Originally Posted by gnoahhh
Originally Posted by johnn
Originally Posted by selmer
Originally Posted by johnn
Originally Posted by selmer
Originally Posted by johnn
Its a capable round, seems like it held the record for elk for many years, which doesn't mean all that much other than it will do the job.
I bought this a few years back and intend to take it for a walk in the moose woods.
Supposedly has a Pope barrel. but unmarked so I am doubtful, it does shoot good.

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Beautiful rifle. Is that a Stevens 44 1/2? I have one that I had CPA rifles make a .30-40 Krag barrel for. It's a shooter. I've used exclusively cast boolits in it.

Yep, Stevens alrght, appears to have been redone as the bluing is in good shape. Another tell is the wood on the beavertail forearm doesn't match.

I bought it via a online auction, caliber was unknown at the time. Was pretty happy it was a 30-40. Gail at CPA helped me out with a firing pin and a couple of screws, they sure build some beautiful rifles.

Unless I'm mistaken, I think the original 44 1/2 frames were all case hardened. Mine still has over 50% of the case hardening left and the bluing on the original .22 LR barrel is still deep and lustrous. My great-grandfather purchased it new along with the J. Stevens 6x scope with external adjustments.

That sounds like a pretty special gun.

It is pretty nifty! Stevens never chambered the 44 1/2 for large bodied cartridges like the .30-40 (and big BPCR cartridges) because it was deemed not up to snuff. Strong design but limited by smallish barrel tenon diameter, best limited to cartridges of .30-30/.32-40/.38-55 head diameters. It's why Paul Shuttleworth designed the CPA copy of the 44 1/2 action to be wider with a larger barrel shank, and made it out of modern high strength steel alloys and not the low carbon case hardened steel that Stevens employed. You can make a CPA work with anything you can shove into it, not so much with a Stevens.

I sent mine off to Gail and Paul to determine if they would recommend using the frame with a .30-40 Krag barrel because they told me that different eras of frames have different steel compositions. Apparently mine is on the stronger end of the spectrum because they said they would no qualms about fitting a .30-40 Krag barrel on it and so they did. It’s a hoot to shoot. Low recoil with cast loads and the barrel is stinking heavy that I can’t imagine full house loads will have much for recoil either. That gun has the best single stage trigger I’ve ever pulled on it. Like breaking a fragment of glass at a shade under two pounds.

Selmer

"Daddy, can you sometime maybe please go shoot a water buffalo so we can have that for supper? Please? And can I come along? Does it taste like deer?"
- my 3-year old daughter smile