Trying to identify a Stevens can be frustrating as many of you know. I THINK this was a Stevens model 418 Junior Target. The upper tang has two holes for a sight. Barrel is 26". Firing pin strikes at nine o'clock. 
Sights are modern replacements, entire rifle refinished. Stevens receiver markings very faint or gone. Bore relined. Very accurate! 
Only problem is it doesn't eject rounds, shooter has to pull extracted casing. Minor hassle.

Not enough coffee this morning. Sorry for the jumbled posts

The 9 o'clock firing pin was peculiar to the 417 and 418.  The 417 weighed over 10 lbs, but the 418 has a much lighter barrel and weighs between 6 and 7 lbs., according to my sources.

Took it apart and found the extractor is a home made part. No provision for a plunger.

I have found that reassembling the action with that spring-loaded ejector in place is the very devil, and replaced mine with a normal extractor.   Maybe a previous owner had the same experience?

Needing four hands to do the job is definitely in my category of broke!   

The 417's barrel was threaded in. The 418's were slip fit like the Favorites. They were the best of the 44's.

If it is a slip-fit barrel, and is indeed on a Favorite size frame, it's probably not a good candidate for the .25-20 cartridge, IMHO.  Most I would do is move the firing pin so the original barrel can use .32 Colt centerfire, (a handload proposition) or the .32 S&W short, (may require reaming the chamber bigger).

I kinda thought that breechblock looked like a 1915 Favorite.

I have the idea that the O.P.'s rifle is built on a Favorite frame, not a 44.   

But I find that you are right that that .32 S&W Long is viable in that rifle.  I recently bought an early Favorite in .32 Rimfire, and it takes the Long rimfire cartridge. It also will take the .32 Colt cartridges I made up for my Bay State, with a shove.

Following that up I tried to get some idea of the pressure generated by the .32 Long Colt vs. the .32 S&W Long.  Reading in Barnes, they look much the same.  Which I thought the S&W was a good deal higher, but it ain't so.   

I'm using a bullet that drops from a Lyman 299153 mould at 87 grains in the Colt, as against the 80 grains of my .32 Rimfire cartridges.  Heavier bullets will not go, the ogive is fatter.
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slumlord44 wrote on Feb 7^th, 2017 at 10:56pm:


You're right--don't know how we got off on that tangent!  Maybe because someone else asked a question about converting a Stevens from RF to CF, and the two threads accidentally co-mingled.

Yes, from everything it is a 418 which is basicly an ovesized Favoite. I actually prefer them to the 417. Lighter and handier rifle and accuracy is comparable.