Stevens Model 44 22LR - help requested

[JDHasty]

+1000 re: John Taylor. He's done some liners for me recently, and I find his work flawless.

Oh my God, he used to be located 20 minutes from my home. Everything he does just gives a person who appreciates fine workmanship and attention to detail such satisfaction just to admire it.

[JDHasty]

For what it is worth, I have a pattern for a straight grip shotgun buttstock for the 44/44 1/2 and a duplicating machine. It takes the large Stevens repro plastic butt plate.

I will keep that in mind.

[JDHasty]

Well, looks like we overlooked something. It is obvious this is a very early action, someone has tried to replace the mainspring the wrong one.

[uscra112]

I expect you will find the hammer is from a 44-1/2 (or a DST 44) which connects the spring to the hammer by a stirrup, so switching back to the right spring would require also finding an old style 44 hammer. I still wonder why the 'smith whole built the rifle did it, but if it works, leave it alone.

In any case that graphic from Wisner's covers the Favorite, not the 44. The top picture is the same as an original 44, as I posted earlier. Late 44s used the coil spring strut. The two in the middle were never used in the 44.

[JDHasty]

No stirrup. I had it apart yesterday. I’ll try and take it apart again and photograph the parts. I think it looks like the top one, but with a deeper half cock notch.

[uscra112]

Well, that IS strange. What I could see of the spring looks just like the DST/44-1/2 spring.

How well does it function?

Yes, pictures, please.

[JDHasty]

The spring that is in it has a hole in it and is only under tension for the first 1/4 to 1/3 of it's travel after being released by the sear. Momentum caries it forward to strike the firing pin, but with just barely enough force to fire a round. I was thinking that it had the correct spring, but it had taken a set. After thinking it over, since it has screws that go through and engage the threaded holes in the receiver wall it is obviously a very early frame and would therefore use a spring w/o hole in it, not the spring that is in it currently.

I have deer stands that we need to get out and set up, but once that chore is behind me I intend to tear it down and photograph the parts. Jim Wisner is local to me. I haven't seen him in some time, but will try and give him a call.

My inclination is that the spring w/o screw hole is placed between the screw in the lower tang and the hammer and the stock is what keeps it in place.

Frank de Haas Single Shot Rifles & Actions book

[John Taylor]

The spring without a screw hole usually gives the best trigger pull. In the full cocked position there is very little sear pressure. I believe the coil spring is the late model, my Walnut Hill had a coil spring.
My 44 is in 44-40, lots of fun to shoot.

[uscra112]

DeHaas' drawing is wrong, as far as the spring is concerned. The spring shown in the top Wisner drawing is correct. Note the orientation.

[uscra112]

@John Taylor
Right again, the Model 44 was changed from the arch spring to the coil-spring strut somewhere between my s/n 50744 and Sureshot's s/n 73467.

A careful review of Stevens parts lists confirms that the Model 44 never used the cantilever spring with the hole in it. Only the Favorite model did that. Again looking at parts lists, that seems to have happened between 1905 and 1907.

[JDHasty]

I talked to a Jim Wisner and he put a spring like the top example in the four illustration graphic above in the mail yesterday afternoon. It went right in and it is working splendidly now. I’ll probably get the butt stock and fore end blanks coming this way from CPI Monday.

This one: https://www.cparifles.com/collection...nt=28161366025

What I believe I’m seeing with regard to the bore is an insert in the chamber. My inclination is to get a stock on it and see how it shoots. If it doesn’t shoot it’s off to John Taylor for however long it takes to have it lined and chambered in 17 HMR.

[uscra112]

Excellent! Keep us posted.

Phil

[JDHasty]

It functions such that the bolt or lever is cramming the hammer back to full cock position. Having kids, I’m not sure how I feel about that.

Holy smokes, does it ever have a trigger any sporting rifle would be proud of!! The firing pin indent is substantial. My inclination is that the geometry of the hammer/spring interaction is such that when the hammer is cocked the force curve on the hammer peaks early and remains high then rapidly drops off before sear engagement allowing for low sear engagement pressure, resulting in very fine sear release because the spring force is being directed at a very shallow angle to the hammer pivot. When the sear is tripped the force is increasingly directed at an increasing angle to the pivot and builds rapidly as the hammer accelerates and spring notch rotates up and around the hammer pivot and the spring tip to hammer pivot angle increases.

If I were a betting man, I would lay money that efforts were made to substantially reduce the rotating mass of the hammer on these rifles in order to shorten their lock time.

[uscra112]

Reverse the link to make it leave the hammer at half-cock. The deHaas drawing in your post #27 shows it in the half-cock orientation. This was touted as a feature by Stevens when these were new.

Ii don't know what may have been done to hammers in the 1896/1903 period when 44 variants were in common use as Schuetzen rifles. When Tom Rowe's next book comes out in the fall we may learn more. Tom has done an exhaustive study of the premium grades, which I haven't.

The Model 417, which was the last iteration of the 44 action, was intended to compete with the Winchester and Remington bolt-action competition rifles. It had a very stiff mainspring (of the strut type) and the full-cock notch was where the old half-cock was. Both changes reduced lock time, but it put a very high pressure on the sear. I can't imagine the trigger pull not changing pretty quickly with regular use.

Phil

[JDHasty]

I’m loving it. If there is a book coming out on Stevens single shots, sign me up.

