doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com J. Stevens Arms

Saw a J. Stevens Arms short bbl 410 at a country store while turkey hunting last weekend. I would like to get what info I can for the owner.

It is a single shot, 18 1/2" bbl, pistol grip stock, top lever break down, hammer gun. It's in like new condition. It is nickel or chrome plated (?), has sp1 on top of chamber. the previous owner said the nickel guns were special order and marked with the sp1. Looked like a proof mark to me. I didn't see it but he said it was marked V over YK over 37 on the bottom side of the chamber. Serial # is B 025662.

Any help would be appreciated.

Lot of the old single barrels had nickle plated frames, it wasn't a special order.

DLH

just to clarify, the bbl and frame were nickel/chrome.

not to pick on anyone, but unless one does not have about $300 and little patience there sould be only one knockabout choce for american classic ss .410. the winchester model 37.
a special order j. stevens single-shot eh? i'm no expert but lets just say it's nice to have good laugh sometimes.

As they say there is Chocolate, Vannila & 29 other flavors. It mostly boils down to "Opinion" but personally give me a model with real wood stock of either Stevens 94, I J Champion or H&R Topper & you can have my Winnie 37. I much prefer a conventional hammer arrangment to the "Semi-Hammerless" striker of the winnie.

few days ago i passed on minty 1950s 4.5 pound .410 "folder" by beretta. i simply didn't need .410 but i convinced newbie shotgun shopper to buy it for his kid as it would make excellent bunny, squirrel gun.
winchester is built like rock of giblartar with extractor (it actually ejects spent casings) being only weak link and one can buy spares cheaply from jeffs outfitters.
sorry, be me gots to say no to your h&r or stevens.

Thanks for the comments. I'm not trying to buy, and he is not selling. Just wanting to learn. I had not seen one of these before and did not know what to tell him.


Charlie

It's an Stevens single shot .410, an older one, so it's better made. At a hillbilly farm auction the boys would get all excited about it cause it was one of them there "lettle four hunurd an' tens" and would run it up to about $150. At a gunshop it would be $75-100. That's it in a nutshell.

DLH

If an H&R, where did the J. Stevens come from? Was this a "hardware store" gun?

The original post asked for information about a J Stevens. One arrogant know-it-all stated if it wasn't a Winchester 37 it was worthless & suitable only for those who could not afford the "Real Thing", he's good at that. I threw in the names of Harrington & Richardson as well as Iver Johnson along with the Stevens & stated I personnally preferred any of these three to the 37 as I like the conventional hammer design better than the striker firing with the little cocking piece of the 37. This had nothing at all to do with quality of any of them, some folks just think their Idiosyncrasies are so valuable everyone should bow & lick their boots. All four of these are/were mass produced "Farmers Guns" & Jager I could care less whether you like an H&R or not. It will never erase the memories I have of one little early H&R small frame 28ga weighing about 4lbs, the likes of which Win never duplicated with the 37, perhaps the earlier 20 I believe it was, but only in .410 I think. Most sngl bbl .410s, including the 37 & later H&Rs, are built on full size 12ga frames with chamber walls resembling a cannon breech & total lack of balance, To Me. That little H&R was old before Win even started building the 37 & last account I had of it, was still spittin-em out. But hey, it's just a matter of taste, I hate chicken Liver but love Gizzards, have no qualms if your taste happens to be opposite.