doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion Classic & Custom Single Barreled Sporting Rifles @ doublegunshop.com Stevens Favorite question(s)

I've been looking at Stevens Favorites (and similar single shot rifles) for a while. Recently, one of the shooters at a rifle shoot I attended showed up with one originally chambered in .32 RF, which he had reworked to fire .32 Long Colt. His work included reworking the falling block to have a centerfire firing pin.

Got me to thinking.

(a) is that kind of rework safe? He was using handloads he said contained about 1.2 or 1.3 grains of Red Dot.
(b) is something similar possible with, say, .22 Hornet? Or would the pressures from that be too much to be safe?

One can find these pretty easily with bores that are crap, and relining is, in overall terms, not that hard. So the idea would be to take one that had seen better days, reline the barrel to .22, rechamber it in .22 Hornet and modify the block to centerfire. Or, alternatively, replace a crapped-out barrel with one chambered for .22 Hornet and modify the block to centerfire.

Just wondering.

Dave, it didn't work for Stevens on their 44 action which is a lot stronger. That is regarding a 22 Hornet, 44 actions were used for many low pressure CF cartridges (25/20 etc)

Is relining any centrefire rifle barrel safe ? I thought it was only safe in .22 rimfires ? Why not just rebarrel , barrels aren't that expensive.

A Favorite to .22 Hornet,,,No.

The cast action, slip in bbl w/ set screw and no breech block support (well a little sometimes on the '94) just isn't up to the task.

Lots of them have been converted 32cf pistol round.
Relining any of the 22rf, 25rf or 32rf and converting the block to cf will give you what you want.

Even then don't try to make a Magnum anything of it. Keep the above features in mind.

Original 32rf barrels can be rechambered if the bore to a more common round. Check the bore & chamber specs first as they can vary. 32Colt and 32S&W are then the two common choices.

Rebarreling is also an option. These are simple smooth shank slip fit into the frame bbl. Held in place with the set screw. You can make up any style, length you like and most likely from orphaned bbls from other projects.
The extractor slot is a simple one to cut w/a mill though it can be done with nothing but files. 6 0clock position most common. The early rifles have a 7 oclock position extractor.
Fun little rifles to gunsmith.

The frames don't weld very well at all due to their cast composition. Be carefull of the tangs, they can crack easily at the frame joint.
Silver solder (hard solder) or a brazed joint is better to repair if you have to. If the tiny hair line of solder bothers you, have the action plated.

The thing to remember about doing a Hornet conversion such as suggested is that although your pipsqueak loads may well be safe, as far as that goes, sooner or later some unsuspecting soul will chamber a factory cartridge in it and create an extremely dangerous situation.

+1....

Frames are weak, pretty junky and quite sloppy generally. Rebuilt a few for customers, wouldn't recommend anything but .22 rimfire. I did case color one that came out quite nice, which was astonishing considering the poor quality alloy composition.

Parts are available at several places. Numrich has new barrels, 1/2 octagon, 1/2 round of modern steel with "Favorite 22" roll stamped on the barrel flat. A reline is a waste of money, like a retread tire. Numrich also has other parts which commonly break on that weak action, like the extractor, which is a poorly engineered system, as is the trigger system IMO.

It was built and sold as a very cheap catalog boy's rifle in it's day. Take it apart and carry it on your bicycle or horse.

You can read up on it while you're on the train.

Good Luck,

I agree with everyone else that 22 Hornet is a no no.The simplest conversion is to 32 colt, but this is not usually accurate. 32RF had an outside lubricated,heeled bullet.The original 32colt did also, but this was changed to an undersized bullet and this is all that is avaliable now.The best solution is to rechamber to 32S&W, which has the correct diameter bullet.
Mike

The bsa martini target rifles (not the internationals) are good reasonably strong actions for conversions betweens the small centrefires and rimfires. Not too expensive either.

Mike:

I have converted quite a few Marlin Model 1892's to .32 S&W and you are right on the money. It has the same case length, rim diameter as the old .32 Colt Long, only the case diameter differs....and all with a nice internally lubed bullet. The .32 S&W is also extremely accurate. The .32 S&W ejects clean and sanitary after you run a chamber reamer in.

Bullet dia. .313--Neck dia. .335--Base dia. .335--Rim dia. .375--Case length .930-----barrel twist is usually 1 in 16 or 18 for the old .32 Colt Long Barrels. Overall cartridge length is 1.27. The .32 Colt Long/Short cartridges are .318 in diameter and the .32 S&W is .335 in diameter, the 32 S&W chamber reamer increases the diameter of the chamber.

Numrich years ago had OEM Marlin barrels for the 1892 in stock in .32 and I bought several and this gun has one of the new old stock OEM factory barrels that I rechambered.

This old 1892 Marlin in .32 S&W that I rebuilt and rechambered is a tack driver for sure. I made a silver Rocky Mountain blade front sight for it from scratch and used a new Marbles rear sight.

I cast for it with the Ideal mould 313249 which weighs 80 grains as cast with linotype, sized and lubed. I load this bullet with 3.0 grains of Unique and use Rooster lube. Extremely satisfied with this load and it's accuracy. I've tried quite a few loads in this gun/chambering and this loading exceeds the others for accuracy by quite a bit. I've been shooting this same load for about ten years now and it really knocks down the rabbits and other small game..DOA...

PA24,
Thats a really nice rifle, you are a lucky man.I'm severly limited in that Alabama doesn't allow centerfire rifle for small game.I have to call my similar rifles "turtle rifles".
Mike