Home Forums Hunting & Shooting BPCR A Search For the Missing Link

As promised over in the Dinged sight thread, here's a look at some more Stevens esoterica.

GTC

A Search, for the �Missing Link�


Don�t let the title fool you, or call up visions of a sunburned character in khakis and pith helmet digging through some remote cave. Neither does it go anywhere�s near some
controversial, and hotly debated subjects where that phraseology appears. No, this is written for all you loyal fans of Johsua Stevens� �No. 44� rifle was one of his high points. As a big fan of this particular action myself, I�ve been on an intriguing journey, though one that took me no further afield than the Post office, the telephone, the computer screen / keyboard, and finally, the shop bench.
No relic robbers were shot, bullwhips cracked, or spectacular hair raising �narrow escapes� were experienced. It was, nonetheless, an exciting and interesting quest, and one that this hard core Rifle Loony found adequately rewarding.

That icon in the research and detailed study of the single shot rifle, Frank de Hass, wrote in his classic text �Single Shot Rifles and Actions�, Copyright 1969, Chapter 19, �The Stevens No. 44�, paragraph 13:
�In some of the rifles made on the No. 44 action the link was so made that it could be installed to either place the hammer in the �safe� position on opening the action, or if turned over it would place the hammer in the fullcock position when action was opened�

That�s it, one sentence, and no more, and the quote above has been proofread repeatedly.

For smallbore shooting, and particularly �Buffalo League� I really love my No. 44. The capacious loading port / breech area lets one literally throw fresh cartridges in the general direction thereof, without having to precisely wiggle the round between high sidewalls. My particular No. 44 rifle, an �Armory Model 414 was acquired with the �half cocker� link and after a good day�s shooting, my thumb would often disagree with my overall evaluation of the design, going home in a sore condition. With de Hass�s words resonant, and haunting me, I set out to find the �full cocker� link, and thereby achieve true peace and harmony. The �Zen� of the thing had captured my fancy, and I determined that through proper study and meditation, I could become �One with my rifle�. Alright, enough joshing, and fooling around, I�ll get to the meat of the story.

On several Outdoor recreation, and Shooting Sport websites, I posted and asked for savvy advice regarding this link, maybe an existing sample to blueprint. Phone calls to the �pros� were made, and the quest delineated and explained. Although generally drawing a blank, there was enough vague recollection of �Having seen that once� in the responses from both venues for me to remain optimistic. The better part of a full year ago, a friend sent me a link with an advisory something along the lines of, ��.Made a bunch of these up, years ago,�.I think that they may be what you�re looking for, but not sure,�..it�s been quite a while�.� The part was a very nice piece of work, beautifully fashioned, and the pin bores were perfectly square, and right �on print� for sizing. To this fellow, and all the others that responded, I offer my sincerest thanks. You all, in a large part, made this search a success.

I never realized how close I was though, the link that my friend had sent could not be made to function in a couple or three different No. 44s. More properly I should say that I couldn�t figure out how to make the thing work. Never a big fan of forcing things, and after repeatedly trying to get the thing functional, I put it aside, but handy. Of course, my thumb continued to take it�s more or less monthly beating (a �Buffalo League Match�, and practice shooting before and after can entail consuming the better part of a �Brick� of 22 L.R., easy).
The Winter came and went, one of the toughest on record, for some, and Spring chores superseded shop time. Winds the like of which we can live well without rolled over a lot of us.
In a phone conversation with our esteemed Cliff Gregg, innovative inventor, and tireless Match director of the original �Buffalo League Matches� in Oconomowac, Wis., inveterate and tenacious long range rifle loony, and in general all around nice guy, pay dirt was struck. I was helping Cliff with an obnoxious extractor problem, and re-playing the �Oh my poor thumb� Blues to him. He commented, �You Know, I think that same action shows that feature.� I�ll not make any bones about it, my heart soared. Than, bringing me back down to ground level, he says, �I�m not sure, but I THINK it does�. Some patient waiting ensued, fingernails were chewed�����a few sleepless hours were spent.

Long story short, he sent down the action and, bigger than all get out, it showed the Full cocker feature. I was pretty happy. That�s not to say that I was able to immediately delve into the mystery, Spring chores always supersede shooting around here (and that just ain�t right, sigh). On one of the first days when the mercury got past 90, I kept a pact with myself, and got into the shady, cool and beloved sanctuary of the little machine shop.

Photo Note: In the first 3 pictures, the half cocker setup appears on the left, and the full cocker on the right.



On field stripping a half cocker No.44, and than stripping down Cliff�s full cocker rig it became immediately apparent that the full cocker setup puts the link in a geometry that looks unnatural, weird and unlikely to work. ( photo #1) In a word, it just doesn�t look RIGHT! This inverted, and rather spooky looking geometry had not occurred to me, much less been tried, and that over a period of many hours of head scratching and mumbling.

