Stevens Little Scout

Mumbles Marble Mouth

Mumbles Marble Mouth

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I found this little guy in a pile of firearms I saved from being destroyed. Test fired it and it works. What do you guys think? Pretty sweet hey? I think I'm going to strap it on my hip while hunting for big game and use it for grouse. My gun book says 1 million Stevens Little Scout were built but because they were run hard and put away wet, not many of them are still around.

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Yes I guess I shouldn't. For the websites image and such. Just most people where I'm originally from will test fire by shooting out in the back yard and no one would care. The city folk here would most definitely have a heart attack.
 
I've got one of these in mint condition, my kids had a blast shooting them although the comb was pretty low even for little girls.
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https://www.canadiangunnutz.com/forum/showthread.php/1225809-Stevens-Little-Scout-14-1-2-in-action

Stick with low velocity ammo (I stick with CB's in these, having repaired some), it's not the pressure you worry about in any of the Stevens swinging blocks (save and except the 44 & 44-1/2), it's the backthrust. These are not rollers or fallers, these are swingers. All the pressure is going into the pivot pins and from experience these don't seem to be tool steel... they bend easy. I've rebuilt some of the pins on the Crackshots and Favorites and these Little Scouts have VERY tiny diameter pins. .22 Shorts can have as much backthrust as a .22LR, so the whole S/L thing doesn't always make a difference in this regard. But do your own research and make your own decisions there...

All that said if you keep them within their operational limits the Stevens "Boys Rifles" (my daughters would disagree) have the best style points and some really neat history. I have several and love shooting them all.

NCBB
 
One of the reasons a lot of these old guns, not just Stevens is that a lot of them where shoot with BP and not cleaned.
22 short standard are hard to come by unless you start buying match ammo.
I have bought CB's at C.Tire in the past ( for my Hi Standard Olympic R.F, yes it works), but all I se now is HV CCI shorts.
Sub sonic LR would be better , but The ones I have had where not chambered in LR
Nice little gun, but as you say, most are just fair-good, but that is what most brands are like at 100 yrs old.
 
marshall said:
One of the reasons a lot of these old guns, not just Stevens is that a lot of them where shoot with BP and not cleaned.
22 short standard are hard to come by unless you start buying match ammo.
I have bought CB's at C.Tire in the past ( for my Hi Standard Olympic R.F, yes it works), but all I se now is HV CCI shorts.
Sub sonic LR would be better , but The ones I have had where not chambered in LR
Nice little gun, but as you say, most are just fair-good, but that is what most brands are like at 100 yrs old.
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The priming compounds used in the early .22 smokeless were highly corrosive. But the bore issues encountered don't affect safety, as I say it is the inherent design that limits what you can run through a Stevens swinging block action. One can't compare one of these to a bolt action or even a Remington No.6.

The barrel won't burst, but as the pins stretch you end up with either a failure of the locking mechanism that can cause the shell to auto eject, or (more commonly) ruptured case heads (right in your face).
 
Neat. Thanks for the information. I test fired it with a .22LR 1050fps S&B Match and the shells head warped. Probably had something to do with the back thrust pushing the breech open a bit but the spring pressure of the hammer was too strong for it to completely open the breech. I got a handful of .22short and some longs. With a single shot like that, that's a year supply.
 
Deuce-deuce said:
They're cool little guns... is yours the 14 1/2"?

FYI. No hunting with 2 guns in bc.
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That is not the case in B.C. you can have more than one gun.. please consult your local CO and he will confirm.. that basically was an old school rule, but it is not the law..they can even be both loaded.. you just need to ensure proper licensing is held.. I.E. PAL/Hunting license/Tag
 
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Mumbles Marble Mouth said:
Neat. Thanks for the information. I test fired it with a .22LR 1050fps S&B Match and the shells head warped. Probably had something to do with the back thrust pushing the breech open a bit but the spring pressure of the hammer was too strong for it to completely open the breech. I got a handful of .22short and some longs. With a single shot like that, that's a year supply.
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The Little Scout is an odd bird in that the one main spring serves both as the hammer spring and the swinging block spring. I've got one as well and the spring had collapsed so that there was very little preload compression force when the hammer was down. I replaced it with another spring I had handy and everything worked more like it should. There's a good chance that your gun is in the same condition and could use a new spring if the block is coming back on you like that. I'll bet it's pushing the hammer back to the half #### position at the same time.

And yes, according to my De Haas single shot rifle book it's the 14 1/2 model.

I'll echo the idea that these guns are best used with subsonic ammo out of respect for their age and questionable metal quality. When they were introduced the rimfire ammo of the day was quite soft shooting. On the couple of old "boy's guns" I've got with decent barrels they shoot CCI "Quiet" with good accuracy for what they are. So there's no need to put stronger stuff into them.

They can be a real giggle maker to shoot when you stuff a bunch of reloads between the fingers of your support hand and flick away the empties and reload to fight off that dreaded Birchwood Casey rimfire paddle target... :d
 
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