I am looking at a Stevens Tip Up Ladies Model. The barrel has no makings on it. No Stevens namd and address and no serial #. It is half octagon half round which is correct. There is no dovetail for a rear sight. Barrel is drilled and tapped for a scope. The front globe sight and rear tang sight are not Stevens and I haven't been able to match them with anything in my reference books but they look period correct. Is this possibly a Stevens factory barrel or is it one somone has made? Locks up tight and bore is pristine. Muzzle end is counterbored slightly. I have never seen a Stevens unmarked barrel but then I sure haven't seen it all. I would think someone has a Ladies Model for reference?

I have a Ladies Model Tip-Up in good mechanical condition.  It has the J. Stevens brand, city and patent marking on the 10:00-12:00 barrel flat, and the serial number low down on the level with the extractor on the long 9:00 flat.  It matches the tiny serial number on the lower tang past the trigger guard extension.  For some reason, there is a punch mark above the barrel serial number and three in a line below it.

The sight dovetails are standard barrel sight dovetails, although the rear sight is a replacement.

I haven't taken this rifle apart, but I did do a complete rebuild on a Stevens Off-Hand Pistol of the same design.  The serial number on barrel and frame of that pistol was also on the spring loaded locking block.  I found out why when I had to make a replacement to tighten up the gun--there's a lot of hand fitting there and it's unlikely that another locking block would drop in and lock the breech up adequately.

Check your locking block for a frame-matched serial number and, if there, see if the groove in the lower part of the barrel has been machined or filed to fit.

Without at least the serial number, I would have a hard time believing your barrel is a factory job that the workmen "just forgot" to mark.  On the other hand, making and fitting an aftermarket barrel as a "onesie" in someone's basement shop would be an enormous amount of effort and dedication.  Not like rebarreling a 44 or 44-1/2, for sure.

The seller made me a fair price adjusment based on the barrel not being factory so I am keeping it. Let you know how it shoots when I get time to play with it. While modified guns like this may not be worth as much as a collectable, I always find guns with period modifications interesting both from a historicial prespective plus they often are excellent shooters. Whoever made the barrel was good.

slumlord44 wrote on Aug 21^st, 2017 at 10:59pm:


So do I, provided the work is first-class, and not an idiot's tinkering.  (Although there's one kind of "period modification" I'll never be able to cotton to, the "varmint guns" made up in the '40s & '50s.)