Picked up this .22LR Stevens Favorite, Model of 1915, from a friend at a gun show. The sights sucked, the dovetail cuts wouldn’t accommodate new sights, the bore was a bit rough and, before long, the lever wouldn’t stay closed. But, the wood was pretty nice.

Jack First Gun Parts supplied some new guts. Marbles Gun Sights was kind enough to supply an adjustable tang sight with correct hole spacing. I already had a Lyman 17A globe front and folding rear. Once the barrel was cut off and re-crowned behind the front dovetail and new dovetails cut, the new sights were installed. The wood was cleaned up and refinished with linseed oil. First stage results:





It shot pretty fair. But, I was dissatisfied with the slight bulge appearing in the fired cases, the extremely sloppy barrel fit to the receiver and the softness of the old steel. A Green Mountain barrel blank was cut for a close tolerance fit into the receiver; left it long (24.75”) with an eleven degree crown and proper dovetail cuts. A new extractor was fitted, and the takedown screw was re-contoured till it would tighten in below the surface of the receiver. Second stage results:



This project rifle now awaits a final adjustment to its crown before shipment to H&M Metal Processing in Akron OH for their Black Nitride treatment of all the steel parts (other than sights and springs), which will substantially harden and beautify them.

Stay tuned.

Very nice work, nice to see an old Favorite come back to life.

Final test firing showed that the crown adjustment cured the fliers. That, or maybe I’m just learning to shoot this rifle more consistently.



It’s now ready for the Black Nitride treatment.

That is pretty neat.

Nice old 22, I have around 100 of these from when I first opened my shop, fun rifle to shoot

I always liked that model.

UPDATE:
The steel parts have returned from H&M Metal Processing in Akron, Ohio, have been reassembled, with the result having fired fifty rounds, now. Here’s the (almost) completed Stevens Favorite 1915, shown with 25 yard and 50 yard targets shot with CCI Standard Velocity Round Nose .22LR:



The Marbles barrel-mounted, folding-leaf rear sight will be replaced with the next taller version.

Other views showing details and the excellent Black Nitride finish from H&M Metal Processing:

Very cool.

Project well done!

Get yourself some Euro production match ammo and find out what it will do.

Thank you, sir.

I’ve got a few hundred SK Long Range Match available. But, with just fifty rounds fired so far, it’s likely the barrel needs much more seasoning before its full potential can be realized. It is that process which can be most entertaining.

Now that is pretty darn cool. The Black Nitride finish Looks very good on the rifle. Must be a fun little rifle to plink with.

The mainspring which came installed in this Stevens Favorite is a real beast, which had resulted in some peening of the hammer face. I thought I could get away with a bit lighter spring. I tried various strength M1911 pistol mainsprings I had laying around, which at first seemed like they could do the job. But, even the strongest of them still produced misfires at the rate of three out of fifteen rounds. The resulting inconsistent ignition could explain the slight vertical stringing at fifty yards, pictured:



So, I reinstalled the original mainspring, which should certainly eliminate misfires, and maybe tighten groups as well. But, now the concern becomes the potential for further peening of the hammer face, and maybe even the breechblock too. I’m hoping the Black Nitride hardening of those parts will prevent that. We’ll see.

I read somewhere that Melvin Forbes went through multiple firing pin spring weights to get good ignition and eliminate vertical stringing when he was designing the ULA Model 20 rf action. I believe he also experimented with placing the firing pin at the top or bottom of the bolt face.

Nice! My favorite rifle is my little Favorite. I mostly shoot shorts and it’s capable of outshooting my eyeballs with the stock sights.

Love the black nitrite. What was turnaround and cost on it?

H&M Metal Processing of Akron OH was charging $226 per “bunch” of steel gun parts for Black Nitride treatment. I don’t know just how large a “bunch” of parts can be; I’ve sent a barrel, a receiver, and parts from a couple of different guns at one time. Turnaround was near two weeks.

Check them out online for details.

Very cool and classy looking shooter!

Very cool

With the Lyman 17A front sight, the Marbles tang sight allows just enough elevation adjustment to successfully engage my 6” steel disk at two hundred yards.





Results with this Stevens Favorite using a thin post front sight insert in its 17A and LAPUA Biathlon Xtreme ammunition were satisfying. Virtually no wind. There are 5 hits, if you count the one on the right support cable. The tang sight elevation was set at 9 turns plus 3 clicks.

The best (most expensive) European-made .22LR ammo can be expected to regularly keep 50 consecutive shots within about 4 inches at 200 yards out of the best rifles with the best scopes under the best conditions. (See https://www.rimfirecentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1129343) And, random 5 or even 10 shot groups at 200 yards can be spectacularly small. Unfortunately, as pleased as I am with this Stevens Favorite, with its light weight, skimpy stock and heavy trigger, it is most unlikely to produce such results. Sure is fun trying, though.

Seasoning?

Mystical Pixie Dust, applied by sufficiently shooting through a new or recently cleaned barrel. While there must be some point where repeated applications no longer produce improvement, I’m not sure I’ve ever found it.

National PPC record holder and noted pistolsmith, Bill Davis, once briefly loaned to me his stock S&W Model 14 revolver to use in a match while he was re-barrelling my competition gun. That thing was absolutely filthy from the many thousands of dirty, greasy wadcutter rounds shot through it. But, he made me promise, on pain of death, not to clean it any more than a surface wipe-down. He didn’t want me unwittingly destroying its established winning performance. His revolver was well and truly seasoned.

Nice! Good shooting too.

Thank you, sir. It has a real solid feel, balances just ahead of the receiver, and carries as if it were a miniature Pennsylvania long rifle.

10 shots this morning with LAPUA Polar Xtreme on a 6” steel plate from this Stevens Favorite at 200 yards. A 2.4mm aperture front insert was installed, and overcast lighting limited target contrast somewhat. But, there was no wind, except for a light gust which blew shot #3 away to parts unknown. Elevation was set at 8-3/8 revolutions from the bottom.

I am starting one like it, tempted to add a Williams 5D peep sight.

Talk with Craig Lauerman at Marbles ([email protected]) about a tang sight with mounting hole spacing just right for the Stevens Favorite Model of 1915, or for any other tang on which you want to mount a sight. I found the Marbles tang sight to have advantages over most receiver-mounted peep sights, and even the Lyman 66 (for which I have a fondness). Keeping a barrel-mounted folding leaf sight on the rifle as an alternative to a receiver or tang peep sight can prove to be a plus, as well.

The Stevens Favorite project rifle came out once again this morning for some exercise against the 6” steel at 200 yards off my back deck:





20 rounds of LAPUA Biathlon Xtreme (the last of that stuff in my stash). The tang sight elevation was set at 8-3/8 turns, with windage set at 1 click left. 75 degrees, 47% humidity, and very light wind. The first several shots were misses before I finally started getting onto the steel. Then things settled down quite nicely.

That 6” disk sure looks itty bitty at 200 yards, without a scope. But, the light was good and the bright white disk centered clearly in the front aperture.

Took the Stevens Favorite to the local 50 yard range with some LAPUA Center-X, yesterday. Over bags, it shot this:



Believe it or not, there are five shots in there. The RO and I tried to figure out whether it was 4 and 1, or 3 and 2. We couldn’t be certain, though the hole on the left did look like it was maybe just a tiny bit larger than the known single shot holes in the previous target beneath it.