Stevens Favorite Crackshot update post 32

[steelslaver]

Well, I took it to the range. It fired a decent group at 15 yds but, with rear sight all the way up it was still low. I replaced the front sight with a much lower one.

But, I also had regular fail to fire. breach I could see space between block and back of barrel. I have no idea how much is to much on these. But, using the lathe I turned .012 of back of shoulder on barrel that goes against the action to close it up as much as possible. I also hit the firing pin repeatedly with brake clear and worked it. Screwed hammer pivot screw out until I could squirt a drop of oil under it and tightened back up hoping head would force it down stud and into hammer. It then fired 5 cases with the bullet pulled from them. Cloudy and over cast. Have another 22 I want to check out next trip.

 

[2152hq]

Of course the .22 LR would be the one to find ammo for, but how difficult to find .25 or .32 rim fire?...

WuzzFuzz

I understand some people are using the RamSet tyype 25rf blanks (Nail Gun blanks) for making 25RF ammo for the old guns in that caliber. Some are advertised as being 27RF cal (?).

I don't know if they are loading a bullet or round ball into the chamber first ahead of the blank. Perhaps making a cartridge w/bullet out of the blank. Maybe dumping the blank powder and just using the rimfire primed case and reloading it with their own powder and bullet. Maybe all 3.
There is quite a bit of info on it on different forums around.

But I'll just reline to .22RF and change the firing pin and extractor over.

Or maybe just fit a bbl from another rifle to it. A lot simpler and much cheaper that way sometimes.
Liners are getting very expensive.
Priced at about $4 to $5 an inch for TJ's liners (hammerforged).
Redmans/Brownells are a little cheaper (button rifled)
Sometimes an orphaned .22bbl from some other rifle can be fitted as well. They usually go cheap at shows and even Ebay.

FWIW, I just use a hand held elec drill to drill out the bbl for a 22rf liner. Don't have a big lathe anymore. They are easy to do with a hand held drill.
.22 liners are usually about .320 in dia.

I did a couple CF lever actions that used a 1/2"d liner as well that way.
Not the recommended way, but do-able. You just have to do the drilling in small increments and make sure you have a pilot on the drill bit(s).

 

[steelslaver]

It wouldn't be that hard to make a barrel fit a Favorite with its action mounted extractor. Much more difficult with the Crackshot as its extractor works in a T slot on bottom of barrel, Finding or making a cutter to do it and nail the cut would be difficult.

I just bought a Marlin 22lr barrel of Ebay for $35 shipped. I will turn it down and use it to line my Crack shot. A Redmans liner is $109 plus shipping from Brownels and they are out of stock. Numerich list them for $34 plus shipping, but out of stock. Dixie list 18" for $30 but also out of stock.

I will chuck the Marlin barrel up in lathe and turn it to a uniform OD. Then rechuck it with say 6" out from chuck and turn it down to just under my drill size, then move out another 6" place end on live center and turn it down the next 6", repeat until I have about 20". That will keep me for trying to work a long slender tube that will want flex in the center. No need to polish or anything because the as turned texture will help anchor the liner. I am not making a target rifle. Just a neat old plinker 22

Sad thing about the Crackshot it the rifling is actual not to bad, few spots in it, but, mostly the chamber is in pretty bad shape. Won't extract and brass comes out swollen.

 

[2152hq]

If the Numrich liners are anything like they were in yrs past, they aren't even worth the $34.
The rifling was (is?) button rifled which in itself is fine. But the ones I've seen were terrible quality. They have the appearance of having the rifling 'button' being pounded through the liner with displaced metal from the grooves during the process forming rough ridges up onto the lands.
Really bad.
Maybe they've gotten better. If they have they'd be a fantastic deal at the price.
I think I still have one that I was given to use in a re-line job.

Good price on that Marlin bbl. There are quite a few decent offerings on .22 bbls there for use on projects.

I still use epoxy to secure the liners.
Others use Loctite compounds.
They seem like they are pretty easy to use and hold just fine.
Might enter the 21st C and try that on the next liner project.

 

[steelslaver]

I have a bunch of good West Systems marine epoxy and will use that again. Loctite does make some good products though. With a single shot 22 there is almost no liner stress on the barrel, it will never get hot enough to break down a quality epoxy. The line is hard to detect on my Favorite muzzle or breach at least with the naked eye.

But then as I said before I want them as neat little plinkers more than anything else.

Your Hopkins & Allen Model 3922 is outstanding

 

[deadin]

The line is hard to detect on my Favorite muzzle or breach at least with the naked eye.

I had my Favorite relined from the breech without boring all the way through the muzzle therefore there is no line to be seen at the crown.

 

[2152hq]

I have a bunch of good West Systems marine epoxy and will use that again. Loctite does make some good products though. With a single shot 22 there is almost no liner stress on the barrel, it will never get hot enough to break down a quality epoxy. The line is hard to detect on my Favorite muzzle or breach at least with the naked eye.

But then as I said before I want them as neat little plinkers more than anything else.

Your Hopkins & Allen Model 3922 is outstanding

Thanks, that one has a liner in it too.
I used one from TJ's for that project.
Epoxied into place.
Hand held drill to drill out the bbl. Half way from each end.
I lightly peen down the dia of the hole at the muzzle end of the bbl in before inserting the liner.
Also just slightly enlarge the liner itself by hammering it to flare the outside edge of it at the breech end.
This will make for a tight fit at the breech end when it is pushed in nearly flush.

Then the liner is inserted from the breech end of the bbl.
The slightly tight hole in the bbl at the muzzle and the flared liner at the breech make for a nearly invisable liner fit.

