Possible Stevens?

[Robert Hipple]

26" 20 gauge , was double trigger converted to a single, beavertail forend, only markings are on water table, barrel flats and lug. Has a serial # C45854 on water table, barrel flats and forend. Pics attached. Has lots of engraving.

Stevens 5000/311?

[Jim DiSpagno]

Could be the Ithaca lever hardware store gun

[Researcher]

Looks like someone gussied up a Springfield No. 515 which the J. Stevens Arms Co. introduced in 1936. Does it have 5000 stamped on the right side of the frame?

J. Stevens introduced this new action with internal hammers rotating about an axle, replacing the G.S. Lewis action with coil spring driven strikers that they had been using since shortly before WW-I. The G.S. Lewis action was used on the Riverside Arms Co./later Springfield Arms Co. No. 315, the J. Stevens No. 330 and the 1929 introduced Springfield No. 311 as well as numerous "trade branded" guns. From mid-1932 until WW-II all these J. Stevens and Springfield doubles were offered with a non-selective single trigger option.

With this new action the J. Stevens gun became the No. 530 and the Springfield No. 515 while they continued using the G.S. Lewis action on the Springfield No. 311 and "trade branded " guns to WW-II. Pretty quickly after the introduction of the 5000 action they changed from using the two-piece top-lever and spindle as on your gun and went to a one-piece top-lever and spindle and the frames were stamped 5100.

For 1939, Savage Arms Corp. took the internal parts of the 5100 action, put them in a bit nicer profiled black gun metal finish frame with a bit nicer stock and introduced the Fox Model B --

1939 Flyer introducing Model B.jpg

[Robert Hipple]

I have looked all over even with a magnifying glass for a make or model anywhere to include under buttplate. Nothing

[Researcher]

The circle stamp with the large S and smaller P inside on the bottom of the barrel lug is the J. Stevens proof mark of the time. I don't have pictures of a 20-gauge, but here are some pictures of a .410-bore of about the same vintage --

C48223 01 .410-bore SPRINGFIELD.jpg

C48223 07.jpg

C48223 03a.jpg

[CHE]

i think the engraving is not factory and when the engraver prepped the gun for engraving he removed all the stamped ID.

[Kevin McCormack]

My neat little 26" .410 double is stamped "Model 311A"on the right side of the receiver, "J.C. Higgins Model 1017 Sears Roebuck & Company" on the left hand side, and the symbols A and O with an E in a circle appear stamped both in the metal and the wood of the forend.

The barrel flats are marked with the same nomenclature and the barrel lug is stamped with SP in an oval. The barrel forend lug is marked with what looks like the numeral 4 with an upper case B below it. Must have been a step above the basic model; stock and forend are nicely hand checkered and finished. Neat little gun and a blast to shoot!