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Thread: Modifying the Stevens 311 to Enhance Usability

  1. #1
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    W.R.Buchanan's Avatar
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    Modifying the Stevens 311 to Enhance Usability

    In response to the thread on "Poor Mans Double Rifle," I decided to have a go at it.

    I have had an old *** Stevens 311 Double Barrel 12ga. Shotgun in my safe for many years. I have wanted to cut the barrels and make it into a 20" Barreled "Coach Gun" to use as a simple Home Defense Gun my wife could conceivably use in an emergency.

    Cutting the barrels off was the easy part and took all of 10 minutes to cut and grind the ends square.

    Then a couple of design deficiencies reared their ugly heads.

    First: the barrels don't stay far enough down after cocking to get spent rounds out and new ones in. You have to compress the Hammer Springs to their limits in order to make this happen. which pretty much eliminates any form of fast loading or reloading. The gun will NOT stay open on its own it reverts back to the "Hammers on the Sears" position with the chambers below the back of the receiver as soon as you release the barrels, thus you need three hands to load it!

    There is a fix on the internet for this which involves re-profiling the cocking lever to allow the barrels to drop lower, but it is poorly explained and the sketch is literally on a piece of notebook paper with some scrawled writing as explanation.

    I can get thru this part.

    The second problem is that after firing the firing pins don't retract and the gun is a bear to open prompting many to literally break the gun in half over their knee to open it. This is pure BS!

    I know that these guns were essentially inexpensive versions of the excellent Fox model B, however they kind of missed something in the translation.

    Does anyone have any decent solutions to these two problems? The internet is virtually no help at all on this subject as is You Tube. I figure someone in the Cowboy Action Shooting Crowd might have some answers.

    Randy
    "It's not how well you do what you know how to do,,,It's how well you do what you DON'T know how to do!"
    www.buchananprecisionmachine.com

  2. #2
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    I had a Stevens 311 for a while and liked it. No frills gun but never any problems with it. Seems they're gaining in value now, wish I still had that one.

  3. #3
    Boolit Grand Master Artful's Avatar
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    Look like part 11 is firing pin rebounding/retracting springs to me.
    Are they installed in your gun? (http://www.gun-parts.com/savageshotgun/)
    If so do they have any spring pressure left in them?

    Go look about 6 min in on this video - he manually cocks the hammers

    And the firing pins retract
    Last edited by Artful; 07-17-2016 at 05:11 PM.
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  4. #4
    Boolit Master Cap'n Morgan's Avatar
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    I used to shoot an old Stevens Fox when shooting eiders from a sneak boat. The 30" barrels were heavy enough to hold the gun open against the mainspring pressure, but your 20" are obviously too light for gravity to do its thing. The easiest way to fix it would be to tighten up the forestock against the action. It can be done by welding a spot on the barrel plunger or by peening front of the square opening in the forestock, setting it back against the action and thereby increasing friction.

    The hanging firing pins could be due to missing return springs or the hammers lacking enough rebound to allow for the pins to clear the standing breech - probably due to worn parts and pins. I liked my Fox, but it had a lot of dead-soft parts which wore down fast when exposed to saltwater and rough handling.
    Cap'n Morgan

  5. #5
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    I am ordering a Brownell's Reduced Power Spring kit today along with some new Firing Pin Retract springs as it is pretty obvious mine are dead. I figured that this thing had to have rebounding firing pins.

    Art: I watched all the videos on You Tube but didn't notice that particular point. I'll go back and watch it again.

    The barrel opening fix is not that hard to do for me and I will be doing that. After working on this thing yesterday afternoon and smoothing out some of the parts the gun works a little smoother. Nothing in the gun is made from Hardened Steel and there are a lot of burrs and sharp edges that I know are holding things up. I'll address all that when I completely disassemble the gun for refinishing, and to put in the new springs and make the cocking lever mod.

    This is a similar problem that I run into with Marlin Rifles every time I get one. Just deburring all the internal parts works wonders for the operation of the gun.

    One of the reasons why the gun is so hard to cock is because of the ratio of the cocking lever, which is essentially a Bellcrank. It is what we normally call an Overdrive Situation where the lever part of the arm is shorter than the end that is pushing the Hammers back. This multiplies the effort needed to cock the hammers instead of reducing it,,, and Unfortunately there is nothing you can do about it, but the reduced Power Hammer Springs should help a lot.

    I do not intend to spend a bunch of money on this gun. It is getting the mods and a lot of hand detail work done on it as well as a Black Cerakote finish on the metal, and it is going to have the wood reshaped and refinished to some darker color and a slip on Recoil Pad, and that's it.

    Here's some pics of the gun and as you can see it is a pretty homely duck,,, any cosmetic upgrade will be an improvement.

    Randy
    Last edited by W.R.Buchanan; 07-18-2016 at 04:24 PM.
    "It's not how well you do what you know how to do,,,It's how well you do what you DON'T know how to do!"
    www.buchananprecisionmachine.com

  6. #6
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    I don't know if it applies to stevens but the boito SxS (stoeger coach guns) are extremely hard to break open new. Had a 20 and a 12 in my hand and had to break them on my knees. On the other hand, older and worn guns falls open as your move the lever.

    The CAS fellows have some tuning stuff in these guns including some sanding in touching points etc. YMMV but I would check this too as well as changing the springs as you'll do.

    http://marauder.homestead.com/files/stoeger3.html

    Another gun that needs these tunings is the the Baikal 43 (sold as Remington Spartan in US) there's a french video in YT where you can see the effort needed to break open the gun and the ejector failing (gun not broke in all rough inside...)

