Old Farmer Rifles

[AmBraCol]

If there's anything that really suffers on a farm, it's the guns. At least that's my observation after visiting farms in many locations on two different continents... But this time I found something new. Instead of the typical neglect and corrosion, an excess of enthusiastic care did the deed.

My wife and I were blessed to be able to take off a couple of days this week and accept the invitation of some friends to visit a "farm" his dad has south of where we live a few kilometers. Now his dad raised his kids and supported his wife by working the land, eventually owning, if I recall correctly, four different parcels of land that he worked. Now he's retired and purchased a small lot in a "development" and built a pretty nice house there, which the family uses to entertain friends or simply as a place to get out of urban areas for some relaxation.

Our friend told me, "I know you like to shoot and that you know a lot about guns, my dad's rifle isn't working right. He thinks it's the ammunition that's gone bad, but I think it MIGHT be the firing pin or something." So he dug the rifle out and it was wrapped up and stored in a zippered case - but wasn't rusted as such rifles usually are. I held it to the light and discovered it's a Stevens Savage 987 in 22 LR caliber. Now I didn't even KNOW such a model existed, much less had I ever seen one in person, but undaunted by common sense is my life's rallying cry so I looked it up on the 'net, found that parts are still available and even found a 'tube video showing disassembly. So out to the car boot for a screw driver, pulled off the stock, undid the trigger block safety slide, unscrewed the rear of the action and pulled out the firing pin, which is fitted to a weight which takes the place of a hammer in this model. Thankfully I'd asked for some paper towels as I'd never seen such an over oiled gun before - except ones I'd drenched in 30 wt motor oil when packing away for an extended period of time.

The mainspring on this rifle is actually two springs, one coiled inside of the other. And all of this was covered in enough oil to get OPEC excited. And heavy oil at that. Plus, the firing pin showed no signs of ever having been deburred at the factory, but otherwise was in great shape. So I wiped it all down, grabbed a fine grit whet stone and polished the sides of the firing pin slightly, reassembled it, cocked it and pulled the trigger and it went cliiiick. So I pulled it apart again, wiped it down again, swabbed out as best I could around the bolt itself, reassembled, inserted three "dud" shells that showed signs of a very light strike on each rim, racked one into the chamber, fired at a guava on the ground out back of the house and this time it went BANG, then cliiiick... so I jacked out the "dud", removed the other one from the magazine (it's tube fed) and disassembled it all again. I couldn't get it as good as I wanted as one of the screws holding the trigger assembly to the action is VERY difficult to get at and I only had a "make do" screw driver at hand. But I proceeded to wipe it all down, reassemble, rack the bolt a few times, disassemble, wipe it all down, etc, etc, etc - 8 repetitions in all. Then I ran a couple of cartridges (the aforementioned "duds") through it and it loaded, fired, cycled and repeated just fine. The rims of the fired shells showed a definitely deeper indentation than the previous ones. He took it and ran a couple more cartridges through it (more "duds") and it continued to run OK. BUT, I'm not convinced it's "fixed", just not as badly tied up by excess heavy oil like before.

I told him, "Your dad's been oiling this with motor oil." "Naw, he likes 3 in 1." was his answer. But later he called his dad who told him, "Yeah, I've been using motor oil." I can only imagine what it would have been like at -30*!!! Anyway, someday I may go back over, take some brake cleaner to it and give it a good cleaning out. I'm still not sure how that second trigger group screw is supposed to come out, I didn't see anyway to get at it with a normal screw driver that didn't put it at risk of buggering up the slot. I was more than happy to give back a little for the hospitality extended. Hopefully he'll take my advice and NOT use that motor oil anymore!

[gamekeeper]

I first heard the term "farmers gun" when I worked for Westley Richards, we often had guns brought in for repair or servicing that were obviously neglected beyond belief.
I was once asked by my father in law who was a farmer to walk along side the combine in case a fox bolted from the wheat in front of the combine, he handed me a 12 gauge side by side and a couple of shells, I looked at the gun and just hoped and prayed that the fox wouldn't show. The gun was so off the face and rattled so badly not to mention the pitted barrels that it was only fit to hang on a wall.

[AmBraCol]

I've got my grandpa's old 22 that my aunt gave me after he passed away. Took about half a can of brake cleaner just to flush the bolt out. That rifle did great service over the years on the farm, but a troop of grandkids took its toll and it took a bit of work to get it up and shooting again. Everyone thought it was "shot out", but it was just neglected and abused. I've got a Savage in 223 waiting for me to try and resurrect it one of these years I get up north, another "farmers' gun" that was "rode hard and put up wet". That Stevens Savage 987 was a first, the first time I found a farmer's gun that was "over maintained"

[TraderVic]

Having worked in agriculture my entire career, and actually still am involved through very part time jobs, have seen a number of guns commonly kept around the barns or sheds. Some were 22 rifles, some were shotguns. The worst ones (overall condition) were guns stupidly kept around the milk house.

[Bill in Oregon]

Paul, "good on ya, mate," for taking it upon yourself to service your friend's father's rifle.

[JimT]

I was just now working on Grandpa's rifle. My Grandpa bought it back in the early 1900's .. a Stevens Marksman .22. He used it on the Farm until he retired. It was used for slaughtering hogs, cows, shooting stray dogs, groundhogs and whatever else needed shot. When he passed I got it from Grandma. I have passed it to my first Grandson and he loves shooting it. I wrote out its history and stipulated that he has to give it to his first grandson.

The last time out it misfired quite a bit. I noticed the hammer spring was pretty light. I took the gun apart .. stretched the hammer spring a bit and found out that the tension on the hammer spring is adjustable via a screw behind the trigger! Pretty cool. And now it is running like a new gun!

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[TraderVic]

I have an old vintage 1900 +/- single shot 22 that I'd like to have a gunsmith clean up, but it has no ID on it, including no serial numbers, etc. So far, no gunsmith will take it because they can't ID it to log it in