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Posted: 7/1/2010 5:05:52 AM EDT
| I was shuffling through some stuff last night and found an old Stevens model 53-B Single Shot Bolt action 22 that my dad bought last year. Can anybody tell me any info on the gun? It has some surface rust here and there from when my dad bought it, but the gun works perfectly fine. It has a 24" Barrel and standard Iron Sights with a wood stock. |
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I am not familiar with that particular model.
Not a lot is known about the Stevens/Savage/Springfield .22s from the 30s on til 1968, except that they are almost universally nice rifles that shoot well. They did not use serial numbers until they had to in 1968, and on most models there are not that many clues to narrow the age down. Basically, Savage bought Stevens in the 1920s, they continued to produce them (Stevens) at the Chicopee Falls plant while Savage branded guns were made in the Utica NY plant up until 1947, then the whole works was moved to the Chicopee Falls plant. Sometime in there, they branded some as Springfields and I think they were all made at the Chicopee Falls plant, they also produce the Sears Ranger series and Western Field rifles, not sure if any of these were made at Utica or not (they usually do not say). If the grip is checkered, it is likely pre-war. Anything marked Stevens Buckhorn was supposed to have better sights and a lot of them had a black "end cap" painted on the stock. You'll see some of these marked on the top of the barrel as a Savage, and as a Stevens Buckhorn on the bottom of the barrel. The most info I have seen on these is in stickies and posts over at rimfire central. |
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