Nice gun Phil, and solving mysteries is part of the fun.
Good hunting,
Aaron

Don't know anything about Stevens rifles, but is it possible that the serial numbering didn't start at the number 1?
Has anybody seen an example with, say, a number in the low hundreds?
I'm not trying to tell those of you with experience here anything, just posing an idea in case it hasn't been considered.

Why does that buttstock kinda remind me of a Hopkins and Allen?

According to American Boys' Rifles by Jim Perkins, the Stevens Company claimed to have shipped 18,000 Favorites in one week alone.  No mention of provenance, or what year this "one week" occurred, but it isn't completely out of possibility that a year's worth of shipping got out 56,000 rifles.  There wasn't much in the way of competition in the Boy's Rifle market back then; except for Floberts and such like, most .22s were still adult sized.  And every kid wanted a gun back then; it was a rite of passage of sorts.

I have a sharp corner Favorite in .32 RF with no caliber marking on the barrel, but the Stevens and 1894 patent dates, Serial 49085.  There's another receiver around here with a "real" serial number on it as well, but I can't find it at the moment.

I used to make it a point to glom onto any Favorite I saw at a Gun Show that was going for much less than 50 bucks.  Don't know why; sort of like that Jerry guy in Conspiracy Theory who kept buying copies of Catcher In The Rye, I guess.  I also looked at a lot of others.  Most of them had the alphanumeric codes on them; only a couple had  "real" serial numbers.  Grant speculated that the actual numbers went up to where there was no more space on the tangs between the stock screw and the mainspring stud and then they went to the codes.  By my specimen, I would say that 99,999 was the cutoff.

I shoot my better condition .25 and .32 Rimfires on special occasions too.  Something you just have to do for the Experience.  Like those guys in the Explorer's Club in the 1920's that had that dinner of frozen Mammoth meat, dug out of the glacier and flown to New York.  Where will you get another chance, unless they invent a Time Machine?

The 1894 that I built for my wife. So, it is a "real" Lady's model

I had the stock made locally using a Stevens 44 stock and a #2 Schuetzen butt plate. I believe the stock maker, still has the pattern he made it from, if anyone is interested.

Frank.

It doesn't sound logical, but the numbers are there on the tangs.  Even if they continued the series from the small Side Plate, that wouldn't give them much of a boost in quantity.

Bent_Ramrod wrote on May 4^th, 2016 at 6:34pm:


I've been trying to convince myself that that's what might be the case, but I've been scouring Grant last night and today, and by his account the number of side-plates was quite low.   

Rebel wrote on May 4^th, 2016 at 7:50pm:

It's not a two barrel set. I replaced the other barrel with a Remington 510 barrel and shorten it 1/2" and rechambered with my match reamer. I have since sold that barrel and sights.

It's a regularly used target rifle, shot in our monthly matches. I have a Mod 52 standard wt barrel to replace the Remington and will tap it and thread it in.

This one is U275

Frank

My Side Plate Favorite is in the 1100 range.  They couldn't have been made for more than a year or two.

Maybe when the Company got their first shipment of hollow castings, they ran the stamping machine for three shifts until no more numbers would fit, then tossed them into a bin to be used as needed.  That could explain how they were "made" for only a short time, but used in assembly at the normal factory pace.

Oops, sorry.  Didn't realize the other pictures were another gun.  The barrel is appropriate for it.  Both nice guns.
James

A few good tough rubber bands should work in a pinch.  I've seen matches won  with a 44 using that method 

More pictures please !

27xxx to 56888.  That's a lotta little rifles in a short time, unless we posit that the square corner lasted more than two years.  (Which is pure hypothecation, based on the belief that the Model 44 lost its' square corner in 1896.)   Maybe a series starting at zero IS plausible.

My Sideplate Favorite in .32 Long Rimfire. No serial # in my records. Will pull it out when I have time to double check the fact that there is no serial #. Anyone else run into one without a serial #
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Thanks, fellers for the information.  My square frame is #51697 in .22 with the cheap simple sights and the address with the boxed X on the top barrel flat to the rear of the sight and the 7 o'clock extractor which doesn't work every time.  A person paralyzed on one side from a stroke usually swallows better leaning on the other side.  Think I'll try that on this gun.   

James

Rebel wrote on May 12^th, 2016 at 7:59pm:


Not as far as I know.  The "Ladies Model" based on the Favorite frame could be had in .22-15, but the wood on that doesn't look like a Ladies Model, nor does the buttplate.  At that price I would have snapped that one up just to find out what it really was.  

The seller KIKO Auctioneers is a big runner of live auctions in NE Ohio.  Everything from Real Estate down to box lots of attic junk.  If I'd seen that in their live auction ads, which I read every week, I woulda been there.   

