I went to check out a Savage 219 that I had posted about for some of the members but it was gone. On the shelf was one ofthe mintyest Stevens Visible Loaders I have ever seen in person. of course it came home with me. I believe it is an early version.

I am not familiar with these but I can see condition. Those in the know --- I would love to hear from you about these nifty little pumps.

R,

Looks like a nice example. I've heard nothing good about these guys on here and so have avoided them. I don't see many though around in person. Think you'll function test that?

With the Long Rifle stamping...I'd say it's a later one.
I'm not up on um though. They never did anything for me.

Look back in the posts about a page or two we just did the visible loader over several days....Ryan

the dicked with screws tell the story the single shot was the way to go.

According to the Callahan letter that eocbob1 posted a few days ago, the gun has the 2nd barrel address, which dates it from 1916 to 1934. But it appears to have a thinner or earlier slide/ejector. Perhaps it falls into the earlier part of the range indicated by the barrel address. I guess this is something else to spend time on to get up to speed on the particulars.

R,

I have a nice Stevens Model 1915 Favorite. It has the letter and 3 digit number on the bottom tang where I suspect the code is on the VL you have. As GeneB and ecobob said the sn on these aren't really. Does your carry an SVG logo stamp on the receiver anywhere? That would place 1920 or later.

No, no Savage Logo anywhere Steve. It has the letter and 3 digit code on the tang they pointed out in the other post. It has the same mechanism as the top gun pictured in the earlier post which was pointed out as the "early version". I tested it last night and it functioned and fired flawlessly.
The biggest flaw is that the screws do appeared to have been buggered by somebody at sometime though.

Without the SVG stamp it may be placed to 1920 or earlier. Trouble is I don't know if the stamp was always used, sometimes used, etc. Savage got Stevens in 1920. When the stamp was started I can't say.

The internals are definately the earlier version per the information in the earlier post, who knows, I hope some others in the know about these gives their opinion.

I found this on the internet regarding them. It helps :

"In 1907, the J. Stevens Arms and Tool Co. of Chicopee Falls, Mass., brought out a pump action .22 caliber rifle that was marked on the barrel, "Visible Loading Repeater". It was cataloged as the "Visible Loading No. 70", and was chambered in .22 short/long/long rifle. A .22 short only model, the Model 70 1/2, was also produced. Barrels were round in lengths of 20" or 22"., and the rifles had a straight grip stock.
In 1916 the company name changed to J. Stevens Arms Co. The firm was eventually purchased by Savage Arms Co. in the 1920s.
In the mid 1920's, the rifles catalog name was slightly changed to "Visible Loader" until 1931, when it was replaced with a similar "Visible Loader No. 71, which featured a 24" long octagon barrel and a pistol grip stock.
The last Visible Loader was produced in 1934. About 100,000 were produced over the 26 year production span. The peculiar feature of the rifles is that the cartridges from the tubular magazine are fed straight up into the twin extractors on the breech face where they are, indeed, readily visible, unlike other pump actions. There is no "ejector" as such. An extracted round is ither pushed up and out of the extrractors by the following round being fed upward from the magazine, or if it is the last round or empty case in the rifle, by manual removal.
These rifles were designed for "regular loadings", thus modern high speed cartridges should not be used in any of these rifles."

This pic is for those who have never a Visible Loader in action.

Thanks Roger... That is a perfect picture...!!!


Mike...

1. Dry check the lock-up to ensure it's tight and a good pull back will NOT open it.

2. Check the chamber face for firing pin deformation.

3. Check the chamber for cracks and wear.

4. Give it the old bullet in the muzzle test.

5. If you decide to shoot it, use standard velocity ammo only and be sure you wear shooting glasses, not just eye glasses.

6. Good luck.

Thanks for the tips on what to look out for ecobob1.