Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Rimfires New to me old .22 rifle

Got a Springfield j. Stevens arms model 87a. Curious if you fellers own one, .22 lr in semi auto, but shoots shorts & longs in single action. 24" barrel with vents on left side of bolt. Anybody got any more info on these?

No serial #, but has patent #'s. Is there anyone with old books, catalogs to date this rifle

I don't own one, but they made scads of them, and most of them are still working. There's a Savage/Stevens forum over on rimfirecentral.com which addresses a lot of the questions you're asking. It seems like someone is doing a restore/rebuild almost every week on that forum. It should be helpful to you. They call them "Gill Guns" or Clickety-Clacks over there.

It's definitely a man sized rifle, to long & heavy for a kid. I shot a few rounds, and it's really strange. As long as trigger is held the bolt stays back. Soon as you let go it releases. Has 2 tapped holes with screws at back left of receiver. I'd love to mount a scope on it. Got a cheap Leupold just sitting on a shelf. I'll check rimfirecentral, thanks.

These rifles, and their twin the Savage Model 6, have been discussed ad nauseum right here on the 'Fire over the years. Do a search for the old threads on the Savage Collector's Forum.

I have one my Gramps got me at a country auction back in 1962. It had the Tenite stock, which was broken in half through the wrist (which I guess is why he got it for $2.00). He epoxied it back together and 60 years later it's still doing its click-clack thing. Not the most accurate .22 I've ever owned (probably due in large part to its atrocious trigger pull) but good enough to bounce an empty beer can around the backyard.

I have a Savage 6A and it is my most accurate rimfire ever. Dime size 50 yard groups with CCI SV are the norm.
Superb rifles, even with the looooong trigger pull. Redline cool factor, easily maintained and repaired and wonderfully over built!
Mine has the original open sights, a 105 factory aperture AND a very nice Weaver 29S 3x scope in an original T1 mount. She's one of my " bury it with me " rifles.

I thought about getting a side mount & offset rings. Also thought about having gunsmith d&t top of receiver for a more traditional approach. I do like the bead sight vs blade. I think I'll leave it original

Friend of mine has one, he's had it since we were kids. We'd borrow each others .22's back and forth and that was one of my favorites. I'd often borrow it for hunting snowshoe rabbits with my beagle. It was one of those rifles that, with the open sights and teenage eyes, just couldn't seem to miss.

Had one when I was a teen that was stolen when I was in college. It shot well and had a decent trigger. Only issue was that if I shot shorts out of it, the chamber would have to be cleaned before shooting long rifle ammo in it. The front of the chamber would be fouled by the shorts.

Well, I changed my mind and bought a side mount scope base. Had to modify mount holes and get 10-32 screws, ones that came with mount were to small. Now just gotta order side mount detachable rings. The irons are pretty good, but I won't be satisfied til I mount a scope and try it out.