1894's are know to shoot loose with High Velocity 22LF.

Good move.  The 1915's link is thicker than to 1894, better able to handle the pounding it gets, even though the pins are the same size.   

Downside is that they made no attempt to get the breechblock shoulders to bear in the frame, so the breechblock pivot screw carries all of the load.  But the pivot screw is bigger - about .217" vs. the .187 of the 1894.

That trigger arrangement takes it beyond strange.  But despite the buttplate, no real Favorite ever had, or needed, a falling-block for such anemic cartridges as .32 L. Got to be some experimental model on which, for convenience, a Favorite plate was attached.

Have you searched Grant for any mention of such a model?

No mention by Grant, but check out Dutcher's description in the Jan '98 ASSRA News--another one just like it, except .25RF.  Says it was designed by Stevens man Bill Goyette.  Purpose of trigger design was to allow breech mechanism to be removed in one piece.

Doubt it could have been mfg. at a cost acceptable for a "boy's rifle."  Scaled up, it would have been an equal in strength of the 44 1/2, but since that model was already in production, maybe Stevens thought Goyette's design was redundant.

It looks like a cross between a Page-Lewis and a Favorite. The Page-Lewis breech block was totally enclosed as is this one. It all dropped out of the action similar to a Ballard. Perhaps Mr. Lewis took this idea with him when he and Page were let go from Stevens.

Bill Lawrence wrote on Aug 2^nd, 2017 at 11:43pm:


Too bad Mr. Goyette did not apply his mechanical ingenuity to the design of some kind of dual-use firing-pin, such as used by Marlin & Wesson--a lot more useful than a one-piece breech.

Dutcher found fault with the position of the hammer-spring, thought it should be re-designed.   

Deadeye Bly wrote on Aug 3^rd, 2017 at 7:44am:


Lewis, not Goyette, must be the true inventor.  Dutcher assumed Goyette was the inventor because his gun came from Goyette's family, and that's what the family told him.  (As Antiques Roadshow demonstrates over & over again, always beware of "family traditions"!)

However, Lewis has at least 20 pats. to his credit, but I found none for Goyette.  The one pertaining to this design is #1,459,108, granted 6-19-23, assigned to Page-Lewis, along with another for the P-L rear sight.

Most of Lewis' other pats. were assigned to Stevens, but I found none that resembles the design of these two falling-blocks, which look like they were mfgd. BEFORE the Savage take-over, after which Lewis left Stevens for P-L, then Winchester. 

Dutcher didn't like the vertical hammer spring, but DeHaas didn't criticize it--in fact, spoke rather well of the whole gun.

desert-dude wrote on Aug 4^th, 2017 at 10:45am:


Isn't that what Savage did with their "improved" Favorite, the Model 30G?  Or has it gone out of production?