Anyone out there have a Stevens Shotgun? Are they good?

There's been a single shot 16 gauge made by them floating around in my family for years. It always worked.

Savage still makes guns under the Stevens name. They're imports these days. The older ones were a blue collar U.S. made "working gun" series. They were certainly a lot better than most of the Belgian imports and thus were a long lived lineage. NYPD was still using their doubles for issue to detectives until fairly recently (correctly portrayed a time or two on "NYPD Blue").

Stevens old school scatter guns. I have an old 410/22 over/under kicking around. Plastic stock and fore grip. I think mine was made in Massachusetts. Can't kill them, my old Stevens was sitting in a barn for 30 years when my brother asked me if I wanted it. Cleaned it up and there you have it.

I used to have a couple Stevens single shots. As others have said, they are/were workhorses!

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Misty

I have a matched set of Stevens - .410 bolt, and .22 L,LR,S bolt that I inherited from my grandfather.

I've not been able to get the firing pin to stay in the bolt on the .22.

I have a Stevens 20 g. Double Barrel model 311 that is a family passdown. This weapon is excellent and I wouldn't trade or sell it for anything.. I think that you are going to be very happy with yours.

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4th SQD 7th CAVALRY

That Stevens 311 is a gun I always wanted. Seems
like a S&W always got in the way. Don

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"Don't worry be happy"

"I have an old 410/22 over/under kicking around. Plastic stock and fore grip. I think mine was made in Massachusetts."

I have one also. It belonged to my granddaddy. According to my grandmother, he bought it at the beginning of WW II, to kill the rabbits that got into his garden.

Haven't fired it in awhile, though I did buy a box of .410s a couple of months just for it.

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John 3:16
WAR EAGLE!

My first shotgun as a boy was a Stevens 16 guage side by side. I wish I still had it.

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I've got an old 311-A my maternal grandfather gave me when I was about 14 or so. Kicks like hell with high brass 2 3/4's, but has a good pattern with 4's and 6's in high or low brass.

My neighbor just showed me what I thought was an old Stevens pump. He also showed me one I think was sold by Montgomery Ward. It was a 16 ga.

When gunwriter Evan Marshall was a Detroit cop in the early seventies, him and his partners kept a 311 in their patrol car. IIRC he never shot anyone with it, but his partner finished a fight with a well placed slug. I never heard him do anything but praise that gun.

A friend has a 77e like the Army used in Vietnam. It's not a high quality gun and not suited to combat IMO, but would serve well enough as a hunting shotgun. You get what you pay for and "blue collar gun" is an apt description.

I wish Mr Marshall was a member of this Forum. I enjoy his books.

A Stevens bolt action 20 ga. was my first shotgun. My bedroom shotgun is a Stevens 20 ga. pump with a 18+ inch barrel. Not deluxe but always works.

When I married my sweet wife, one of her earthly posessions was this Stevens riot gun from WWII



I believe it's a 520-30.

In the best Fort Worth employment benefit tradition, it's on loan to one of my wife's employees who's got a stalker.

I've never actually shot it, but it looks rather non-nonsense.

If I recall correctly, Stevens stopped making them in 1937, but started up again for WWII because they could make lots of them cheap and fast.

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Regulate Banks, not guns

Glypnir, I'll bet that 520 has some serious collector's value if it's U.S. military marked. I certainly wouldn't loan it out when less valuable guns are out there. Of course, I'm philosophically opposed to loaning guns to people that are so undedicated to their own defense that they don't have one of their own.

Marshall 357, FWIW Evan Marshall has his own site, www.stoppingpower.net .

I got a Stevens Model 94B 16 Ga for my 14th B.D. in 1945. WW2 was still going in the Pacific & ammo was getting easier to find. Claeys Feed Store had a couple cases 16Ga. Peters Victor #9 shot @ $1.25 a box. Shot everything with those shells. Quail, Doves, Rabbits & Ducks. The old Stevens did it all without a wimper. Wish I still had it.

