Fightin' 620-A

[Bradshaw]

Been looking for a house gun for a while. I'm not too stirred up by the contemporary offerings, so I started casting about for an example from yesteryear.

During my studies, I stumbled upon the Stevens 520/620 series,...forged/milled steel receivers,..walnut stocks,..hand cut checkering,..Browning design,..what's not to like?

Then this one came along sporting a 28" barrel replete with a poly choke which put it in excess of 30. The stock had been cut and measured a 13.25" LOP with the recoil pad.

The old gun was in very nice condition,..the recoil pad had been well installed and was in good shape, and I decided that it would be a good candidate for a shorty shotty house gun.

I chucked the barrel up in the lathe and cut it to 18.25",..milled out a big, bold, gold front sight from silicon bronze, then affixed it with a pair of 6-40 socket head screws.

It has an overall length of 37.5" and weighs 7.2 lbs.

All in all, I'm tickled with it.

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[lobo9er]

nice work. Went on and above the 'ol hack saw job. I like the front sight.

 

[Dave McCracken]

Looks nice. Now go shoot it plenty....

 

[Bradshaw]

Since the 620 is 60+ years old and since it's now doing house gun duty, I couldn't feel right about it without giving it a *good* cleaning and inspection,...and it needed it. I gutted it and gave it a good internal scrubbing, fabricated a couple of new pins from 01 to replace some that looked a bit rough. The firing pin was intact but was showing a bit of wear around the tip, so I've got a new one coming to take it's place. All of the springs were found to be in good condition.

I was surprised to find some really decent color case hardening on the underside of the shell lifter. The pic doesn't show how nice it is, but it shows a lot of blue.

 

[Fred Fuller]

Nice job on that one, Bradshaw. How about posting a picture of it taken down, for folks who haven't ever seen one in two pieces? Best takedown system ever used in a pumpgun design, IMHO.

Way back when Randy Cain was fighting with that old takedown Model 97 he kept trying to keep working as a traveling shotgun, I wish he'd have latched onto a good 520 or 620. It would have served him better with a lot less trouble, I'd bet.

 

[Bradshaw]

Sure, Lee. By the way, your knowledge and interest in the 620 played a big role in my decision to buy one. I googled "Stevens 620" several times and repeatedly found posts from you about them.

In fact, I now own two. I stumbled upon a table at a gun show that had a very nice 620 with a 28" modified barrel. The price tag said $150,..and I had $150 so now it's mine. I also plan on buying the next nice humpback 520 that comes along.

Here's how it breaks down.

 

[monkyboy1975]

I've been wondering how to strip the action down, but have not seen anything anywhere how to do it; How did you do it?

 

[Bradshaw]

http://www.thehighroad.org/archive/index.php/t-496256.html

I just did what Lee said,..although on the 620A like I have, there's only one pin and a screw holding the trigger group in.

 

[monkyboy1975]

Thanks for that link.

 

[Youngster]

Like it, especially the shell lifter, they definately don't make them like that anymore!

 

[Bradshaw]

Okay,...I got this thing back together with a new firing pin and a couple newly fabricated assembly pins installed.

whooo-eeEEEeee!,...

Fiddilin' with a John Browning design ain't fer the faint,..lemme tell ya.

Actually, except for the slide lock mechanism it's not all that bad.

But in any event, I can now consider myself a certified Stevens 620A fiddler.

If it wasn't worthy by virtue of its tanklike construction, I would have probably beaten it to flinders [] somewhere along the path.

I've got a few more small, internal tweaks to do to it to get it ready for the apocalypse, but for now it fires, ejects, and feeds slickern snot own the doorknob.

You can have ya 870's,.....I've figured out the 620's.

 

[Onmilo]

I would like to see someone reintroduce a modern version of these old takedown shotguns.

 

[Bradshaw]

Nobody would pay the money for a shotgun that has as much forging, heat treating and machining that a Stevens 620 has.

The price would be obnoxious.

 

[Fred Fuller]

Fiddilin' with a John Browning design ain't fer the faint,..lemme tell ya.



Back when I first went to work at USAJFKSWC in the early 1980s, they were still teaching Special Forces weapons sergeant students to strip Browning Automatic Rifles in the arms room... I was never even tempted to get into a Browning design after I saw that.

 

[Al Thompson]

If you wanted to make a few bucks, I'd bet that those front sights (properly regulated) would sell like hot cakes.

 

[monkyboy1975]

Okay,...I got this thing back together with a new firing pin and a couple newly fabricated assembly pins installed.

whooo-eeEEEeee!,...

Fiddilin' with a John Browning design ain't fer the faint,..lemme tell ya.

Actually, except for the slide lock mechanism it's not all that bad.

But in any event, I can now consider myself a certified Stevens 620A fiddler.

If it wasn't worthy by virtue of its tanklike construction, I would have probably beaten it to flinders with a BFBPH (big ******* ball peen hammer) somewhere along the path.

I've got a few more small, internal tweaks to do to it to get it ready for the apocalypse, but for now it fires, ejects, and feeds slickern snot own the doorknob.

You can have ya 870's,.....I've figured out the 620's.

That's what I've heard about tearing one of these babies down; Haven't been brave enough to attempt it myself without some detailed directions. Still wondering if I should try it. Only thing major I have done with one, was putting a new mag tube on my wife's 520-A.

 

[Onmilo]

Hey Bradshaw,
Oh, I don't know about people not paying good money for good products.
Folks still drop good hard earned cash on forged, heat treated and machined over unders so a specialty heavy duty takedown combat shotgun might just do better than one might think in this goofy market!

 

[Bradshaw]

Maybe so. But the good news is, there's lots of 520's and 620's still out there getting bought and sold for a fraction of their true value.

I'd be less than candid if I didn't allow that they can be finicky and, as mentioned, they can be a real head scratcher to work on.

On the plus side, they're very heavy duty "industrial" shotguns. On the minus side, one needs to be willing to learn how to do what's necessary to make them long term dependable.

The slide lock spring is a common source of trouble, but it's easily remedied if you know how to do so. Same with the firing pin. They're not overly fragile, but they do break on occasion.

To me, they're worth conquering the learning curve associated with them, but I've always been a chronic tinkerer.

 

[EHCRain10]

This thread made me decide to take my 620 16ga apart for a good cleaning and get it feeding reliably so the Gf can use it for HD.

 

[supernads]

The worst part of Working on one is a lack of availability of good, detailed instructions out there. My 620-a is dying for new springs but I don't want to ever get it back together.

 

[Dave Markowitz]

Very nice job, Bradshaw. That front sight is a really nice piece of work, too.

 

[monkyboy1975]

I finally tore down the wife's 520A tonight, was pretty heavily gunked up (after what was probably an odd 80 years of shooting residue.). Thanks for giving me the motivation to get this done Bradshaw, an thanks to Lee for his fine directions. Went back together with no issues except for a slight hangup trying to get the lifter back into position (my fault for not looking at it close enough before removing the screw.) and I made sure to take plenty of pictures of the tear down process. Thanks again fellas!

 

[Gordon]

Does the 520 take down like the 620?