A little price guidance on a Stevens Favorite in .25 Stevens

One of my wife's friends brought over a Stevens Favorite rifle (falling block) in .25 RF this evening. She wants to get rid of it as she is afraid someone will break into her house (she has been a widow for a long time) and will shoot her with it. I told her what it was, and as it was empty and she had no ammo for it (not made since 1942), getting shot with it was impossible. It's somewhere between fair and poor condition with rust on one side of the barrel and frame and a dark bore. Wood is in fairly decent shape, dull finish but no scratches, chips, or gouges, and it seems otherwise complete and functional. I thought I'd clean it up a bit for her as she wants to sell it. My guess is that it might be worth somewhere in the $100-$200 range according to the price guides, but on the other hand, I have not seen any of these rifles at a gun show for a long time. If there are any boys' rifle collectors here, am I in the ballpark on price?

I've seen them for as low as $100 and up to $600 and am in no way knowledgeable with this model so I don't know which end of the spectrum is more accurate. Pick a number you can live with and you both think is fair, and I'm sure she will be very happy at what you come up with. Truthfully you are basically buying a "wall hangar" unless you stumble onto someone with vintage ammo and doing her a favor by getting it out of her home.

BTW there IS some ammo for this rifle available. It is listed for $175 on GB (starting bid) for a box of 50! REDICULOUS but available. I'm sure if you really search you'd find some more reasonable - maybe at a local gun show.

For a Favorite that's 'all there' and in decent mechanical condition dispite a poor bore, I'd put $150 on it at a show in hopes that another person like me that likes project guns comes along.

The caliber is a downer but they are convertible to 22rf if you are again the type that likes to tinker with these. Conversion of the block to 22rf from 25rf or 32rf is just one of the many things that's commonly done to these.
Even when all rebuilt,,these are 22 std vel only guns. They will shoot loose with HV ammo as only the linkage pins support the breech block,,not the frame walls.

I've seen some ammo for the 25RF made from industrial 25rf blanks but I wouldn't want to go there especially with a Favorite action. They are quite frail as they are.


There are 3 or 4 types of the Favorite action.
If it happens to be the early small 'Sideplate' action,,you have quite a find!
In most any condition, a collector/restoration 'smith would pay a good amt for one. The last one I had was in the late 70's and resold it then for $500. As the name says it has a large separate side plate cover on the right side of the frame to access the parts.

The Model 1889 is not often seen, Flat mainspring and 7 oclock extractor. rounded frame contour at the corner of the standing breech. Bbl date is '89 IIRC

Model 1894,,the most common. Bbl dated '94. Early ones have 7 oclock extractor, quickly changed to 6 oclock. Same frame style as the 89 & flat mainspring. Looks alot like the 1889 model.
Lots of different configurations, rd and oct bbls, part oct. Most have a simple block fixed rear sight. Lever droop common on these as the action pins wear quickly and the breech block doesn't actually seat against the frame at all. Early ones are better in that respect and had a small screw down in the action accessable when open,,tighten the screw and it placed pressure against the link to remove the droop problem. The Model 44 used the same.

LAst one was the Model 1915,,usually marked as such. Thicker action frame,,squared frame corner contour,,this one uses a coil mainspring set up. This one the least desireable of the Favorites,,or at least it used to be simply because of the coil spring and less than svelte design.


Look for cracked tangs where they join the frame. A common problem,,and they do not weld very well. Brazing or silver soldering was a common fix. There's probably a weld application now that works, but there wasn't much when I was playing with them.

These rifles are still very popular with the Single Shot crowd. Rebuild, reline, refinish, restore,,they are fun projects that don't take a lot of resources but still produce a nice finished product.