I bid $150 on it, but was traveling and just missed it.
If you look at all the pics, it is marked 25-21.
I agree, I would have bought it for the curiosity.
Aaron

This 25-21 appears to be a 1894 frame and takedown screw and block numbered E659 with a model 44 barrel correctly factory marked 25-21 with the proper font and a 1915 type fore-end and a late butt plate with the big S Stevens used on late 1915's and some shotguns.  Note that the barrel address looks like a 44 marred with a dovetail and tapped for scope blocks.  Looks like a resurrection from the used parts barrel assembled by an otherwise bored "gunsmith".
 
James

I have a 1894 Favorite action and but stock that is center fire has a european  proof mark on the action. And have seen one other at a Portland Or gun show that was centerfire the guy had a bunch of British guns and it was in a small rook caliber. Ken

A favorite offered recently on line was described as a 32 S&W Long and marked 32 Long on the barrel.  This would require altering the block and firing pin.  Then easier to leave chamber for 32 Long Colt with scarce brass or enlarging the chamber for 32 L S&W with plentiful brass.  This is uncertain on line as some stores do not know their old guns well, or at all.

James

Curious to know if all Favorites with the "square-cut" receiver have steel buttplates, as does mine (#7455).  My suspicion is aroused because the one on mine doesn't fit well--stands proud of the wood at toe & heel, though there's no evidence the stock has been altered. Grant doesn't indicate (that I can find) when the transition to the hard-rubber plate was made, but I've assumed it probably accompanied the change to the radius-cut receiver.

Redsetter:
Every one (6) that I have seen, mostly on line, have metal buttplates, from s/n 7455 (yours) to 56xxx.  4 more were not visible in on-line adds, highest s/n was 68648.  Hard to tell which were the first 1894 models but metal buttplates were seen occasionally in them and also in 1915 models, apparently an occasional production variation.   
Infrequent target/scheutzen butts were on fancy or special order rifles, probably rare as they would probably had a much better survival rate, and get cleaned more often.
3 of four sideplate small frames had metal plates, the other, not visible.  Highest s/n of them seen was 19xx.  I'm almost ready to claim that thin stamped metal buttplates were standatd in all sideplate small frames and square cut frames.
James

coljimmy wrote on May 16^th, 2016 at 12:47am:


Actually, the plate on this one seems remarkably heavy (for a boy's rifle, that is), and since it bears the last 3 digits of the ser. no., and there are no additional holes under it, I assume it's original, despite the poor fit.  Shrinkage, as suggested, might well account for it, though the metal overlaps the toe by almost 1/16". Inclines me to suspect the wood was oozing sap when it was machined!

coljimmy wrote on May 16^th, 2016 at 11:59pm:


I have to admit that I've long looked down on Favorites as just cheap toys, but the one that started this thread has changed my mind.   

Allyn Tedmon's writeup on the Favorite in Grant's More Single Shot Rifles should set anyone straight on the quality of the little rifle.  They were made to a price, but were not cheap toys.

That's why the Stevens company is my favorite marque.  They did not cultivate dangerous-game hunters and did not hanker after military contracts (at least before they were bought out by some soulless conglomerate).  They went after the market that included plinkers, target shooters, woods loafers and gun-crazy kids.  Single shot rifles were not just something to plug into a repeating rifle product line; they were Stevens' product line.  They set their prices to the affordable level and put the quality where it was needed.  They thought everybody should have a single-shot rifle.  How cool is that?

Bent_Ramrod wrote on May 17^th, 2016 at 10:46am:


That about sums it up for me, too.   I've now got at least a dozen Model 44, 45, 108, 47, and 44 1/2 rifles, plus two Favorites. One is a 1915 that I rebarreled.  From that experience I can see that this early square-corner one is a lot better made.  I think I mentioned before that the case hardening of the breechblock is so deep that I had to break it with a carbide tool before I could ream for the oversize link pins I installed.  Didn't have to do that on that 1915, nor any of the Model 44s I've done.   

@Redsetter - Thanks for posting those old ads !   Love to see that kind of stuff.

In the 1940's if you sold a wagon-load of cloverline salve they would give you a Stevens Favorite. Mom & Dad ended up buying a lot of salve.  Ledball

Rebel wrote on May 21^st, 2016 at 10:32pm:


I don't think many potential buyers know what they are.  I bought the one that started this thread for $300, and I was the only bidder.

Rebel wrote on May 21^st, 2016 at 10:59pm:


Condition is everything.  That $300 got me a rifle that with very little work is almost as good as new.   

True, about 95% of their listings are dealers with stars in their eyes, (or greed in their hearts), but every so often a bargain shows up.  Usually an individual who wants to SELL, rather than wait months or years for the Greater Fool.  Gotta troll the site thoroughly at least once a week to spot 'em .

Redsetter wrote

Where the hell was that???  I've never seen ANY gun sell on Gunbroker that wasn't at least moderately, if not grossly, overpriced.

Kramers Auction
I should say $240 + 20%

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Agreed,
but to me that's all the money for a couple of shooters.
As Phil says, condition is everything

What a great looking dog!

Another Stevens advertisement.  All the companies went all out in the Shooting and Fishing "Christmas Number."

"The Highest Triumph in Firearms" indeed.