens rimfire without seeing the actual barrel markings..

Have only ever seen two 94 Favorite framed rifles chambered in 22-15 SS.
Don't think it took very long for Stevens to change their mind about offering that chambering option, and I would be very leary of one in 25-21.

It was nagging me so I looked it up.  In Grant's second book he reprises an article by Allyn Tedmon, wherein Tedmon claimed that he had an 1899 catalog showing the Model 55 (Ladies Model) as being offered in several small centerfire chamberings, including .25-21.  He also wrote that the gun was built on the small sideplate frame, based on the catalog illustration.  Knowing as we do now that Stevens often recycled older cuts in their catalogs, we can be skeptical of that, so it seems possible that there was a .25-21 barrel that would fit a '94 Favorite frame.  Or maybe this one is a Model 55 with the wrong buttstock on it?  Man how I'd like to have it in my grubby paws for a close inspection!

kensmachine wrote on May 13^th, 2016 at 10:17am:


Interesting !    Photos please?

coljimmy wrote on May 15^th, 2016 at 3:02pm:


You can say that again !   

But every so often I score a major bargain on that account, so I'm not complaining.   

Redsetter wrote on May 15^th, 2016 at 6:01pm:

If the stock is quarter sawn, that is the direction the shrinkage would have happened in the last 100 years.

Redsetter wrote on May 15^th, 2016 at 6:01pm:


On page 7 of Boys' Rifles Grant expresses the opinion that the transition to the hard rubber buttplate happened in 1898 or 1899, based on comparison of parts lists.

Compared to mine, yours is a very low serial number, suggesting that they very well may have started at zero, and thus produced a lot more than I ever imagined possible.  (Learn something every day!)  

BTW update on mine - Wisner's delivered the replacement mainspring, and oh, man is it too heavy!  Thickness .058" whereas the original was .010 thinner!   I've narrowed it on a belt-sander to where I can cock the hammer with only one hand.   Fired one round of Navy Arms ammo, which split longways from rim to mouth!     Because the breechblock is tight against the breech face there wasn't any noticeable gas leakage, though.  Gotta mow the grass on the range before I shoot any more.....grass is obscuring the target. 

Thanks for the hint, mine, s/n 51697, has the last three stamped across the lower inside of the buttplate upside down.  The plate measures 0.102-0.104 thick and looks like it was case hardened on the inside.  The bare wood under the plate appears to be numbered with a faint 69 with some sort of marker, room for a 7 but not visible.  Real quality not seen nowadays.
James