So I was out at my Grandfather's place for Thanksgiving last night and we had a great conversation about hunting and shooting. I think he finds it strange talking to me about hunting as he spent a lot of time teaching his grandson's to hunt and fish when we were younger (no girls allowed), but out of nine grandkid's (all adults now) I'm the only one (oldest girl) with an active interest. Anyway we were talking about partridge hunting and towards the end of the conversation he asks me to come downstairs and he shows me an old beat up .22. I didn't get the whole story as Thanksgiving festivities interupted, but the barrel was stamped a J. Stevens Arms Co. Model 66, .22 short or long rifle manufactured in Mass. My Grandfather is in his eighties and no longer hunts, he has given away, I thought all, of his firearms in the past few years to various family members. None were particularly valuable but all were well used and put many meals on the table. I think that this .22 might actually be his rifle from when he was boy in the 1930's, he says it keeps the rabbits out of his garden and he still shoots the occasional partridge (he lives in the country). It definitely seemed to be special to him.
The rifle was not in great shape, he said he has trouble loading it, it used to have a magazine tube which is missing and now he has to load a shot at a time. Does anyone know about restoring these rifles? At the very least I'd like to try and find him the missing magazine part(s), but he spends the winter in Arizona and I'm thinking about trying to fix it up and taking him out to the range in the spring. Are parts for this rifle likely to be hard to come by? I'm going to start with Google but I honestly don't know much about this gun or where to start. Any thoughts would help.
The rifle was not in great shape, he said he has trouble loading it, it used to have a magazine tube which is missing and now he has to load a shot at a time. Does anyone know about restoring these rifles? At the very least I'd like to try and find him the missing magazine part(s), but he spends the winter in Arizona and I'm thinking about trying to fix it up and taking him out to the range in the spring. Are parts for this rifle likely to be hard to come by? I'm going to start with Google but I honestly don't know much about this gun or where to start. Any thoughts would help.
