Enjoying the Favorite

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NorthCoastBigBore

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People malign the Favorite actions all the time but I absolutely love the lines of these (and many of the other Stevens' actions, as well as H&A and really most of the falling or swinging-block style rifles. The Quackenbushes, the Hamiltons etc also have their appeal... that deserves a new thread though).

One of my "favorite" rifles this year (ya that's a pun) has been my 1894 Favorite that I converted to CF and have been shooting mostly with .32 LONG Colt made from .32 S&W brass.

https://www.canadiangunnutz.com/for...2-RF-to-32-Colt-(Another-Project-Checked-Off)
https://www.canadiangunnutz.com/forum/showthread.php/1660641-32-Long-Colt-from-32-S-amp-W-Brass

I made an adjustable tang vernier sight for it over the winter and have been bringing this little gem out with me just every trip.

https://www.canadiangunnutz.com/forum/showthread.php/1718345-Project-Tang-Vernier-Sight-for-Favorite

Last month I got an Old West Mold crimping die, which is amazing, although I have to find the sweet spot as my groups did open up with it. BUT I highly recommend it for any heeled bullet, it's simple but effective and I no longer have the hassle of rounds not staying put.

My best 25 yard group (without the proper crimp):
A7YWfJ3.jpg


Things opened up a lot with too heavy a crimp, starting to find the balance now but still aways from the best group... I've put hundreds of these .32 longs and shorts through this thing this year, have yet to lose a case too. Today I was playing around with it again having watched my groups tighten up again, this was pretty representative of where it is at the moment:
mbfz95X.jpg



I will get it back to where it was, and in any event it still rings steel like crazy. Now it's dang near 40 here today so there are other factors at play today, but that's fairly consistent with what I've been seein'. I love these little .32 CFs. I do have a stash of .32 short Colt brass and sometimes run 50 through it, they are noticeably less accurate than the long brass (note those are now trimmed to 0.860" to use the heeled bullet).

The little .32s are cheap to shoot, quiet, and what the heck they are just plain CUTE sitting on the bench right? They look like scaled up .22 LR but with a bit of class, like a Packard (because they had class and a lot a potential but ended up being left in the dust).

CQo9kDf.jpg


Happy Shootin'
 
I have always been a fan of the stevens favorite and years ago I had one of the early Savage remakes of the favorite and now I have one othe Varner Stevens replicas
image.jpg
 
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Fun little guns. Can't remember why I parted with the one I used to have...

Got 44 that I am going to eventually rebarrel to 32-20 or 32 S&W. 32-40 is making me a little nervous.

Dream of having the disposable income to call up CPA and get something really nice on a new Stevens action but that's not in the near future. Might have to look out for another Favorite in the meanwhile.
 
Feel free to throw some photos up of your Favorites, or your 44's. VagrantViking I understand the 44's didn't handle the 32-40 very well, IIRC it was one of the reasons they designed the 44 1/2?

Pete04 yes I love the straight walled, "extra long" type cartridges. Is yours a 44? I'm building a rifle on an H&A falling block shotgun action right now (seems to be a 44XL) and have considered reaming it for an extra long, go through the same process I use for the .32 Long Colt to swage down 32 Mag cases to the smaller .32 Colt case body diameter (mainly so I wouldn't be considered about someone dropping a .32 Mag in there one day - the H&As weren't built from the greatest materials). Other than the bore diameter it would end up pretty similar to the .32 Ideal or a Ballard Extra Long.

To Mike Webb, agreed and that is one of the extra appeals these Favorites have to me (price!). The larger Stevens and any of their target rifles start demanding "real" money.
 
Yes, it's a Stevens 44 with a tang peep sight.
The rear sight is a typical V.
The front sight is a blade or can flip up into an " i " within a circle. Kinda like a peep sight with an i in the centre of it.
I managed to get Bertram brass for it.
 
Would it be possible for a person to convert one of the 25 rimfire to 25-20? I have tons of components and that would be a fun rifle for sure. I see the rimfires for cheap from time to time.
 
prevost12 said:
Would it be possible for a person to convert one of the 25 rimfire to 25-20? I have tons of components and that would be a fun rifle for sure. I see the rimfires for cheap from time to time.
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Not the Favorite no. It's a swinging block action and truly (in its original form) can't even handle HV .22 RF. But on castboolits there is a bunch of effort going into a) converting to CF and forming centerfire 25 Centerfire cases for use in RF guns; and b) using the 17 HMR (IIRC) rimfire case, pulling bullet & reforming for use in the 25 RF.
 
vagrantviking said:
Fun little guns. Can't remember why I parted with the one I used to have...

