A few weeks back I acquired a Stevens Riverside 215 that was complete and matching numbers with tight lockup and bright bores. It had a couple of usual buttstock problems - crack running down behind the tang and chips out of the top against the receiver. The lift hammer was a bit screwy. I suspected the tumbler safety notch was sheared or something wrong with spring and plunger. But it turned out that the left trigger was chipped or worn off. Fortunately, Numrich Arms had a replacement trigger.
Repairing the buttstock was routine. Drill a hole down the crack behind the reciever and Acraglas in a wooden dowl. I replaced the split off chunks with light colored wood also held on with Acraglas. I paid a little insurance by bedding the reciever with Acraglas.
The trigger replacement was not routine. I had never worked on an action as unique as this one. So it was a puzzle to dismantle and a struggle to reassemble. As it didn't have a trigger plate, the trigger didn't come out easily. I had to gut the action of spring plungers and tumblers to get the trigger out. Removing and replacing spring on plunger and guide is a nerve racking job. I was interrupted several times by having to search for a plunger that flew of into "parts unknown".
I got everything back together only to discover one end of the trigger return spring wasn't on the right trigger pin. After several failed attempts to get the leg up on the peg, I had to take the spring out and start over. Even that didn't work. I ended up making a small fish hook to pull the leg up and work it over onto the pin.
I just stripped off the grime off the wood and applied a little TruOil.
I'll take the barrels to my cowboy gunsmith and have him cut the forcing cones to modern profile.
This was one of my easiest makeovers.
