I, too, always had a yen for a high-grade tip-up...until I got the opportunity of shooting one: a virtually mint #7 in 22LR with the equivalent of a #3 brl.   That barrel, 28" I believe, was the thing that queered any further interest in owning one--it was so heavy that opening & closing the action very quickly became annoying.  Maybe further shooting would have accustomed me to the handling of it, and diminished the annoyance, but in order for that to happen I was going to have to buy the gun--priced about $1000 20 yrs ago.  But with a lighter barrel, and at a more reasonable price, I'd probably have bought the thing.  

PS--What's the vintage scope?  During the tip-up era, Stevens offered both Malcolm & Cummins scopes in their catalog.

A 4.3 lb break-action I could handle.  (But I can't shoot anything lacking a forearm!)

A Carolyn scope could be considered "vintage" (out of production by WW II), but I thought it might be one closer in period to tip-up production--Stevens was way ahead of its major competitors in "optics-awareness."

Carolyn also manufactured that brass-tube scope sold by Winchester in the mid-'30s (though telling that to the average Winchester collector is a waste of breath.)

The Winchester 8X was specifically made for the Winchester 75 .22 Target rifle. Someone else may know more about the rest of them. While the tip ups are not as desirable as the 44 and 44 1/2's, they are interesting rifles for their time. Anyone can shoot one without a forearm. You may not like it, but you can shoot it. The higher priced models had a forearm. I have 3 rimfires and would like to get a nice one in a centerfire caliber.

slumlord44 wrote on Jun 5^th, 2016 at 9:49pm:


Well, the best source I've found on this point, Watrous' Winchester history, disagrees; he says these scopes were originally planned to be sold with special Model 67s & 68s, though they seem later to have been offered with other models.

Shooting guns without forearms violates my religious beliefs.

frnkeore wrote on Jun 6^th, 2016 at 1:32am:


I should have read Watrous' comments on the 75, which noted that the 8X was listed as an option.  What's odd about this is that 8X is by far the most common power of this model scope--seems to me the lower power scopes sold with the cheaper guns should be most common, but it ain't so.  About the 677 & 697 Watrous says: "had a very small sale due to the unsatisfactory scope mount used," which isn't hard to believe--probably the crudest mounts ever designed.  Since only the mounts were marked with the Winchester name, I wonder if they were supplied by Winchester.  But I've seen a few of these scopes & mounts absolutely UNmarked.

Here's my Tip Up Lady's Rifle, in .25-20 Stevens:

Carolyn made two scope of their own design. These are pictures of the other one. 

This design had a second ocular cell so, that you could have both 4X & 8X. they had advanced features so, I'm not sure why they didn't have a very long run. They used Marlin (Wallensak) mounts.

Frank