Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Savage Collectors J. Stevens Model 44

I found a decent Model 44 in .28-30, not sure if it is a falling or rolling block. It is not a 44-1/2. This one is missing the tang sight and has a good bore. Does anyone know if this gun can handle the pressures of being rechambered for a more modern caliber? Any thoughts? Serial 20360, would this put it into the Savage-owned range? Data is spotty on early Stevens.

Frankly, I would leave it alone. The .28-30 is a neat cartridge, but admittedly tough to load for. You don't see them in that caliber but once in a blue moon- especially with a pristine bore. Makes for a wonderful target rifle. Find some decent sights and a bullet mould and go make small clusters of bullet holes in paper.

Yes, it is a falling block, and no the 44 action isn't up to snuff for chambering in a modern "useful" cartridge. Best to stick to blackpowder equivalent pressures with smokeless powder, or maybe a touch more. The breech block doesn't have nearly the support as its big brother the 44�, or as most other falling falling block actions of that era and today.

If you want a more powerful single shot, sell it and buy something else. You wouldn't be the first guy to ever blow one up and earn a trip to the hospital by overloading it.

I would never consider rechambering a rare gun like that... maybe look into getting a 2nd barrel made for it in a similar cartridge pressure-wise? That would increase the value somewhat, rather than removing all collector interest.

Quite a few were re-chambered to .22 Hornet years ago, and headspace issues ensued quickly. Soft steel and worn support pins don't take long to develop that issue. Those models really shine as .22 rimfire rifles. Chambered for hot little cartridges, it would serve well as a cast bullet shooter in same. But, sooner or later some schmuck will hot rod it sure as heck and then the bad kind of fun begins.

I had a couple- one in .38-40 which was fine with anemic factory loads but for which I never cared to feed it the nasty heavy handloads I fed my Colt New Service revolver. Another was a .22rf with what I thought was a worn out bore, and so I horse traded it for something else, even though it shot beautifully it bulged cases due to worn pins. Turned out to be a Stevens-Pope which the new owner gleefully pointed out to me. (Pope-style rifling was very shallow with rounded corners. What did I know?) Sometimes the lessons one learns in this game come dearly indeed. At that point I set out to educate myself about Stevens single shots in general and Pope barrels in particular. Numerous attempts to buy that rifle back over the last 35 years have proved fruitless. I can wait. The guy has to sleep sometime...

I always thought if another rough 44 fell into my lap that I would barrel it for .32 S&W Long and make a cast bullet shooting bunny gun out of it. A nice .28-30 I would leave the hell alone.

Looking in my new Cartridges of the World that just came in the mail today, is says that you can use 135 gr 7mm cast bullets and 17 grs of IMR4198 at 1500 FPS. It warns against using jacketed bullets as you will wear the barrel excessively.

Brass is available at around $3/case http://www.rockymountaincartridge.com/index_htm_files/RMC%20Product%20List.pdf .

VERY interesting comments all. The Savage disease is working on me right now. I may let this ride the pine at the pawn shop/gun shop for a few months and mull this all over. Reading up on the .28-30 Stevens, sure does beg the question..."why mess with success" and rechamber? I understand I could go smokeless, but I also use blackpowder all the time. Some narratives online say it used Fg...but that sounds fishy to me. FFg or FFFg sounds more reasonable. Perhaps it is because of better modern primers? New "special order" dies would set me back $277 at Midway, but that also gives me reasons to attend gun shows...looking for good used stuff. The brass is reasonable, and Rocky Mtn. will let you choose primer size.

I definitely am not buying anything before Christmas, and would be happy to pass along the phone number & address of the store if anyone has a more urgent desire to add a toy. The asking price is too high ($700), but he is a likeable guy and will easily come down. Just PM me.

I don't see letting a gun you're interested in sitting on a shelf at the local pawn shop for a few months working out for ya. If you want it, buy it. Sell it later if you change your mind, in the meantime, it's in your possession. Just my Opinion.

Well, cash is not really the problem. I've that on me right now. No, I am definetly not an impulse buyer on items I am not an expert on. Once I know a topic well, I will impulse buy...just knowledgeably. Other than a few online sales, a outdated BBofGV's, and a Gun Trader Guide, I do not even know a decent $$$ range. I'll gladly pay that...if it is worth it.

The other point is the location of the shop (Muncie, IN). A new Ruger 10/22 will sit for months. Very economically depressed town, and they are in the bad side of town. They stay afloat with plastic semi-auto pistols and fishing bait.

My very favorite pawn shop is in another VERY BAD location in Gary, IN. You need to open carry in broad daylight to go there, and only park where you can see your car. Three killed inside so far by the same watchman.

