Stevens Arms
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Stevens Arms was founded as J. Stevens & Co. in Chicopee Falls, MA,[1] in 1864 by Joshua Stevens and backers W.B. Fay and James Taylor. The company's earliest product was a tip-up pistol of Stevens' invention.[2] Business was slow into 1870, when it still occupied a converted grist mill and had just sixty employees. The 1873 Panic only reduced this further, though it was making double shotguns as early as 1876.[3] In 1886, the company was reorganized and incorporated, as J. Stevens Arms & Tool Co., with slow, steady growth; as before, tools accounted for most of the company's output.[4]
Beginning in 1880, the company began making falling block rifles.[5] While less known than Ballard or Winchester, these were of comparable quality, but at the lower end of the price spectrum. Under names like Favorite, Little Scout, Crackshot, and Marksman, Stevens sold millions of reliable single-shot weapons, in the days before bolt actions existed.
In addition, in 1887, Stevens developed the .22LR round,[6] which has served as an introductory caliber for children for decades, as well as being very popular for plinking, varmint and target shooting. The .22 LR was available beginning in 1888, in the #1, #2, #9, and #10 break-top rifles, and in their New Model Pocket and Bicycle rifles.[7]
As several manufacturers would later do with other wildcats, Stevens adopted the .25-20 Single Shot, developed by J. Francis Rabbeth in 1882. The unpopularity of the bottlenecked case led Stevens around 1897 to develop the .25-21, by shortening its own .25-25 of 1895, both designed by Capt. W. L. Carpenter, 9h U.S. Infantry[8] (This is an odd reversal of the relationship of the .38 S&W Special to the .357 Magnum.) The .25-25 would be used in Stevens' model 44 and (from 1903) model 44½ rifles.[9]
One of the new partners, and bookeeper, I.H. Page, bought out Stevens and Taylor in 1896 and led the company to significant growth, such that by 1902, it had 900 employees and was boasting of being the top sporting firearms manufacturer in the world. In 1915, it led the U.S. arms business in target and small game guns. Unusually, it never made a military weapon.[10] Stevens would be bought out by Savage in 1920, but rifles and shotguns continued to be sold under the Stevens brand.
In 1938, Stevens introduced the Model 87, which sold over a million copies, plus more as the Savage Model 6 and under the Sears label.[11]
[edit] References
- ^ S.P. Fjestad, Blue Book of Gun Values (Blue Book Publications, 2006), p.1565
- ^ Norm Flayderman, Flayderman's Guide to Antique American Firearms (DBI Books, 1994), p.209
- ^ Harold Murtz, Gun Digest Treasury (DBI Books, 1994), p.1923
- ^ Flayderman, ibid.
- ^ Murtz, op. cit., p.195
- ^ Frank Barnes, Cartridges of the World (DBI Books, 1976), p.274
- ^ ibid.
- ^ Barnes, op. cit., p.74
- ^ ibid., p.75
- ^ Flayderman, ibid.
- ^ Murtz, op. cit., p.197
