Stevens Arms was founded by Joshua Stevens with help from backers W.B. Fay and James Taylor in Chicopee Falls, Massachusetts, in 1864 as J. Stevens & Co. Their earliest product was a tip-up action single shot pistol. Business was slow in 1870 when Stevens occupied a converted grist mill and had just sixty employees. Our Savage serial number lookup allows you to date your vintage rifle. Serial Numbers At Year End 1899 to 1950: 10,000 1899 13,400 1900 19,500 1901 25,000 1902. A new serial number system. The new system consists of four sets of digits separated by a hyphen. The first set is the manufacturers code, the second designates the type of firearm, the third set is the firearms chronological number, the fourth set shows the year of mfg. AYA 1995-2006 Year ser. # end 199516-03-001-95 16-03-800-95.
Enter Joshua Stevens
Stevens / Savage 24 date codes.-A 1949 B 1950 C 1951 D 1952 E 1953 F 1954 G 1955 H 1956 I 1957 J 1958 K 1959 L 1960 M 1961 N 1962 P 1963 R 1964 S 1965 T 1966 U 1967 V 1968 W 1969 X1970 You will find a date code stamped on every shotgun & rifle/shotgun in the Savage/Stevens brands produced between March 1949 and December 1968. Looks like Stevens changed the basic actions on these models (neither of which I've ever owned) between Catalog No. 53 and 54, because the earlier catalog illustration clearly shows a 44 action, while the later one, although using the same illustration, specifies in the fine print a 44-1/2 action. Someone wrote the date '9-1-1912' on my 53-not necessarily the issue date, but probably the date.
Born in 1814 and professionally associated as a master machinist and toolmaker for Cyrus B. Allen of Springfield, Massachusetts, Samuel Colt, Edward Wesson and the Massachusetts Arms Co., Joshua Stevens was 50 years old when he filed his patent in 1864 for a breech loading tip-up action that would launch the J. Stevens Arms & Tool Co.
The basic action provided the foundation for an expansive family of Stevens pistols, rifles and shotguns. By January 1, 1902, the factory covered 451,000 square feet (10.3 acres!), employed over 1,000 men and women, and was declared by Stevens as being the “largest producer of firearms for sporting purposes in the world.”
An equally important claim that Stevens could make was his company’s development and launch of the .22 Long Rifle cartridge in 1886-1887. Gta v lite. As explained in their catalog — “The .22-calibre Long-rifle cartridge was originated by this company and brought about by a demand for a cartridge which would have a longer and more accurate range than the .22 Short cartridge. Photoinstrument for mac n. The .22 Short cartridge will shoot with remarkable accuracy at 75 feet. The .22 Long-rifle cartridge in a Stevens rifle is a marvel of accuracy … some remarkedly fine targets have been made with it up to and including 200 yards, and even farther, under favorable weather conditions.”
If you were to turn back the clock and walk along the firing line of a 50-yard pistol match being shot in the 1880s and 1890s, you would find men, properly attired in business suits and hats, shooting a Stevens single-shot, target-grade pistol chambered for the “.22 Long-rifle” cartridge loaded by UMC, probably with 5 grains of black powder and a 40-gr. bullet. George of the jungle game.
Because the production records of Stevens’ single shots have been lost, the quantities of each model manufactured and the serial number ranges are unknown. Nevertheless, Stevens pistols keep showing up at gun shows and in gun stores. They are not uncommon and, thankfully, don’t command premium prices for the more common models.
Page 1 of 1 | [ 14 posts ] |
|
|
![Stevens Stevens](https://decg5lu73tfmh.cloudfront.net/gunvaluesboard.com/images/fbfiles/images/PhotoGrid_1482892646820_v_1482906619.jpg)
![Serial Serial](https://i9.skinnerinc.com/unsafe/fit-in/252x252/filters:fill(eee)/231/1163231.jpg)
J Stevens Arms Company Serial Number Lookup
Page 1 of 1 | [ 14 posts ] |