Dismantling and comparing the links, and placing them in their correct working geometry,
Superimposed over their other related companion parts (breechblock and lever, photo #2)

did not dismiss that nagging �Why couldn�t I figure this out� feeling. That feeling just got worse, when I pulled out the link that my friend had sent initially, way back in the Fall. It WAS the right part, all the time. Not so clearly evident was the fact that my resident l sample was a �blank�,
Seldom will one encounter a more nicely made replica part.

Laying out the half cocker link, and the full cocker link side by each (photo #3)

I could now ascertain that the form for the full cocker link lies within the half cocker part, and that some judicious milling or grinding on the standard half cocker link would �Do the deed�. I�m almost terminally paranoid about having more than one job on the bench at one time. Laugh all you want, but I�ve seen the consequences of over-enthusiastic �scattering� of several actions result in a Larry, Curly and Moe worthy debacle���with hours spent sorting everything back into it�s correct home place. So, forewarned (forearmed) I tried to triple check that all respective parts and pieces were suitably collated / indexed (bear in mind, at this point I had 2 � action groups in pieces, on a small bench).

I decided to strip my 414 off-site, as it were, and accordingly trashed my dining room table with sovereign moly-grease, just bringing the breechblock / lever group to the bench. I�m not saying it�s all good, but one of the nice thing about living in a �Bachelor�s Paradise� is that I�m the only compainant, when the place starts to look like a parts department.




Some really careful comparation and measuring of all of these links ensued, with all due vigilance to keep things identified as to parent source. I finally did some color coding, with Dykem, just to keep everything in skew. Pin gauges and transfer punches coupling the parts indicated that the Jig Boring on all of the links (4) I had in front of me had landed within a couple of thousandths of one inch for center. These are tolerances that a few �Manufacturers� of �Modern Arms� should take note of, well implemented on manual /conventional tooling, a long time ago. With the basic pin geometry confirmed, I had no heartburn in grabbing my half cocker 414 link in the mill vice, and roughing it into spec. / reducing its� radius to that of the full cocker links.

This entailed removing the feature indicated by the arrow in picture #3. I caution you that the factory case hardening will laugh at, and trash anything but good Carbide tooling, driven at the right speeds and feeds. In the lack of this sort of tooling, you are well advised to patiently grind the thing to desired profile. I repeat, patiently, and cooling the part frequently.

With the now to be lower radius roughly cleaned off, I test fitted the modified link, and reassembled the 414. The barrel was fitted, but the extractor was omitted. As I had suspected, (based on measurements taken on all of the links prior to starting the modification), the action �Bound�, just shy of placing the hammer at the full cock position. Some resistance was felt in the movement of the lever to fully open.

There�s absolutely no sense in forcing things, at a point like the one that was reached here. It�s one thing to drift a pin into a D-8 Cat blade (though that makes me cringe, too)��quite another to belabor a precision assembly, one dedicated to tens of thousands of smooth cycles.

I stripped the thing and reduced what had now become the �Cocking Nose� of the modified link (picture #4, indicated by arrow) by a good old fashioned �WAG��..that being twenty thousandths of one inch. A surface grinder would have been nice, I used a soft stone, in my Foredom Tool, with a couple of carbide �Guides� sandwiched in the vice, to rough the cut.

Cleaned, greased, and assembled (with the extractor in place, this time) �..The rifle took a quick test run, and performed flawlessly. The desired �Hammer in fullcock position�
(per de Hass) was now a reality, and belaboring the butt plate with an assortment of rawhide and rubber hammers, and not a little enthusiasm produced no inadvertent hammer fall events.
Note that this impact test should be performed with the rifle in �any and all positions feasible� to be valid����..vertical both axes, horizontal, and a few angles in between.

Disclaimer : PROCEED WITH CAUTION ! THIS is NOT a mod to perform on a Training Rifle or a field / hunting rifle, and is not exactly "Entry Level" rifle smithing either. Use some common sense in choosing which arms should get this mod.

GTC

BRAVO! Well told senor!

I hope you re-cased the link after finding everything worked correctly. If not, it will wear each time you operate the action and eventually not work. I had a CPA with a soft link (it only puts the hammer back to half-cock), and after 4-5,000 rounds, the hammer no longer went to half-cock.

CPA replaced it with one that is obviously well-hardened.

Clarence

Yup, big fan of Kasinit here,and these small parts are a natural for immersion hardening in a Carbon or Copper crucible.

I use O1 in condition A for the new pins, and typically all of the pin bosses need to be reamed back to a round profile.

GTC

That link would be a good feature shooting a match. I have a CPA 44-1/2 that took me a while to get used to cocking the hammer with the off hand because the tang sight is in the way. With the scope it's not a problem.

Kurt this is almost absolutely a comp. gun feature, I'd not want it on a sporter.

IIRC, there's something inherently different in the 44 1/2 design that prevents this mod.

I'm sure that a chat with Paul would confirm or de-bunk this.

Know what you mean about the Irons,...After an 80 rounder my thumb's SORE, to.

GTC