I seem to be a magnet for weird.   I bought a Favorite barrel on-line last month, claimed to be .25 Stevens rimfire.   It's an early "94" style, with the two-diameter shank.  It has the four-flat quasi-octagon that I've seen on some Favorites. Five digit s/n 16232.  Has the two-line rollstamp with the 1894 patent date that we are all so familiar with.

Now the fun part.  It is NOT a .25 Stevens barrel.  Chamber mouth measures about .256".  Bore (what there is left of it) appears to be in the vicinity of .228".   Chamber depth seems to be about 1.1".  This all points to .22 Maynard, but that was a centerfire cartridge.   Barnes does not list any rimfire with those dimensions.

Ideas ?   A factory custom?  A 120 year old land-mine left by Stevens to confound 21st century collectors?  

Shame the seller had already sold the receiver and breechblock - that might have given a clue.  I asked. 

Because of the recent post here about how to make fresh .25 RF ammo out of .17 Winchester Super Magnum Rimfire.  I just love projects like that.  

Bought that particular barrel so I could make a switch-barrel starting with .22 Favorite that I have.

Isn't 22-7-45 another name for a .22 WRF?

I am assuming that it is not marked which would be unsual for a factory barrel. I have a niced Favorite in .22 WRF with a pristine bore. I believe it is a 1915 but would have to dig it out to be sure. The .22 WRF Favorite is a hard one to find. The .22-7-45 rings a bell and I am thinking it was a centerfire and available in a Favorite Ladies Model but the memory is on the fuzzy side since surgery.

uscra112 wrote on May 12^th, 2017 at 11:19pm:


Are you thinking off the .22-15-60?  But that's not it; the .22-7-45 is a rimfire, unless you disbelieve Stevens own description--p. 115 in #52.

As for your ethical quandary:  send whatever it is to "Forged in Fire," and challenge them to turn it into a Bowie knife!   

Borescope inspection not conclusive; except there's marks in near what might have been a throat that a clearly evidence that a drill bit has been in there.  Reckon it's a fools errand to try to figure out anything more.   I'll go for a reline and be happy.

Correct on all counts.  

Do you have any hard info on when they abandoned the straight sequential numbering?  I haven't a clue, but assuming a start in 1894, 69,000 is a lot of production.  Are there 7 o'clock models that have the letter-number code?     

And at what point did they abandon the two-diameter shank? I have nothing in between my .32 RF one (s/n 56888) which has it, and a 1915, which doesn't.  Maybe at the same time that the central extractor came in?

I'm still going to line it for .25 Stevens.  I don't have one, and I'd like to have one with a perfect bore, to see how well the .25 can be made to shoot.  It fits up OK to a .22 action that I have. The .22 barrel from that one I will line back to .22.   

Having deleted evilBay from my life, I can't be looking for the rest of s/n 16232 anyway.

CH4D lists one for rental.   If that doesn't prove out I'll have somebody grind me one.  Hang the expanse.  I want what I want.