I'll research it for a while. Always wanted another falling block or rolling block. Had a low wall .22 w/bull barrel and RL Litschert scope I would give my left nt to get back.

In all, I wholeheartedly agree with you, and I might go and check on it in a week or two.

Don't assume you need a set of dies. A simple straight line seating die might just work. Stevens would cut a minimum chamber at the customer's request that didn't allow the case to expand noticeably, thus allowing re-charging and seating a bullet without resizing. Do a chamber cast if you get the thing, before ordering dies. It's also pretty surprising what those old single shots will do by simply filling the case with blackpowder and thumb seating a lead bullet. (A chamber cast will also give you the dimensions and shape of the throat which will drive the design of the bullet that'll shoot best in it.)

Another approach that savvy old time target shooters did was to breech seat a cast bullet straight up into the rifling using a pusher with some mechanical advantage, and then insert a charged case behind it. Slow to re-load, but accuracy is astounding (usually better than with fixed ammunition) and you need but one case for a day's shooting, and again no expensive die sets. (Straight line seating of the bullet directly into the rifling eliminates a lot of variables that we build into our ammo at the loading bench.)

Your biggest expense for shooting a .28-30 Stevens would be a quality bullet mould of the proper diameter and design. I would buy a mould, a half dozen cases, a de-re-capper, and a breech seating tool and call it a day.

You campfire regulars really have no qualms about stoking the fire do you? Shameless the way you throw another log and have me losing more sleep thinking about the possibilites. This is sounding more and more like something I want to give a go at. GB.com has some really decent looking 44's & 44-1/2's for fairly decent prices. I need to research more to figure out how to tell if the receiver has been over-pressured. I am really getting excited now. This all sounds good! I'd love to kill a ground hog or coyote with a black powder cartridge... A rough-looking gun would be just the ticket. Thanks All, you guys are awesome...if not enablers.
P.S. My wife says "no"...but then again she disputes my "claims" that I "find" old guns that I have long forgotten I owned. Sometimes it is true (this year I found 3 muzzleloaders I forgot about)...sometimes...wink wink...nod nod...they just appear!

My poor ex-wife watched me gloat over many a $50 shotgun and $100 rifles- those that she actually saw that is. Could be another reason she's an "ex". I started feeling really guilty about having to fool her all the time. My fault for marrying a gun hater. (But Lordy, she had other attributes!)

IMO you will never lose money on that rifle. I say get it and worry about the logistics of shooting it later. Then, if you want to sell it sometime down the road, you know how to find me! The .28-30 has always been one I wanted to fool with...

Probably one of the reasons that rifle has a nice bore is that .28-30 ammo has always been kinda specialized and scarce. It had its advocates back in the day, but seems like they couldn't decide if it was a Schuetzen target caliber or a varmint caliber. But the guys that had one tended to care for their rifles.

After the single shot rifle "Golden Age," ammo was dropped and any guns with good bores became what we now call "safe queens."

The Stevens 44 is, according to Frank de Haas, a kind of hybrid between a true falling block and a rolling block. Not a strong action in any case. They even tended to loosen when shot very much with .32-20 WHV and similar loads; Hornets and smokeless .32-40 and .38-55 loads intended for Win 1885s and '94s shook them apart fairly fast.

A .32 S&W Long chambered one would be about ideal--a reloadable modern version of the .32 RF Long that MANY 44s were originally chambered for at the factory.

In my Great-Grandfather's old dirt floored gunshop 40+ years ago, my Dad and I found a pile of old rusty single shot parts- breech blocks, barrels, stocks, hammers, levers, screws, etc. from Stevens and Winchester rifles. Naturally I suggested we scoop all that stuff into a basket, give my great-Aunt Edith some money for it, and schlep them home. He declined saying his uncle might have plans for the stuff- not! Eventually the old wooden building fell down around itself, and I swear those parts are now 3" down in the ground.

Great Gramps was blind by the time I knew him in the mid 50's-early 60's. His gunsmithing days were turn of the century up to WWII when his sight went south. 'Til the day he died in 1962, at age 90, he held court in his "man cave" with a wall lined with rifles and shotguns behind his easy chair- guns he couldn't see anymore but he knew exactly what was there and could tell if someone disturbed them. His roll top desk held his watchmaker's tools, and he knew if anybody messed with that stuff too. In addition to running a hard scrabble farm, he was the local gun fixer and watch fixer in the rural Pennsylvania community we were from. He outfitted my Dad with his first shotguns and rifles when he was a kid. Needless to say they are keepers within my own modest collection today.

My dad said he walked around dreaming of a Winchester lever gun, but that his grand dad said that the Savage was a much better rifle. I guess that drove my Pop into his Savage love affair which, eventually rubbed off on me.

Small wonder where the gun loony genes in my blood came from!