The extractor cut is marked and then hand cut with file(s).
IIRC on this rifle the extractor itself was kind of chewed up. So I cut the portion off that actually had the rim recess in it. Hard soldered a new piece of steel in place. Then fitted the new 'blank' extractor to the new extractor cut in the bbl.
Then the new chamber w/ rim recess was cut which cut the rim recess in the new extractor at the same time. Makes for a nice clean close fit of everything.

 

[steelslaver]

My extractor is a bit worn. I was thinking about peening it along its length to see if I could stretch it a bit.
One small flaw I see in the original design it the firing pin strikes at the extractor.

 

[DWalt]

I had a sort of sad experience back in my high school days. A friend of my father's gave me an old boy's rifle, I think it was a Stevens. It had a rolling block action and on the barrel it was stamped "Crack Shot". It had resided in a barn for some indeterminate period and was fairly heavily rusted all over. But the wood was in pretty good shape. It could even be fired, and I did shoot it a few times even though the bore was rusty. I was going to make it a project gun, but was in no hurry. I had planned to re-line the barrel. Back at the time, Numrich sold .22 barrel liners and I was going to get one. Anyway, I had made a little progress on cleaning it up, and it was laying in pieces on a table in our basement. I had just gone off to college, and while gone, my mother thought all those parts were just junk and she threw them away without telling me. She did leave the wooden buttstock, which I sold at a gun show some years later. I might have gotten $20 or so for it. I remember the purchaser was really happy to get it.

"I still use epoxy to secure the liners. Others use Loctite compounds."

Some of you may know my friend Alex Hamilton, the San Antonio gunsmith (Ten Ring Precision). He cements barrel liners in place using the red Loctite - I don't know the number. He uses only Lothar Walther liners, and his work is so good you would have to use a magnifying glass to tell that there is even a liner there.

 

[steelslaver]

Had it out to the range again and got a bang every trigger pull and a group at 20 yds you could cover with a quarter. I think me and my right eye opened that group up some. It would be a rabbit killer for sure.
But, extraction was pretty iffy. When I got home I took it apart to check pins and pivots which are all pretty good. But ens of extractor is thin and has been hammered on and hit by firing pin when someone was dry firing it during its life time. But the part is pretty simple. I am going to make one out of some 5160 spring steel, harden it and then draw it back to about a spring temper. I will make it just a bit long and a bit thicker at the tip where it engages the rim.

 

[steelslaver]

Well, I made a new extractor for my Favorite. The old model ones are pretty simple. Used 5160 spring steel and once I was lose went slow with diamond files. Used a 1/4" carbide end mill to do the relief.

It really pulls fire 22 cases nice. Need to do a live fire test. But it is raining again. I could go crank a few rounds into the wood pile. None of my neighbors would get upset, but I do try to be a citizen now that I got annexed. Should make a simple handgun bullet trap for inside the shop. 4' or 5' of heavy wall 4" with schedule 160 45 welded on the end (.531 walls) then 6" of pipe then another 45 and into a box of sand.

 

[steelslaver]

I got the marlin barrel and turned it down to make a line for my Crackshot. Got it epoxied in the other day. Did the muzzle, reamed the chamber and did the cut for extractor this morning while it was raining. Sun came out and went to the range with it. A few taps on the rear sight had it centered, But a bit low, I did not bring a file, so waited till I got home to take some swipes off the top of front sight.

Here is the Pinto Smolt I just finished

6 rounds at 20 yds from a homemade Ransom rest

Thats what happens when you fire 38 specials in a 357 chamber. I believe the 3 outside ones were more me not dialing it in perfect than the gun.

 

[RobertJ.]

This is just a repro, but still a cool little rifle.

I had wanted one as far back as the mid 70's, when I first saw a picture of one. I've always had a thing for single-shots. When I saw this (about ten years ago) at my LGS for $115, I couldn't get my wallet out fast enough!

 

[Drm50]

While sometimes spring wire can be formed to replace flat springs it would be hard to use a coil spring. You would have to engineer some other parts to serve with the coil.
The old timers would use double thickness of buck saw blades to replace flat mains in many of the old single shot rifles and shotguns. Many encountered in this area are found with saw blade and small wood wedge placed for torque.

 

[steelslaver]

Crackshots use coil springs and so do some of the later Favorites. I would make a spring myself as I have a pile of 5160 spring steel and a heat treat oven.

But, if you take spring steel and form it while red hot, then once you have it to shape heat it red again until a magnet stops sticking to it, quench in fast oil like canola then polish it up so it is shiny and heat it until it turns a deep blue you would have a pretty good spring. You polish it so you can see the color change as you heat it. 2 temper cycles is better. Steel banding will work. In fact a small file will work. You would need to heat it until magnet quits sticking then bury it in hot sand or ashes so it slow cools to make it soft to drill or tap it. Then when you would have to shape it then do the heat to non magnetic then quench then heat again to dark blue. A 1095 file is only hard and brittle because it was never tempered, just hardened. Lots of quality crane cable is made from 1095 and so were watch springs it is all in the temper

With an oven you can do a better job, go to 1500f, quench, then temper it 2 times at 800f for 2 hours each time.

BTW I have about 60 ft of 1 1/2"+ x 1/4"+ 5160 spring steel from a spring shop if anyone wants some.

 

[Drm50]

No order blank for parts.

 

[steelslaver]

No order blank for parts.

No FFL forms, mailed right to your door and many kids got them for Christmas, birthdays etc. Another time and another world.