Match chamber in a Stevens 44

[texasmac]

Hey guys,

I shoot an original Stevens 44 in .22BPCR silhouette competition. The original factory chambering has a deep throat. The bullet jump is from 0.048" to 0.077" depending on the brand of ammo. So I'm considering options. Setting the barrel back & rechambering is not straight forward due to the barrel locking bolt hole. No doubt it could be an option but the barrel would have to be set back a bunch & rethreaded. At least that's my understanding but may be wrong. Another option is to have a new barrel installed. In that case I'm looking for recommendations on someone familiar with rebarreling Stevens' with a match chamber. CPA comes to mind but none of the guys I shot with that have CPA rifles have tight match chambers. Plus CPA never answers their phone. Suggestions welcome.

Wayne

[JohnHenry]

How about relining the barrel? That works very well on .22 rimfire.

[texasmac]

How about relining the barrel? That works very well on .22 rimfire.

That is also an option I'm considering. Thanks.

Wayne

[BrentD]

Bore the old barrel out to about 0.6-0.625". Then reline it with a tight Lilja barrel that is about 17" long, and rechamber as you wish.

Just something to think about.

[edgehit]

Lothar Walther make a CIP dimensioned small bore barrel that must be made for a liner because it’s a few 1000’s under a 10mm diameter. Then there’s TJ liners that are hammer forged and have a bit of choke at the muzzle end. I shoot one of those in my Marlin 39A.

Good luck on finding your gunsmith who’s experienced with the 44.

[texasmac]

After more research I decided to have my Stevens 44 rebarreled with a 20" Shilen ratchet barrel. I decided on 20" for balance when shooting the chickens offhand. Since I'm a scope shooter barrel length is not as critical. Tom Klinger (based in Florida) is an expert on Stevens & CPA rifles and did an extremely nice job at a very reasonable price with excellent communication (lots of status updates). I’m very pleased.

He ordered the barrel, cut it to length, chamber it with a Freeland MG match chamber, machined & threaded it to fit the receiver with the correct breechblock pressure for lever lockup, finished the crown, cut the extractor notch, modified a new extractor blank to fit, rust-blued the barrel, and drilled & tapped it for scope bases. The extractor matches the chamber perfectly with absolutely zero case bulging in front of the rim and the lever locks up correctly which can be tricky to setup in a Stevens 44. All the ammo brands I subsequently tried chambered firmly and all engraved the riflings a good bit.

I asked Tom as to what type of rifles he’s comfortable working on in addition to Stevens & CPAs. I mentioned Win. & Browning’s, Low Walls, High Walls, Rem. Rolling blocks, etc. His response was, “the only things I don’t work on are modern guns. Black guns, bolt actions etc. I like to work on all that you mentioned. I also do bone-pack case hardening. I don’t do this work for a living, I’m retired but, I will take on jobs for people. I enjoy this kind of work! I like to take on one or two at a time so I can have good turnaround time and good service.”

So, if you’re considering having a highly recommended (at least by me) gunsmith work on a single-shot .22 or big-bore rifle, Tom’s you man.

BTW, initial range testing at 200yds resulted in groups of nearly 1MOA with two well-known brands of match ammo: RWS R100 @ 2.1" and Eley Match @ 2.2", and expect a bit of improvement after a few hundred rounds. Both resulted in velocities in excess of 1100fps which the rifle apparently likes.
Other brands did not do as well: Lapua Center X @ 4.2”, SK Long Range @ 4.1”, RWS R50 @ 4.0, 10.1, CCI Target @ 3.75” (all of these were less than 1100fps.

Wayne