A friend invited me over to look at some guns he inherited from his father. One rifle that was very interesting to me was a Stevens single shot marked .25-20 (barreled action, no stocks). I might even be interested in making him an offer for it. Can someone tell me what it would be worth?
I think the action was marked with a patent date of 1894, but am not sure. What model would this be called? The barrel was marked .25-20 and I am wondering if this is the current .25-20 Winchester which I think in the past was also called a .25 WCF. Or would it be a .25-20 Single Shot or a .25-20 Marlin which are listed in Cartridges of the World?
The action seems smooth and tight, but the extractor is either broken off or entirely missing. The outside of the action still has a lot of the color case hardening, but there is a lor of small/shallow rust pits, so I think it needs to be either smoothed off and blued or color case hardened. The outside of the barrel also has a some shallow rusting and some scrathes so for me would need to be refinished and blued or browned.
I could not tell the condition of the bore as it was put away uncleaned. Since old ammo was probably black powder or at least had corrosiove priming I guess the barrel is well pitted. I would probably have a liner put in it in the "modern" .25-20 so that the label on the outside of the barrel matched the chamber. I assume the action is not real strong so one would only use low pressure rather than the "high-speed" loads for the .25-20. Would this action be stronger than that, like strong enough for something like a .22 Hornet or .218 Bee or .30-30 Win or .25-35 Win?
I think one of the old "long" scopes, or a modern replica of one, would look good on it. Or another possibility would be to put a tang peep sight on it as it already has holes taped for one. Also, since the stock is gone one would have a lot of possibilities for stock configuration and quality of wood. Any help would be appreciated.