  7. #7
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    Have you considered Case Hardening the working parts that are soft steel? That would increase the 'wear resistance" of the Action.
    Just a Thought,
    Chev. William

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    Chev: This one is pretty old and it is not worn out by any means. If I had some other stuff to send to the Heat Treater I would certainly consider adding some of these parts, but not before they are detailed to their final configuration. Something to consider

    VF: Thanks for the link!

    Randy
    Last edited by W.R.Buchanan; 07-18-2016 at 04:28 PM.
    "It's not how well you do what you know how to do,,,It's how well you do what you DON'T know how to do!"
    www.buchananprecisionmachine.com

  9. #9
    Boolit Master Cap'n Morgan's Avatar
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    Dang! Randy, I forgot how ugly those Stevens guns really were!

    My Fox had a single trigger and ejectors, but both the single trigger and the ejectors looked (and worked) like some sort of afterthought and I changed it back to double triggers. Also, I brazed the ejectors together and fixed them so they would eject when the gun was opened, whether it has been fired or not. After raising the comb half an inch or so and adding several ounces of lead in the stock it became quite a nice gun to shoot.
    Cap'n Morgan

  10. #10
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    I have two of these and they are my favorite hunting shotguns. I mean, easy to pull the proper trigger to fire whichever barrel you want to allow you to select choke needed for each shot. They extract instead of ejecting so easy to not lose empties. Built tough so we have very durable guns. Then again, I use a pump for my HD gun, so the same things that are qualities of the 311 for hunting can make for handicaps if using one for a HD gun. And I like the looks of yours, so maybe I just have issues.
    I passed my last psych eval, how bout you?

  11. #11
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    Capt. Morg: those were before pics. Hopefully it will look a little better when I get done with it.

    Like I said the easy part was cutting the barrels off. It took less than a minute to lop them off in the bandsaw and another 2 minutes to grind them square on the Belt Sander. I will be filling the void between the top and bottom ribs with Devcon, colored black, so the muzzle will look proper.

    I ordered the new reduced power springs from Brownell's yesterday, but they didn't have the firing pin return springs. However what maybe going on is that they are just gooped up like everything else in this gun. I know this gun hasn't been apart in many years if ever, so that may be what is going on. We'll see when I take it all the way apart to do the muzzle drop mod and Cera Kote.

    The Firing Pin Return Springs were $1 each from the gun parts outfit that Art posted but they had a $10 minimum so I will hold off until I can see if they are broken, collapsed, or just fine and just need cleaning before I order them.

    On hold until parts get here.

    Randy
    "It's not how well you do what you know how to do,,,It's how well you do what you DON'T know how to do!"
    www.buchananprecisionmachine.com

  12. #12
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    After Playing with this gun for the last week I have arrived at the conclusion that a simple mod to the cocking lever will lower the barrels enough to make it so the chambers are accessible without having the hammer springs over compressed, and the addition of lighter Hammer Springs and a Lever Spring and Sear Spring, will get me where I wanted to be with this gun.

    I have also found that like most generic guns the simple deburring of internal parts works wonders for the smoothness of operation. That along with cleaning and a little oil has been making a big difference in the operation of this gun.

    I will detail exactly how I mod the cocking lever, which will only be a more concise version of the method I got off the internet. It will get posted here and on my website as well as some other places.

    Randy.
    "It's not how well you do what you know how to do,,,It's how well you do what you DON'T know how to do!"
    www.buchananprecisionmachine.com

  13. #13
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    Thank you very much! Looking forward to it.
    I passed my last psych eval, how bout you?

  14. #14
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    So I took the receiver apart Sunday and everything went fine until I forgot to cover the rear of the action with a rag and the left Firing Pin Spring Plunger went winging to land somewhere in my shop. 2 hours of looking hasn't turned it up yet and whereas I could make the part I will probably order one from the outfit in the other thread in Gunsmithing.

    Did all the detailing of the internal parts last night, and have to mod the cocking lever next. That will be a trial and error procedure and will take a little while, but I will be good at taking apart and reassembling when done.

    Randy
    Last edited by W.R.Buchanan; 07-27-2016 at 03:05 PM.
    "It's not how well you do what you know how to do,,,It's how well you do what you DON'T know how to do!"
    www.buchananprecisionmachine.com

  15. #15
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    Well it appears I will be making that part as they are not available. Luckily I have one to copy, or I might get lucky and actually find the one I lost. you never know!

    Randy
    "It's not how well you do what you know how to do,,,It's how well you do what you DON'T know how to do!"
    www.buchananprecisionmachine.com

  16. #16
    In Remembrance bikerbeans's Avatar
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    http://www.gunpartscorp.com/Manufact...984.htm?page=3

    Your missing part one of these?

    BB

  17. #17
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    BB: Thanks so much for the link. I was kind of dumb and never considered that Numrich would have these. I'll get two and get two of the main pins as well.

    Randy
    "It's not how well you do what you know how to do,,,It's how well you do what you DON'T know how to do!"
    www.buchananprecisionmachine.com

  18. #18
    In Remembrance bikerbeans's Avatar
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    Randy,

    Don't thank me to you see what Numrich sends you. Sometimes they ship gold and sometimes it's a lump of coal. Usually you can return wrong or bad parts.

    I am looking forward to you completed PBDR. I have a couple of them on the back burner while I finish my non-standard caliber Marlin 336 collection.

    BB

  19. #19
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    JWFilips's Avatar
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    Well my Dad's Stevens is my small game gun: when I knew it was mine I did some engraving ( never did that before this)
    Click image for larger version. 

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  20. #20
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    wow, that's nice JW! Thanks for posting.
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BR Bench Rest M Magnum RN Round Nose
BT Boat Tail PL Power-Lokt SP Soft Point
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GC Gas Check