Building the Stevens Favorite

[CaterpillarD7e]

Thank you for the compliment David, I'm glad you are enjoying the build. I'll be focusing my full attention on drilling the barrel next and plan to continue the documentation, and maybe even shoot a video or two of some of the upcoming processes. There is still much to do.

Tom

Hi Tom
thankyou for some inspiration: I have a Lyman No 2 tang sight on my Model 94 Winchester which works perfectly well, I have just purchased an old Model 53 (1927 year of manufacture) and was about to purchase a tang sight, I will now build one similat to yours. Fantastic project - wel done and thanks, Ian

 

[Rick Berk]

OUTSTANDING. I have my fathers that he passed to me, I then rebarreled it as the rifling was worn very bad, now it has been passed to my oldest child.

 

[Alphawolf45]

I built a couple Stevens Favorites a number of years ago. As Tom pointed out in his first post the Favorite is a good pointing little rifle. I mounted a 50 year old 2.8 power Weaver scope on mine and for fun I am taking it to a silhouette match next weekend.. I polished the trigger down to 2 pounds.. I will beat a few of the guys who shoot the high dollar scoped rifles.. For that match I usually shoot my scratch built Marlin 1892 with rear peep and globe front sights.. Wanted to try that match using a scoped rifle and decided the little Favorite would get it's chance......Uhmmmm , yesterday I finished a rifle upper for my Ruger Mark III pistol and it wears a red dot sight - second match I will use it although I built it specifically for a different match.....Building guns has been my hobby for lot of years, more fun now that I shoot competitions and get to irritate the guys who buy all the best equipment......Home gunsmithing is a great hobby.
Tom really put the effort into his build and did a sweet job.. Think it took me two weeks to build each of mine and then s'more time to improve it a bit for this upcoming match.

 

[Silverbullet]

Great job , lots of us old guys had these as kids. Think I'm gonna build one or two for my gran kids. I took my sister's boys and my girls out from the time they were three years old. Teaching them SAFTEY above all other things when around firearms. They all are hunters and have there kids to teach. Whenever they call or I see them they always thank me for giving them the love of the sport and competition shoots too. I thank you for this build , hope I can get the plans , lots of computer stuff I don't know how to do . I'd nominate this for a build of the month.

 

[Bill Gruby]

I have permission from everyone involved with this build and the site "metalworkingfun" to post a direct link to the build of the Stevens Favorite for all of you that wish to continue to follow it. As you will see it is still a build in progress. Please play nice while you visit there. Thank you.

"Billy G"

http://www.metalworkingfun.com/showthread.php?tid=506

 

[dulltool17]

Thanks, Bill!

 

[Jdeking1959]

Building The Steven's Favorite I did some work on a rifle for my uncle a while back, a Stevens Favorite 1915 single shot .22 caliber, making a new firing pin for it and fitting a new extractor. After shooting it a few times to make sure the new parts were behaving, I took a liking to the little rifle. It is a great looking, good pointing little rifle and is a joy to shoot. I decided it would make a fun project to build one from scratch so I proceeded to completely disassemble the rifle and sketch up all of the parts, including the stock. After that I decided to make a 3D CAD model of it to check my work and make sure all of the parts fit and functioned properly. I'm just about finished with the model with just a few parts left to model and some timing issues to work out in the action.

I am not making an exact copy of the original gun, so some of the parts won't interchange with an original. Some of the parts will be redesigned for ease of machining, especially in the case of the receiver which was originally cast. Most of the parts on the original gun were quite crude and appear to be hand fitted so making them interchangeable would be quite a challenge.

My plans are to make the receiver out of case hardened low carbon steel for ease of machining, the breech block and other internal parts out of O1, and the barrel out of 4140 if I decide to make it. It's kind of hard to justify the work with all of the inexpensive barrel blanks that are available.

According to the following statement from the ATF website (kindly pointed out to me by another member) it is legal for me to build a non NFA firearm, which this most definitely is with its 30" barrel and single shot capability, as long as it is not built with the intent to sell and the maker is not prohibited from possessing firearms, which I am not. There are also zero imported parts used in this rifle as I intend to build them all myself.

Q: Does the GCA prohibit anyone from making a handgun, shotgun or rifle? With certain exceptions a firearm may be made by a non-licensee provided it is not for sale and the maker is not prohibited from possessing firearms. However, a person is prohibited from assembling a non-sporting semi-automatic rifle or non-sporting shotgun from imported parts. In addition, the making of an NFA firearm requires a tax payment and approval by ATF. An application to make a machine gun will not be approved unless documentation is submitted showing that the firearm is being made for a Federal or State agency.
[18 U.S.C. 922(o) and ®, 26 U.S.C. 5822, 27 CFR 478.39, 479.62 and 479.105]

I have since received a response form the BATF regarding the legality of building my own firearm and they referenced the very same statement, so it's official: I'm good to go.



There is a JPEG of the model below and a link to an eDrawing file here. An eDrawing viewer is required to view the file in 3D and can be downloaded here.

I know that this is an old thread. But I would like to know if and how I could get a copy of the plans for this rifle.

 

[Alphawolf45]

JD Most drawings of any firearm have mistakes in it..For an example I built a Winchester 1885 Lowwall by copying one that I had on hand and had no difficulties..Then I wanted to build a Highwall for black powder cartridge rifle matches so I acquired a set of plans.The plans I have are same as sold everywhere on the internet. Terrible plans which caused me to stop , repair the error and design a correction..Worst was the double set trigger which required a complete redesign................I suggest you buy the rifle of your choice and copy it bolt for bolt..Presently I am building copies of a Marlin 1888 which was Marlins last top ejecting lever action repeater and a Marlin 1889 which was Marlins first side ejecting lever action repeating rifle..I have already built and compete with a Marlin 1892 which is Marlins second try at building a lever action repeating .22 rifle...All three Marlins being replications of originals that I own..

If you are good with CAD you can get a copy of the Frank Dehaas book "Single shot Rifles and Actions"..There are dozens of gun sketches in there which can be scanned into CAD and then built....I am going to help a friend build a large frame Stevens Sideplate rifle using that book as a guide..The Sideplate is direct ancestor of the Favorite but easier build in some respects...I build for competition against folks sporting some of the finest rifles in the world and it is sweet to use a shop built gun to beat the big boys.

 

[Bill Gruby]

JD, my last post just before yours gives you a link toe the project. The person building this rifle is not a member here any longer. Use the link and contact him about the prints. Last I knew the project is still ongoing and prints were not available yet.

"Billy G"

 

[wrmiller]

I wasn't the intended target Bill, but I followed your link and ended up bookmarking the site. Definitely a more active gunsmithing section from appearances. Thanks!