I thought I would post this here since Stevens was owned by Savage. There may be some who are familiar with the rare Stevens 425 High Power.
A nice young fellow was walking around the gun show last weekend with a Stevens 425 High Power in 35 Remington, and it caught my eye. When he got it, it was in bad shape. It became his first rust blue project, and he did a very good job. The stock was messed up and he's done nothing to it... the wood really needs to be replaced fore and aft. He's a student, and cannot afford to continue the rebuild. So, it's now my project. It came with dies, bullets and 14 pieces of brass.
A little over 5,000 of these were made, in various Remington calibers, between 1910 and 1917. This one was made toward the end of that run. The bolt design is from the Savage 99; when it opens, it tilts down sharply and disappears into the back of the receiver, just above the trigger. The lever pivot is familiar to everyone, since it looks just like a Marlin 336.
I found a new, inletted, walnut stock for this model at Robin Jones shop south of Lexington, NC... gunville.com. He also found a buttplate for me, with a Savage logo. I couldn't believe the luck of having someone so near that makes repro stocks for such a rare rifle. But then when I went to pick it up, he only had one... said that normally they don't use the best wood on Stevens 425 stocks because there's not much call for them. Rather than make me wait a couple of days while they made another, he let me have the nice one at no extra charge. It's really nice! Look below and you will see what I mean.
Mechanically, it may need only a hammer spring and a mag spring. The action is very smooth. The elevator doesn't come up until right at the end of the lever stroke, so you have to be deliberate, not quick, when you cycle it.
The receiver is D&T on top for a scope, but there are only two screws. The tang is D&T with two screws, in addition to the tang bolt, spaced 0.08" apart for a tang sight. I'll have to do some research to see what model tang sight fits that spacing. It would be very nice to find a 100 yr old tang sight that fits!
The bore is dark, but the grooves are strong. I will make some loads and shoot it this week.