How about a Stevens Favorite

[drjjpdc]

This gun is a lot of fun and you don't have to be kid sized to shoot it.

[Gtek]

Something about those has always tweaked me a bit, looks like an excellent example. Classics are just cool!

[Bigslug]

I picked up one of the solid frame Model 30's from the 1990's 4-5 years ago. A mite less classy than yours, but they are fun little giggle-makers.

[Bad Ass Wallace]

Can't decide between my Stevens Favourite and The Remington No.4 rolling block - both great little 22's.

[ndnchf]

Great fun, and still affordable too. Great find.

[gewehrfreund]

Can't decide between my Stevens Favourite and The Remington No.4 rolling block - both great little 22's.

I'd go with the Rem. No. 4, but to each his own.

I'd also add the Hopkins & Allen 922 to that list. A great little, underappreciated true falling block 22 rimfire.

I almost bought a nice one this weekend, but the bore was just a little too gone and I don't need any more project guns!

[Scrounge]

No, guys! You all need to stop collecting Stevens Favorites! That way I can afford to buy more of them!

Bill

[Jedman]

I once bought a early 1894 model favorite that someone carved a squirrel and some acorns on the butt stock and also had a broken mainspring for about as much as a good meal would cost for yourself.
I got a new spring for it thru Wisners and got it shooting but with the crude sights I couldn’t hit much with it so I put it on my table at a gun show for sale.
It got plenty of attention and the guy that bought it must have been 90 + years old and had the shakeiest hands I have ever seen. He must have bought it for a wall hanger but seemed to really fall in love with it.
I have owned a early side lever Crackshot and other Stevens boys rifles but they have all been shot to death and the actions were loose.

Jedman

[John Taylor]

I get a lot of Favorits and #4s in for liners. The first rifle I owned was a #4 that my father picked up at a second hand store. He walked in as the owner was going through an old trunk that he just got in. The rifle was rolled up in a blanket in the bottom of the trunk. My father bought the rifle for $8 and gave it to my older brother. Didn't take long for my brother to figure out that it was not big enough to hunt deer so he put the word out on his paper rout that he wanted a center fire rifle. One of the old men customers sold him an 1892 Win. for $35 and the #4 was then handed to me. It still had all the color case and blue, looked almost new. My oldest daughter has it now and maybe one of the grand-kids will get it someday.

[uscra112]

The whole world loved Favorites. Nobody knows how many they made but it must have been over a million.

The 1915 Favorite is not as pretty but it is much stronger than the 1894 variety. Wider link handles the firing stress better.

A "loose" Favorite can be tightened up by installing new, oversize pins in the linkage. I use 4mm pins that I get from McMaster-Carr, along with the requisite reamers.

Favorites are easy to rebarrel or reline. Use a competition reamer (I bought a Lilja) and they can be very accurate.

A .25 caliber Favorite can usually be converted to .22 without altering the breechblock.

Would you guess that I have over half a dozen in various models and calibers?

[pworley1]

They are names Favorites for a reason.

[uscra112]

Stevens had a knack for naming their boys' rifles. Favorite, Crackshot, Little Scout, Marksman. The Favorite name was first used for the now-rare "sideplate" model, first made about 1892. They really got rolling with the solid-frame model in 1894, and by 1896 they had made a 100,000. At which point they gave up serial-numbering and went to a three digit code with a letter preceding. That must have rolled over several times a year.

[John Boy]

Stevens had a knack for naming their boys' rifles. Favorite, Crackshot, Little Scout, Marksman …
Have them all ,,,

[uscra112]

Going after every Stevens model is a rabbit-hole I've never gone down. I do have one of every version of the Favorite, though.

[single shot jimmy]

I used to have several but sold them years ago when the prices were going up. I prefer bigger 44 models and have 4, I think.

32-40 in an early 7 o'clock extractor model.

[uscra112]

Would be interested to know serial number of that Model 44, and does it have the lugged hammer.

[Kylongrifle32]

Just finished going thru 100 rounds in both of my model 30's. Getting ready for opening day of squirrel season next Saturday. I have one with an octagon barrel and one with a round barrel. The 1915 favorite I have was a 25 RF that someone rebarreled to 22 magnum. I have 300 rounds thru it and still going strong.

[pietro]

.

Because I wanted a trouble-free sample, two years ago I bought this NIB Model 71 favorite for my middle Grandson (I have two, one younger; one older)

If they had two Favorites, I'd have bought another for myself.

[uscra112]

Just finished going thru 100 rounds in both of my model 30's. Getting ready for opening day of squirrel season next Saturday. I have one with an octagon barrel and one with a round barrel. The 1915 favorite I have was a 25 RF that someone rebarreled to 22 magnum. I have 300 rounds thru it and still going strong.

I wouldn't have done that. I guess I've been underestimating the 1915 all these years.

Must have a pretty stiff hammer spring to fire that thick WMR brass. A stiff spring puts a lot of pressure on the sear and hammer notch. Originals are just case hardened mild steel, and I'd worry that wear would be a problem. The Model 30 was oiffered in .22 WMR, so hopefully they used better steel, properly hardened.

[uscra112]

I think it was Allyn Tedmon who wrote about how Axel Petersen fitted up a Favorite for his little daughter. He noted the she was able to give the adults a run for their money with it at 50 yards, offhand. "You take a goot barrel, you fit 'em goot an' tight, an' she shoot goot".