Got 44 that I am going to eventually rebarrel to 32-20 or 32 S&W. 32-40 is making me a little nervous.

Dream of having the disposable income to call up CPA and get something really nice on a new Stevens action but that's not in the near future. Might have to look out for another Favorite in the meanwhile.
Click to expand...


prevost12 said:
Would it be possible for a person to convert one of the 25 rimfire to 25-20? I have tons of components and that would be a fun rifle for sure. I see the rimfires for cheap from time to time.
Click to expand...

These two messages above, are pretty much my problem with the Favorite.

Folks keep on getting ideas that they can make them into something that is far more than what the Favorite ever could handle.

Even the 44 action, larger as it is, is really a great action to make an adult size .22 out of, something the Favorite is really only a marginal performer at. Neither the Favorite, or the 44 series actions have any actual locking contact with the breech block to the receiver, they both rely entirely upon the two cross screws to hold the force of the cartridge firing, in the chamber. A good portion of those screws is unsupported, so it isn't even in pure shear, the screws can flex and bend.

Stevens (Very!) briefly, made the 44 action in some large calibers, and it rapidly proved a bad idea, as the actions shot loose.

The Favorite has been proven time and again, to do the same, if fed a steady diet of modern High Velocity (as opposed to Standard Velocity, 1000-1100-ish fps) ammo.

I really like the CF conversion to .32 Colt. That actually seems an appropriate chambering, the pressures of any factory ammo that it might be inadvertently fed are low pressure too.

25-20, of either flavor, Winchester or Single Shot, in a Favorite, is a recipe for a blown up gun and potentially lost eyesight or worse. A couple big 'if's' follow. IF the gun is in really excellent condition, and IF you really wanted to cut up a collectible really excellent condition gun, MAYBE, a .25 round made from modified Hornet Brass, to duplicate the pressures and ballistics of the original rimfire round. That would completely preclude any chance of factory ammo being stuck in it, which could end badly.

Consider how many hands those guns have been through till now. Then consider that they may well last through that many more, going in to the future, where you have no control over what they have stuck in their chamber. And consider how you might feel if it blew up in YOUR kid's face.

I actually really like the Favorites, but as I learned more about them, I came to understand their limitations and set a realistic level of expectation for what they could be made to do.

I have yet to see a tight 44 that was not the treasured possession of a Collector. Most were beat up and loose, and really in need of a lot of expensive love. I would stick by my opinion that a nice .22 barrel is about as much as I would put on a 44 action, and that there are better actions out there to use if you really need something more powerful.

Cheers
Trev
 
Agreed, Trevj. Keep 'em within their operational limits and they are great. Too many folks want to wring every fps they can out of their gun, which is maybe why I avoid the .22 Favorites...I've read of too many characters trying to stuff Stingers and HV stuff in the original Favorites and you can see the levers droop from bent pins in their photos. A lot of stress on a weak design. People can't seem to grasp that it's backthrust where the concern lies, not the hoop stress on the barrel.

And ya the 44 seems to be the same design as the Favorite, the more energetic chamberings were leading to failure at least in some instances, and that (if I remember right) is why they developed the 44 & 1/2.

Mine was fortunately tight to start with although I've made up better screws/pins for mine just as a caution. The .32 Colt seems to be more accurate than it has a reputation for, from what I'm seeing and maybe that was a combination of original ammo quality, chewed up bores, who knows what else. I am also struggling to understand why Winchester has made runs of the SHORT Colt brass, with so many rifles and pistols out there chambered in LONG. The jump to the rifling seems enough that the shorts fall well short in accuracy of what the rifle is capable of, with longs. In my rifle, anyway.
 
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My 44 is in excellent shape. I've put about 150 rounds of .32 Ideal through it and it's as tight as when I got it.
Pretty light loads with very little recoil.
No idea how many rounds went before me.
 
Pete04 said:
My 44 is in excellent shape. I've put about 150 rounds of .32 Ideal through it and it's as tight as when I got it.
Pretty light loads with very little recoil.
No idea how many rounds went before me.
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Yes; the .32 Ideal is a good chambering in the 44. I should have said "larger" or "higher velocity" chamberings instead of just "centerfires". Stevens was clearly aiming for the larger class of cartridges but added some chamberings to the model 44 that were outside its limits. And even then, I have no doubt some in .32-40 etc held up just fine; unfortunately Stevens (well many of the companies at the time) ddn't always have the greatest consistency in materials or tooling so variances abound.
 
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