Info on Steven's Favorite sights

[jtward01]

My first gun, which I received at age seven in 1960, was a well used Steven's Favorite rifle in .22S, L & LR. The rifle had a front sight that had two positions. In one position it was just a small post topped with a gold bead. The second position added a small ring or hood around the post and bead, I assume to shade it if the sun was causing a problem. The ring was only 1/4 inch wide or so, so calling it a hood is probably stretching it some.

I've looked at lots of Steven's Favorites over the years and I've never seen another with this type of sight.

Anyone know the name of this sight? Anyone know how common they were on Steven's Favorites?

I had a ball with that rifle. In addition to using to hunt rabbits with my beagle Pokey I also used it when playing cowboys & indians or cops & robbers with my friends. When hunting it was loaded with .22LRs. When playing I used .22 Acorn blanks. No, I never did get them mixed up.

 

[Jim Watson]

Sight sounds like a Beach Combination or the similar Lyman. Does it look anything like this: http://www.montanavintagearms.com/combo_front.html

Too expensive even then to have been common on a boy's rifle like a Favorite. Probably added by an indulgent parent or a serious shooter wanting a light rifle.

 

[jtward01]

Sight sounds like a Beach Combination or the similar Lyman. Does it look anything like this: http://www.montanavintagearms.com/combo_front.html

Too expensive even then to have been common on a boy's rifle like a Favorite. Probably added by an indulgent parent or a serious shooter wanting a light rifle.

Yes, it looked a great deal like that, except the dot on top of the post inside the ring was a small gold or brass bead, and instead of a blade it had a shorter post, also with a small gold or brass bead. The beads were much smaller than those you typically see on shotguns today.

I sure wish I still had that gun today. We moved to Florida when I was 19, and I came down a month or so ahead of the rest of the family. While she was packing my Mom found the gun and threw it in the trash, figuring since I had newer and nicer rifles I wouldn't want to bother with that one anymore.

In our family guns truly were tools. We rarely bought meat in the supermarket when I was a kid. I was raised on venison, elk, rabbit, squirrel, pheasant, quail and bass. I could clean and skin squirrels and rabbits by the time I was six, and field dress a deer by age 10. My 14th birthday present was a Belgian Browning Auto 5. I received a new .30-06 Weatherby Mark V Deluxe with a presentation grade walnut stock when I was 16. The following year I used it to take a Montana elk. We raised a few chickens for eggs and the fry pan, and raised two hogs each year for pork, ham, bacon and lard.

Anyway, as I said, guns were very much tools, we didn't assign a lot of sentiment to them, and since the Steven's was old, and the firing pin broken my Mom just didn't think I'd miss it much. And honestly, I didn't care much at the time. It was only after I got older that I began to wish I still had my first real gun, if for no other reason than to hang it on the wall.

 

[jtward01]

I was just thinking, trying to remember details about my rifle. I can't recall it having the word "Favorite" stamped on it anywhere, and I know the caliber stamping included short, long and long rifle. I don't remember for certain, but I think they were spelled out, not just S, L and LR. The takedown knob was smooth, with a hole in it where a strap or lanyard ring had once been. It had a buckhorn rear sight with a stair step elevation piece, and the front sight as previously described. Part of the barrel near the receiver may have been octagon, but everything ahead of the forend was round, I'm sure of that.

Can anyone suggest what model Favorite this might have been?

 

[Jim Watson]

According to Frank DeHaas, you probably had the second type Favorite that came out in 1894 and was made pretty much the same way until 1915. The plainest was the Model 17 which had a half-octagon, half round barrel, and smooth takedown knob pierced for a ring. The sight you describe was likely a real Beach Combination instead of the Lyman that MVA copied. Stevens would furnish about any sight desired, the book shows one with factory installed scope sight.

 

[jtward01]

Thank you so much for the information. I'll eventually buy another, that's for certain, but still, it won't be the same as if it were really my first one.