Just picked up one and mounted a vintage Weaver scope.
Haven't had a chance to shoot it yet (tomorrow) but this
thing has a rock steady balance.

Any leads or info on this one?

Thanks,
Jay

I owned one shortly in the mid '60's and decided the J stood for junk or jamamatic. It would jam about 70% of the time, so I traded it for a Winchester 77 and have never wanted another. Maybe yours will be better.

It looks similar to the entire family of Savage Model 6 and 7 rifles (I have a Springfield 87 variant).

The only issues I know of are some bolt stickiness when certain screws are loose, and feeding issues involving the sheetmetal lifter.

This will take you some time to read but it covers about every variation of this design and just about every problem you might encounter within the Savage model 6 family - the 187 is one of the last versions but you will see that it still is basically a model 6. Savage semi-auto info
- there also are several other older threads that have a lot of info that you can search for.

If you have problems with your auto, look at the Savage threads on www.rimfirecentral.com Over there they have rebuilt, cussed at, sworn by, and generally worked over the Savage/Stevens/Springfield/Western Auto/You Name It brands of "Savage" 5&6 series autos. You wouldn't believe how many kinds of "sheet metal lifters" there are out there....they made that series for a LONG time!

When they work, these are great guns, tho! "Clunk, clunk, clunk"!!!! Say, where'd all those holes come from?