Dick- I got my first firearm in 1956- I think I was thirteen at the time. I still have it. this one was a Stevens 16 ga 94c with one box of low brass ammo form Mineral Springs Hardware for a inflated sum of about $23. I worked all summer on the farm for that $23.
Over the years I managed to acquire the 12-20- and the 410 ga to go along with the original 16 ga. Always looking the ellusive 28 ga. Two weeks ago at an Arkansas gun show, the first table that I stopped at had the long sought after prize. It has 95 to 98% of all the original stock finish blueing and case colors and acording to the rollmark stamp it was mfg. in 1960 (last year of production at Chicopee Falls Mass) Old Hog finally found the acorn.

Terry

Back in the late 80's, I replaced the selector switch for the firing pins. Took it to a turkey shoot just to test it out. Up against a bunch of 12 gauge shotguns, not only did I win a turkey with about 7 pellets hitting the target, but my Dad won the next round with the 410.

IIRC, it is military marked.

I looked around a year or two ago, and I got the impression that if it was a trench gun with bayonet lug and such, it was worth maybe $1200.

Since it's a riot gun, not a trench gun, and not in that great condition, it seemed to be more like $400. If I'm wrong, I'd love to hear it.

But it was intended as a temporary loan until she could get something of her own, so we will probably ask for it back. We were just discussing that in the last day or two.

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Regulate Banks, not guns

The 311/5100 Stevens/Savage/Fox Model B were, and are, classic working American side x sides. Durable, serviceable shotguns that carry and handle well in the field, they are generally good game getters. I have quite a few doubles to choose from, but still shoot them on occasion. I prefer the 20 ga for weight and handling. I've even shot sporting clays more than a few times with the 311A I got when I was 9. That was a loooong time ago!

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" I said, good DAY! "

I recently bought a 12ga 311a. It was made in 1953 and is still in excellent condition. The only thing unusual about it is that someone replaced the birch stock with a walnut one from Bishop.

The only things left after an atomic war will be cockroach's and Steven firearms! Ya cant kill em.

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Stay safe people!

I've got a 39a .410 bolt action that my grandfather gave to my dad
back in 40-41 or so.. He gave it to me when I got to shooting age.
I looked it up one time, and I think it was made in 1938. I also have
another one exactly like it, but it's a JC Higgins model 101.25 which was
sold by Sears and Roebuck, but made by Stevens I'm sure. They are
exactly alike.

I just got mine out and looked at the markings. It's a Stevens 311 Series H, 12 gauge of course. I bought it at a K-Mart in the St. Louis area about twenty years ago. (Back when I didn't know enough not to buy anything at K-Mart). It has served as a HD gun and has accounted for several troublesome crows as well.

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You're shy a few manners.

Picked up a Stevens SXS 12 ga Model 325 at Ron Peterson's Guns in Albuquerque, NM for the princely sum of $11.35 about 25 years ago. It's so old it doesn't have a patent date, just "Patent applied for". J Stevens A & T Co., Chicopee Falls, Mass, USA. Don't know why I bought it, the barrels are pitted, the stock was wrapped in roof flashing tin, nailed in place with brass tacks, the checkering is just a faintly seen pattern under smooth, worn wood, most of the screws and bolts have been replaced with round head hardware store stuff and the barrel has a shim to keep it locked up. There was a piece of rotted leather being used as a butt plate, held in place with wood screws and fender washers and all the metal work was covered in an even coating of rust.

And yet, after going through it and replacing the worst "Bubba fixes", it still shoots. I can't imagine how many shells have been through the barrels. Nor how long it must have sat in someones barn or hay loft, neglected.

I also own a 1948 Stevens model 325 bolt action 30-30 that just keeps on going no matter the abuse. It is now in the possession of one son who uses it in South Texas with handloads.

Timex aint got nothing on Stevens !!!!

Dan R

I have had a Stevens 311 12ga SXS for more yrs than I like to think about. They are heavy, but also almost unbreakable, and may never wear out.

I have a Stevens 820B pump. I got it from my grandfather for doing some work for him. He bought it out of a catalog when my dad was a kid and all it has been doing is sitting in a closet.