The rifle arrived safely via UPS yesterday. It is indeed an 044 1/2 English model. Surprisingly,I was only charged $31 for shipping. While the rifle is a little rough the bore is bright and is about very good. With some careful cleaning I think it will look much better. I took the wood off and have the metal soaking in PB blaster. The tang sight is quite rusty. I will likely remove it and replace the sights with the sporting 112 rear and a Rocky mountain front sight that I already have on hand. The barrel was rusty under the forend, likely a victim of years of poor storage. It should clean up okay. The action has some very fine pitting, but it really doesn't look that bad. The stock has some large cracks that should be easily repaired, there's only a tiny sliver of wood missing near where it meets the action. It does have adhesive tape residue at the wrist, which hopefully will clean off okay. The rest of the stock is kind of dirty. The forend is in fine condition, just a little dark. I have a extra good stock so I'll  put it on for now. Overall I am pleased with my purchase.

Very nice!  Finding an 044-1/2 is always a red-letter event. Anybody have an idea of the total number made?

Next year (God willing) will be my 50th of attending Gun Shows.  In all that time I've seen three 044-1/2 rifles, one 044-1/2 action and one loose 044-1/2 barrel on sales tables.  Can't remember seeing more than a couple even on display tables.

That's a pretty neat tang sight with it being a pretty tall version. Maybe soak it in a mix of ATF/acetone, and clean with some steel wool. 
The shotgun butt stock is nice if you can get it into decent shape too.

A small update on the rifle from cleaning and looking it over. The bore looks very good except for a dark patch of crust or crud in the chamber. A loaded round sticks in the chamber. Hopefully the chamber will clean up with more penetrating oil and vigorous scrubbing with a bronze cleaning brush. It appears that the upper tang on the receiver is slightly bent up as the extra stock I have fits in crooked. It shouldn't take much to carefully bend it down slightly. It must of become bent when the stock was broken/cracked. The crust or crud is coming off of the exterior metal parts pretty good with penetrating oil and a brass scraper. I removed the tang sight and there's traces of color hardening on the tang. If I can clean up the chamber I think it will shoot fine. Even with the issues I am pleased with this little rifle.

It doesn't have the trade mark script stamped on the left side of the receiver. Which would have dated it towards the end of production.

I'm going to guess that your 044 1/2 with the trademark has the extra screw thru the frame for/and has the kicking ejector. My guess is the the production stopped on the 44 1/2 and 044 1/2 sometime after Westinghouse took control of the Stevens company in 1915. Most sources say that production stopped in 1916 for the 44 1/2.

I'm curious, what is the serial number range of your 044 1/2?

I did a little work on the .28-30 yesterday. With a long soaking in PB blaster, the little set screw that holds the lever pin in place removed fairly easily. I removed the breech block and lever assembly and was surprised at the thick rusty crud covering the extractor and the bottom of the breech block. It cleaned up nicely with a brass bristle brush. The face of the breech block had thick rusty crud which startled me,but thankfully cleaned up pretty good. I took the firing pin out and cleaned it up so it'll move freely. I tapped out the rear sight blank and the front sight which was missing the insert in the globe. The Rocky mountain front sight and sporting rear that I had extra on hand fit perfectly without needing any fitting. The chamber had a ring of rusty crud in it,so with a bronze cleaning brush wrapped in steel wool,I polished it with the brush chucked in a cordless drill. The chamber cleaned up okay with only a hint of very fine pitting. I'll test fire it soon to see if there are any issues with the chamber. The tangs on the action were bent slightly up,with a piece of pipe I carefully bent the tangs down,without any heat. Scary stuff! The replacement stock fits good now. A trip to the range is next.