Wisner's has a writeup on these which is fairly detailed and interesting to read. Hers is definitely the 1894 style (apparently not a model number), made 1894-1915, which is the most common variation. From the appearance of the extractor, it was probably made late in this period. What I thought was a serial number is actually not. Favorites are stamped with letters and numbers on the lower tang (hers is N 622) but there seems to be no rhyme or reason to the sequence. Regarding ammo, I am 100% certain she has no interest in ever shooting it nor would anyone else. Conversion to .22 is possible, but I can't imagine anyone wanting to pay the expense of having it done as the barrel would need to be sleeved, the extractor modified, and a replacement .22 block fitted. I'm just going to clean it up some to make it look better, tell her the story about what it is, and let her decide on what to do with it. If she wants to sell it, I may take it to the local gun show and see what I can get, which I suspect will not be much. Or maybe she will just want to keep it, but I doubt she will as she seems to be scared to death of it.
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I checked on GunBroker. There are a number of .25 Favorites somewhat like it priced in the $250-$500 starting range which are not selling even after repeated re-listings. The only recent sale shown is for $110, but it was in somewhat lesser condition than hers, with beat-up wood. So I am going for a $150 value. I cleaned it up this morning and waxed everything, looks better than I expected. Fairly even patina on the action, maybe 50% blue on the barrel. It wouldn't be bad as a wallhanger.

I see them at auctions often. Unless in excellent condition they sell in the $150- 250 range. The 22 and 32 calibers always bring more.

John

I think $150 is about right as a retail value for the Favorite based on everything I have seen so far. I had a Stevens .22 Crack Shot (rolling block type) back when I was a kid, fire-able but metal was rusty from many years storage in a barn. One of my father's friends gave it to me. Being new to such things, I managed to screw it up. I had it torn down into pieces, and for some reason my mother threw away the barrel. I hung on to the stock and fore-end (which were pretty good) and the stripped frame. I remember selling them all at a gun show about 30 years or so ago for $50. Purchaser seemed happy to find them. I imagine he wanted the wood for another Crack Shot he had.

I would say $150 is fair. I have bought 3 for $100-$150 in past year from fair to good condition but all 22s. Haven't had a 25 for several years. In
60s & early 70s I use to check out all the backwoods Ma& Pa gas stations and stores in Canada for Rim Fire ammo. Canuck Imperial was last one to
make it. I still have small stash of assorted RF. I think some foreign 32 RF
& 41rf was run for Navy Arms back a few years but I've seen no 25 RF.

When I bought a nice .303 Savage rifle some years ago, I was doing the same thing, hunting down .303 Savage ammo in off-the-beaten-path small town hardware stores, gun shops, etc. I did find some. Then I figured out that I could make up usable .303 Savage cases from .30-30 brass so I stopped looking. Unfortunately, I don't think there is any way to make .25 Stevens ammo from any other cartridge. I think the Navy Arms stuff was made in Brazil. They still make oddball ammo down there, I understand even the long-obsolete .32 Colt CF loads. Navy Arms RF ammo is fairly pricey at gun shows today. I suppose none has been imported in a long time.

Collecting boys single shot, pump, bolt action rifles is a whole different game. I got into them when the grandson was born. I never understood the collectors who collect these but I do now. There cool.

I have watched several of these at auction, but just never could warm up to them. I think $150 is a fair price for both of you.

DWalt said:

When I bought a nice .303 Savage rifle some years ago, I was doing the same thing, hunting down .303 Savage ammo in off-the-beaten-path small town hardware stores, gun shops, etc. I did find some. Then I figured out that I could make up usable .303 Savage cases from .30-30 brass so I stopped looking. Unfortunately, I don't think there is any way to make .25 Stevens ammo from any other cartridge. I think the Navy Arms stuff was made in Brazil. They still make oddball ammo down there, I understand even the long-obsolete .32 Colt CF loads. Navy Arms RF ammo is fairly pricey at gun shows today. I suppose none has been imported in a long time.

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303 Savage ammo is readily available. Look no further than Graf and Sons.

I don't need to. I found two boxes in an old-time hardware store and one box in another, two different towns. I also found 50 loose loaded factory rounds at a gun show for less than $1 each, plus 40 fired cases. And I have made up at least 100 cases from .30-30 brass. Making .303 Savage cases involves nothing more than running a .30-30 case into the .303 FL die. Not even any need to trim the case to length. The .30-30 base diameter is a little small but with two turns of 1/4" wide masking tape around the base ahead of the rim to centralize the case in the .303 chamber, it fire forms just fine on the first firing. Some form .303 with .220 Swift brass. I tried that once, far too much work for me, but the .220 base is nearly the same diameter as the .303 base so no fire forming is required.