J Stevens favorite 22lr marked j1 is this the first one?

Answer 1

I shall try to cut a long winded story short here - First of all the answer is definitely NOT.

If your rifle has either a full length octagon barrel OR a full length round barrel then it is a 1912 IF it has no date on top tang. If it has Model 1915 on the top tang then that speaks for itself.

If your rifle has a sideplate on the receiver then it is a Model 1889 sideplate and only 1500 of these first Stevens Favorites were made up until 1894.

The Model 1894 has a part round and part Octagonal barrel then it was made up until 1912.

IF it has an ejector that comes up the left side of the action then it IS an early 1894. I have determined 14 differences so far in the first 1894s and an 1894 made in 1902. If your rifle has a mainspring that is NOT screwed in place but is wedged against a capstan then it is an early 1894 - other indicators of an early 1894 are a shorter lower tang, several slight differences in the profile radius's of the receiver the most noted differences being sharp edges around the Octagonal receiver ring and a sharp, square angle to the receiver instead of a rounded radius beside the side ejector.

If your rifle has a high serial number like 40677 then it is a very early rifle as the early rifles were numbered in the same serial number range as the tip ups etc so that serial number40676 and serial number 40678 may not actually be Favorites!

Later on serial numbers were generally up to three digits prefixed by a letter, eg M 25 or L 698 or O 175 and so on. The letters were assigned randomly and not in order of A, B , C etc so that the L prefix letters may have been assigned before the A prefix numbers.

Hope this helps.