I have this really cool rifle ..it is a Stevens Long .32 rimfire . I am told it is from late 1800s . I was originally going to sell it ( and 2 other circa 1970s .22 rifles I have ) but heck , I decided to keep them and collect older rifles . Why not , right? I'm going to check out another estate next week.

 

So , on the Stevens , a few questions .

 

This is the same gun..I'll take pictures of my own copy tomorrow and post

http://www.gunsameri...NG_RIMFIRE.htm#

 

and here is another little blurb on it

http://nrvoutdoors.c...IRST%20SHOT.htm

 

How do I tell the condition of the bore , etc on this ? The stock has been refinished , you can tell. It needs it again. So I plan to do that all myself as a project. There are no dings or scratches in it..it just looks a little over laquered.

 

What else do I have to check/clean on this ?

 

The barrel has a kind of mottled look to it , looks like originally it was black or very dark gray. It kind of looks like spotty pueter now if that makes any sense .

 

There are some cosmetic scratches ( not deep ) on the metal above the trigger guard..could I/should I buff that out? I know sometimes they often don't want you to polish these things if they are old.

 

The hammer and surrounding area have a bit of gooey grease residue.

 

I can't find any other info on it really. On the octagonal piece of the barell it says

 

J Stevens A. & T. CO

chicopee falls mass . usa PAT. APR.17.94

.32 Long

 

Under the trigger guard which levers down it says B51

 

On the black wood butt plate it says Stevens Favorite

 

Nothing else on it anywhere.

 

I know the ammo is no longer made and hard to get.. I do have 100 rounds with it that was kept in dry ammo cans.

 

I looked for tutorials on cleaving it..could not find anything . I would love to send some rounds down the range ..what should I do before shooting it ? I don't want it to blow up on me lol

You should be able to visually check the bore by dropping the falling block and using a bore light. Is .32 long a rimfire or centerfire cartridge? How do you know the stock has been refinished? If it hasn't, you ruin any collectibility it might have by refinishing it. The Stevens Favorites were ubiquitous, but you usually see them in .22 rinfirw. The .32's may be a little rarer. I believe that may neighbor has two, next time you're down this way I'll see if I can borrow them for a comparison.

 

Adios,

 

Pizza Bob

Thanks Bob:) It "looks" refinished but may not be . It looks kind of very laquered if you know what I mean. The ammo that was with it is .32 rimfire .

 

I plan to head over next week one day , drop off my .45 to CP and have a visit. I'll bring it along.

some quick snaps of it :

 

shiny shiny wood ( refinished? ), shows some wear

a few scratches

gummy goo stuff around the hammer

 

refinished you think?

front sight

condition of barrel

more scratches and goo

 

 

Would you fire this thing? I have 100 rounds of .32 rimfire with it.

Omg that's sexy I want one lol. As for shooting iti would keep it as a wall hanger, or maybe sell it as an antique. It's very cool though

I see them going anywhere from 250 to 450 depending on condition. I hear the 2 boxes of ammo are worth about 100 bucks. I guess they don;t make that ammo anymore , or is they do it is limited availability? I also heard you can convert it to take modern ammo but I would not do that to an old gun like this

 

I would not care to fire it if I did not have the ammo. So it sits there and taunts. I'd probably have someone knowledgeable check it out first though . And then let them shoot it first lol

It depends on your personality really, I think guns are made to be shot and I have no tolerance for safe queens. On the other hand I can see why people collect old guns they never shoot as well. I think a gun that age has earn is right to rest, if it looks in good shape I'd shoot a few rounds and then hang it on a wall, it is beautiful.

Thanks , yeah I really like this gun , just to look at . I don't want to hide it in a safe , will most likely display it. I won't touch anything on it refinishing wise. I may have it checked then try it , then give it a well deserved retirement. I picked up a few old ones from this estate ( none as old as this one , the others are from the 60s , 70s) . I was initially going to sell them , but I like them. A bit of history.

Murphy's Wood Soap btw. Give it a good rubdown with the stuff before you hang it up, wood AND metal. This hint comes to you curtsey of the NY's Metropolitan Museum arms room curator. A few years back I was there while they were adding some antique guns to the display and I asked him what they use to preserve them while on display for long periods of time.

Thanks , I have that on hand