BP wrote on Mar 26^th, 2018 at 8:05pm:


Of course!  But this particular one was no wild guess--it was very damned close! 

It IS a pretty good writeup, I've read it a number of times.  It's factually good, also, but the writer seems to have missed that fact that 1894 Favorites had real serial numbers until they were well up in five digits. (I have one that's 8xxxx).   And that the "bow" style mainspring seems to have been continued at least that long.   Wisner also missed that the thickness of metal in the "bow" mainspring for a Favorite is much less than for a 44.   The two springs are otherwise identical, but putting a 44 mainspring into a Favorite results in a gun that takes two hands to cock.  I've had to grind his spring down to somewhat less than 1/4" wide to make it work.

As far as 44s are concerned, I have no quibbles except that I'm never seen a 44 with the "cantilever" mainspring which is screwed down at one end, like the later '94 Favorites.  My log doesn't include this feature, because it's unseen unless the buttstock is removed.   I'm also not following the Savage era very assiduously, so it may be true above the 70,000 s/n, (which I think is the wartime break), and I've just not laid hands one one. Sharpe wrote that the 417 subfamily has the coiled mainspring strut, like the 1915 Favorites. I can't confirm.

Wisner is particularly good with the extractors.  I have yet to get one that isn't spot-on dimensionally, which is no mean feat given all the variations.  I wonder who did the study?