Stevens 32 long and 25 stevens

[tfrank]

A very interesting situation that we have here. VincentG it looks like the gunsmith who re-chambered your favorite did a few more things to your rifle than is easily spotted in a cursory examination. Would have loved to have talked to him so that I could understand everything that he did when he converted it to 22 magnum, but as you said that was done quite a while ago. I will concede that your breech block has extra support at the back because of what the gunsmith did those many years ago, but the breech block pivot screw is still the major part supporting the breech block against the thrust of a cartridge being fired. So your idea of making a WOODEN plug/screw to replace the breech block pivot screw to demonstrate that it is not necessary to support the breech block, well I would highly recommend against doing that. Brings to mind the old adage of "an accident looking for a place to happen", if you know what I mean.
I would ask you to ponder this. Why did both the breech block and lever screw bend when my BIL fired the 22 LR in my 17 Mach2 chambered rifle, if they are not the 2 parts responsible for supporting the breech block when a cartridge is fired??? Just think this deserves some serious consideration, if for no other reason than safety.
Sav22 good eyes on spotting what appears to me also to be peening on VincentG's receiver. That would certainly explain the contact marks on the back of his breech block. I also have never seen that on any other Favorite I have handled or seen pictures of. And a thank you for the new to me info on the 38-55 chambering with the extra support that Savage incorporated into the hammer. That gives me ideas for my Favorites!!! I also copied the Model 44 pictures to my Stevens Firearms Archives picture folder!!! Thank you again!!!!
God Bless, Frank.

[VincentG]

I think that the pivot pins bent because they were the weak point while pressing a 22lr into a 17M2 chamber, until the block is in battery the pivots have all the load, my hypothesis was also that the lever pin exhibited more deformation due to it's relative sloppiness compared to the breech block. Think about the amount of pressure needed to force the lr into the m2 chamber, the block isn't going to deform and neither is the lever or the link, the pins are the weak point.

[gcrank1]

Fwiw, we had a 1915 Favorite into the shop that had been converted to CF; It had been 'tight breeched', barrel to locked up breech block (with new oversize drill rod pins, unhardened but harder than factory pins, imo) and had worked for a while with some old stock factory 32Colts short and longs and some cast bullet reloads (the light end of the reload scale, if you will). That rifle had displayed the gap between the rear of the block and frame just as Sav22's Fav pic shows. That gap is typical on the RF 44s ime, also, though on the 32-40 and short-lived 38-55 I believe they used a forged frame with rear breech block support channels/mortise behind. Those were surely the best of the Mdl 44s! The typical 44 is just a bigger 1894 Fav with only a 'tab' of visible support behind on each side and shortly down inside the cast steel frame it disappears. The 1915 Fav is a better, stronger Fav design and possibly better metallurgy, though I cant prove it. I can help but wonder what an upsized 44 on that design would have been like.
With this example rifle things changed when some stouter, but not over data, 32Colts reload data was used with cast bullets. After only a couple shots the headspace increased; ie, the action lost the 'snap' lockup, then on the next got tight again, but now exhibited a gap barrel breech to block. The rear of the breech block was now firmly backed up to those frame 'simulated' supports.
Disassembly revealed the oversize drill rod pins had not bent, thus had not been sacrificial and the full breechthrust load (yes, pretty much in line with the b-block front pivot which is good) but the rear of the breechblock had cracked at the junction of the vertical drop and the horizontal table. The block was now conformed to the frame opening, but not in a good way.

[VincentG]

Frank the smith who did the work on my Favorite has since passed.
Gcrank1 I recently read a thread on building 32 rim fire ammo using 32 colt short brass machined to accept cci 22 blanks in an offset milled pocket for primers and BP and round ball loads.
Stay tuned for the wood dowel pics, lol.

[VincentG]

My apologies to gunlover 06 to have hijacked your thread, I hope you got your value info before all this.

[skwerl457]

Hy tfrank do you have any FAVorites , you seem very knowledgable
If you have any pics please post a few .
Another question , have you ever seen an 1889 Fav. ?

Thnkz in advance .. skwerl

[tfrank]

Skwerl, just put "Stevens Favorite" in the search window and you will get plenty of what you asked for!!!
God Bless, Frank.