MachIVshooter
Member
First, I have to say that I need to ban myself from Gunbroker for awhile. It's just way too easy to empty my bank account with all the neat stuff you find there. I'm stingy about how much I'll pay for a given firearm, but when they come in at a price I find acceptable, it's hard to refrain!
One such example of a deal I couldn't refuse was my winning bid of $137 for a nice condition little Stevens Favorite in .32 Rimfire with a smooth bore part octagon tube. It has a chip out of the stock and butt plate, but I'll repair the wood and get a $20 butt plate on fleabay. Anyway, the reason it went so cheap is fairly obvious; who has any use for a smoothbore rifle in an obsolete chambering for which ammunition is just plain non existent? Well, not many........except those of us who enjoy tinkering! I didn't take any before pictures myself, but these are a couple from the seller:
Immediately after winning the auction, I began searching for .32 barrel blanks & liners. Low and behold, found a new, in-the-white 24" octagon critter on fleabay for $62 shipped. I'm pretty sure it's a low carbon muzzle loader tube, maybe 12L14 steel, but for my purposes, a barrel over 3/4" thick on the flats could be made of A36 and be just fine. The barrel arrived before the rifle, which showed up yesterday morning. I had some running around to do, but was able to get after it around 4. First order of business was converting to centerfire. To do that, I bored the .200" firing pin hole in the breech block to .250", offset toward the top. Then I made an offset firing pin from hardened drill rod, which I chose to make a spring loaded floater so the rifle is safe with a loaded chamber hammer down (don't especially trust half cock notches). Again, I was bad about taking before pics (or in-process), but you can clearly see the larger diameter firing pin here:
Next was the barrel. The Favorite is a take-down, so no threads. The only thing that aligns & retains these barrels is a rounded tip thumb screw seated in a dimple on the barrel. I turned the shank a little thicker than the factory barrel for a tighter fit, and gave the dimple a profile that better matched the screw. I chose to dovetail both front & rear sights. Rear one is a Marble's sight I took off another project, front one I have no idea the provenance of, but I milled off the concave base with a screw hole and gave it a 3/8" dovetail as well. Now we have a nice little carbine in a usable chambering- I chose .32 S&W Long. Thought about .32 H&R mag, but I just don't think the receiver is up to it.
Now, you might be wondering why such a stubby tube, and why the line near the muzzle? Well.........it's me! Why do ya think?
With only a 16.5" barrel on this truncated receiver, it's still a very acceptable length with a can installed
And that's the other reason I didn't push the envelope with .32 H&R; what's the point of a fast magnum for a rifle that's supposed to be whispering death on vermin? Nice, sedate .32 S&W or .32 Long loads are no louder than subsonic .22 rimfire with a 9mm can on this rifle (the Ninety Four is just for effect, can't pass a .313" bullet through the .25 cal suppressor)
Total investment of both rifle and barrel, including shipping: $239.11, and about 5 hours of my time. I'm a happy camper!
One such example of a deal I couldn't refuse was my winning bid of $137 for a nice condition little Stevens Favorite in .32 Rimfire with a smooth bore part octagon tube. It has a chip out of the stock and butt plate, but I'll repair the wood and get a $20 butt plate on fleabay. Anyway, the reason it went so cheap is fairly obvious; who has any use for a smoothbore rifle in an obsolete chambering for which ammunition is just plain non existent? Well, not many........except those of us who enjoy tinkering! I didn't take any before pictures myself, but these are a couple from the seller:
Immediately after winning the auction, I began searching for .32 barrel blanks & liners. Low and behold, found a new, in-the-white 24" octagon critter on fleabay for $62 shipped. I'm pretty sure it's a low carbon muzzle loader tube, maybe 12L14 steel, but for my purposes, a barrel over 3/4" thick on the flats could be made of A36 and be just fine. The barrel arrived before the rifle, which showed up yesterday morning. I had some running around to do, but was able to get after it around 4. First order of business was converting to centerfire. To do that, I bored the .200" firing pin hole in the breech block to .250", offset toward the top. Then I made an offset firing pin from hardened drill rod, which I chose to make a spring loaded floater so the rifle is safe with a loaded chamber hammer down (don't especially trust half cock notches). Again, I was bad about taking before pics (or in-process), but you can clearly see the larger diameter firing pin here:
Next was the barrel. The Favorite is a take-down, so no threads. The only thing that aligns & retains these barrels is a rounded tip thumb screw seated in a dimple on the barrel. I turned the shank a little thicker than the factory barrel for a tighter fit, and gave the dimple a profile that better matched the screw. I chose to dovetail both front & rear sights. Rear one is a Marble's sight I took off another project, front one I have no idea the provenance of, but I milled off the concave base with a screw hole and gave it a 3/8" dovetail as well. Now we have a nice little carbine in a usable chambering- I chose .32 S&W Long. Thought about .32 H&R mag, but I just don't think the receiver is up to it.
Now, you might be wondering why such a stubby tube, and why the line near the muzzle? Well.........it's me! Why do ya think?
With only a 16.5" barrel on this truncated receiver, it's still a very acceptable length with a can installed
And that's the other reason I didn't push the envelope with .32 H&R; what's the point of a fast magnum for a rifle that's supposed to be whispering death on vermin? Nice, sedate .32 S&W or .32 Long loads are no louder than subsonic .22 rimfire with a 9mm can on this rifle (the Ninety Four is just for effect, can't pass a .313" bullet through the .25 cal suppressor)
Total investment of both rifle and barrel, including shipping: $239.11, and about 5 hours of my time. I'm a happy camper!