I haven’t done anything with single shots, unless you want to include Contenders, up until now. I’ve also got a Low Wall barreled action sitting here now. It has a new 22 Hornet barrel on it that I know nothing about. My goal is to use these to get familiar and then make up a really nice CPA 44 1/2 in 17 Hornet, 219 Donaldson Wasp and 219 Zipper Improved. Then I will have my goal of a cased varmint rifle set.

I’m a big C.S. Landis fan and re read his books annually. I’ve shot bolt action varmint rifles for 50 years, but have really wanted a Stevens most of that time.

The Low Wall has been refinished over pitting, I don’t intend to use the barrel either. I will clean up the receiver over on my large bench stones to get the pitting dealt with (thankfully no dished holes or messed up lines) and then have it barreled 1/3 octagon w/wedding band transition and stock it. I want it to be Stevens #2 profile or close to it, 24 inches, 17 Hornet or maybe 22 K Hornet, just because we don’t have one.

I don’t know if it is a converted rimfire, or started life as a center fire. Either way I’m going to have someone look over the breach block and make sure it’s brought up to speed if it hasn’t been yet.

[uscra112]

Watch the ASSRA forum for announcement of the book.

The 44-1/2 is the finest of the pre-WW1 single shots, without question. Only knock possible is that it doesn't have a big enough barrel tenon to comfortably allow .30-06 and it's legion of derivatives. Although Ned Roberts did use one while developing his eponymous .257, his pressures didn't exceed 50kpsi. I have the idea that CPA uses a bigger tenon, (but don't quote me).

No Winchester can ever have the trigger pull of a Stevens. Aside from all the monkey-motion between the trigger and the sear, the spring geometry is wrong. If you look at the 44's DST setup, which was lifted verbatim for the 44-1/2, you'll see that it does the same thing as the basic 44, moving the force vector closer to the hammer axle at full cock.

If you're a reader of Landis, you'll eventually have to have a .22 R2 Lovell in the fold. Why not start now? Brass is a problem, but it can be made from .223 if you've got the gumption.

[JDHasty]

Good Lord! It’s hard enough just getting 218 Bee brass.

It was Landis’ 170 Landis Woodsman who motivated my interest in the 17 Hornet.

Our first was a Contender carbine with EABco 23 inch barrel for my seven year old daughter. We need hunting license to shoot chucks in WA and since she hadn’t passed Hunter Education class yet (she passed on her second attempt) I decided to put a man stock on it and took it to central Washington with two friends. The first shot was an off hand shot at a big chuck at 80 yards that tossed it. My buddy ask me what the hell caliber are you shooting. Let’s just say that the three of us shared her Contender for the rest of the weekend and came home and ordered three CZ 527 Americans in 17 Hornet.

We never have been able to get better than ~ 5/8 - 3/4 inches consistently out of the CZ Americans at an hundred yards and she doesn’t let that go unnoticed. Her Contender goes sub 1/2 - 5/8 easily. My American now has a factory varmint barrel and is in a CZ HS Precision Kevlar Varmint stock and will keep up. FWIW, my younger two kids are very small for their age and they have a 17 Hornet Contender carbine with 21 inch MGM tapered barrel that shoots just as well.

By shooting these 17s we have been able to shoot ranchettes and vineyards that we didn’t have access to in the past.

As a heads up to others: Once you put together a Contender carbine for your kids, you need to secure permission to use what had previously been your uncontested property. In other words, you no longer have an ownership interest in that frame.

[uscra112]

Good Lord! It’s hard enough just getting 218 Bee brass.

But think of the satisfaction!

Interesting benefit of your .17s.......that you are welcome in more places. Something that's not an issue here in rural Ohio.

[JDHasty]

But think of the satisfaction!

Interesting benefit of your .17s.......that you are welcome in more places. Something that's not an issue here in rural Ohio.

We still shoot irrigated hay meadows on large ranches, but the 17 has opened up opportunities that we previously didn’t have.

A funny story happened about 7 years ago. Before I had my CZ in 17 Hornet I was camping at an RV Park that has a golf course with my kids over Memorial Day weekend. I had been out since ~ 05:00 Saturday morning shooting chucks and got back at about 09:30. I was in the gift shop with my daughter and she said to a guy registering for a golf tournament that her dad had shot 32 rockchucks this morning. The owner of the resort we were staying at then told him that I get up at the crack of dawn and had killed every single one on the golf course on Thursday and Friday. On Saturday I had been shooting irrigated alfalfa that had a wheel line in it and the owner won’t let anyone else shoot it. The guy we were talking to was part owner or club president of another golf course and all but begged me to come kill the chucks digging up that outfit. They had been trying to shoot them with 10/22s and as a result they were really wild and would disappear as soon as they saw anybody. What was nice is that there is a canal and high ground that is separated from the golf course by Russian olive trees and I could set up and shoot through gaps in the cover about 190 - 225 yards off Harris Bipod. I pretty much had my way with them, but it took me a while because I had to limit my shooting from first light until the golfers started showing up. I was also able to put a mat down on the roof of a couple pump houses and then shoot off the peak of the roof using a Protektor bag that is made for straddling fence rail. It was shades of Karl Spackler and his war on gophers at Bushwood Country Club.

[JDHasty]

OK, I’ve got my strategy figured out. I’m going to order a new 17 HMR barrel and have the one I have relined in 22LR.

I was intending to get stock blanks headed my way last week, but got distracted with another project. I’m a bit hung up on how much more than just plain wood I want to go for too.