Gene, interesting front sight!! I was checking in the blue book about serial numbers this morning, and under the Stevens information it says the model 15 and 425 are in the same group with 11,500 manufactured!!! But you go to look up the 425 in their price guide and they list 26,000 manufactured, things don't add up! Don
This was my point about serial numbers for the Stevens 425 originally when I started this topic!
In a 1972 article in Guns Illustrated, author Larry S. Sterett quoted a letter from Savage Arms: "This gun (425) was manufactured from approximately 1911-1917. Our production records show an AGGREGATE total of 11,000 model 15 and model 425 series rifles produced from 1912 through 1917. Records before 1912 are non existent. We are unable to separate the model 15 from the model 425 series in the total of 11,000."
Sterett continues: "By the process of elimination this must be the Crack Shot No. 15 introduced in 1900...The Maynard Junior No. 15 was a cheap rimfire single shot...The center fire Crack Shot No. 15 and the center fire 425 series might have been lumped together [in the production records].
I think all the info we have so far totally debunks the 26,000 number quoted by the Blue Book and other sources. I also think that the accuracy of the 10,000-11,000 number quoted by Bill West in his book is in serious doubt. If the Crack Shot serial numbers are included among the 425 series numbers (and the 425 numbers are not consecutive by themselves), then perhaps Brophy may not be wrong when he stated "only about 1,000 were manufactured".
