I have a 44 in centerfire in which I decided to make a home for a new set of replacement action pins, and a nifty centerfire breechblock I got from Lee Shaver. Lo and behold the pins in the action aren't pins, rather one piece screws. Was this a design change initiated by Stevens or perhaps an aftermarket customization?

Kind of a moot point as the new breechblock isn't milled out between the front "ears" of the block, with only a narrow slot for the extractor to reach up through. Obviously a stronger design (especially since the vertical face of the block segues into the front horizontal flat with a radiused fillet instead of a sharp corner) but unfortunately unusable in this application without conducting some milling on my part to accommodate my extractor. I suspect it too is a custom thing cooked up by the smith who did the conversion.

(The rifle with its pristine bore was re-chambered from .22LR to .22WCF and firing pin altered to CF. It breeches up tightly, and shoots very well with namby-pamby cast loads made with .22 Hornet dies - I suspect the .22WCF nomenclature was intended to prevent dumb elbows from feeding it a diet of factory Hornet ammo. It doesn't need the above described parts changeout, I just wanted to gussy it up a bit.)

6 o'clock extractor.

Curiouser and curiouser, Phil. Central extractor (6 o'clock), screw pivots. Pics to show it, and serial number.

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Well I was curious about this so I looked in my reprint Stevens #50 c1902 catalog. Apparently Stevens did make rifles with a center extractor using breech block and lever screws a short time before they switched to the pins. See part #13C and #14A.

Sure shot wrote on Mar 5^th, 2024 at 8:06am:


If they did, I haven't seen any, except for this one and Chris Stroner's which fall at serial numbers well before the range where standard issue was side extractor and bolts, which runs from 14768 to 16801 and includes 17 observed specimens, (so far).   

Prototypes that escaped?  Possibly they did a few but the tooling wasn't right, and it took nearly a year to sort it out?   

As far as I can see there would not be any difference between a screw for the side extractor and one for a center extractor.  Diameter (.288") and OAL would be the same.   

I misidentified s/n 13853 as being in this family, but it has the central extractor and bolts, at a number well before either feature became standard issue.  A close look at my pic of the open breech face seems to show the side extractor slot, and I want to assume it is a conversion. 

All very curious indeed.   

No, I was referring to this one.  I've snipped this out of a much larger photo received from the GB seller, so the resolution isn't all it might be.  Gun was listed as a .22 LR.

Well, that makes Gary's entirely unique, so far as my log goes.!

No, no set triggers Phil.