Along with the .22 rimfire Maynard I received today I got a nice little Stevens Favorite Model 1915, originally in .32 rimfire long and now converted to .32 S&W (short) centerfire.  I already had a set of dies, and lots of ammo and brass for a couple of S&W top-break revolvers that I own, so the calibre appealed to me.  It should make a fun little "shooter" for my wife to use when we're up at the range.  There are three cuts in the buttstock behind the lower tang so I'm not sure what a previous owner might have shot with it, but whatever it was he got 3 of them!

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Rebel wrote on Sep 11^th, 2018 at 6:30pm:


Maybe they can't talk but the almost perfect condition of the stocks, compared to the wear of the original metal finish, say "refinish or replacement."  Is it likely they would have survived in near pristine condition, while the original blue was worn down to the bare metal on the rcvr.?

Yes, I was wondering about that too.  I suspected that the standard .32 S&W bullets would be undersized.  Don't know if I have any HBWC's on hand in .32 ... I'll have to take a look.

Sure looks correct and unaltered to me. I see no real wear as there's lots of barrel bluing. I'd almost always expect the case colors to be totally gone after this length of time, but the metal looks well cared for and no signs of neglect or abuse.
I think it's a well cared for gun, and all original.

Redsetter wrote on Sep 12^th, 2018 at 1:47pm:


Only if those protected areas are well protected! I've got a good number of color cased guns that only show remnants of case color on parts that are completely hidden. It's not at all unusual for color case to have some showing in protected areas, but not any less common for it to only be found inside receiver parts.

coljimmy wrote on Sep 16^th, 2018 at 10:25pm:


But the "circle of confusion" isn't large: at it's maximum, only 5 yrs, 1915 to 1920.   

Furthermore, we know from the Congressional hearings on Moisin-Nagant production held in Dec 1917 that Westinghouse was frantic to complete their Russian order before the Bolshevik gov't made a separate peace treaty with the Germans...which they did a few months later.  Given that urgency, how many workers would have been available to continue civilian production?  Possibly a few, but doesn't seem very likely that wartime production of Favorites, or other Stevens models, would have been great.  (By 1915, in fact, every US maker of arms & ammo was trying to cash-in on orders pouring in from Europe.)  Considering all this, it seems logical that most of the pre-Savage 1915s would have been built between the end of the war & sometime in 1920.

When Stevens A&T was reorganized in 1916 into "J. Stevens," were there any public notices of suspended or curtailed production of the pre-war models, as many gunmakers did during WWII?  Probably not, or it would have been previously reported by Grant or others.

marlinguy wrote on Sep 17^th, 2018 at 5:16pm:


I've done it on a badly splotched "brown" receiver, taking it down to a uniform silver/grey.  But if it was done on this gun, the hammer & block were omitted, as there's noticeable blue left on them.