Savage 219 and 220 Single Shot Rifles & Shotguns

The old barrel’s fit to the receiver was so sloppy, it would have required extensive work to correct. So, it was simply trashed.

I picked up this .22LR Stevens Favorite, Model of 1915, from a friend at a gun show. The sights sucked, the dovetail cuts wouldn’t accommodate new sights, the bore was a bit rough and, before long, the lever wouldn’t stay closed. But, the wood was pretty nice.

Jack First Gun Parts supplied some new guts. Marbles Gun Sights was kind enough to supply an adjustable tang sight with correct hole spacing. I already had Lyman 17A globe front and folding rear sights. Once the barrel was cut off and re-crowned behind the front dovetail and new dovetails cut, the new sights were installed. The wood was cleaned up and refinished with linseed oil. First stage results:





It shot pretty fair. But, I was dissatisfied with the slight bulge appearing in the fired cases, the extremely sloppy barrel fit to the receiver and the softness of the old steel. A Green Mountain barrel blank was cut for a close tolerance fit into the receiver. I left the barrel long (24.75”) with an eleven degree crown and proper dovetail cuts. A new extractor was fitted, and the takedown screw was re-contoured till it would tighten in below the surface of the receiver. Second stage results:



This project rifle will be test fired one last time in the morning, having received final adjustment to its crown, before shipment tomorrow afternoon to H&M Metal Processing in Akron OH for their Black Nitride treatment of all the steel parts (other than sights and springs), which will substantially harden and beautify them.

Stay tuned.

Time to add another one.   This is a rather long discussion of the Model 19. Starts in 2006 and ends in 2018 with the last entry none other than our fearless leader... Garnett, did you ever get that 32-20, I know it only took me from 1968 to last year to finally getting a Police Positive to match my 32-20 Winchester 92, lots of SAA,s but who can afford them...

https://www.gunandgame.com/threads/savage-model-219.29668/

Jim

Took this fellow out to try some RCBS 30-150-FNGC bullets from Montana Bullet Works, using my standard charge of SR 4759, with these 100 yard results:



How does this performance compare with others’ results shooting cast bullets from a 219?

Red, I'm talking about the "'Lefever' Long Range" singles made by Ithaca, including the Long Range Trap.  Some of them were marked "Western Arms" instead of Lefever.  I've seen a few of those and had one many years ago.  I assume that Savage bought the "Western Arms" trade name when they bought Stevens.

Real Lefever nuts resent the use of that name by Ithaca (which apparently bought either the gun company or the trade name).  Real Lefevers are really fine guns, and the "Long Range" guns aren't up to that standard, just "usin' guns"!  Since we now have many of our "name" sporting goods made in China or Turkey or wherever the labor is cheapest, I guess we should get used to that.  Or maybe not!

I was told the "Western Long Range" double is the Ithaca "Nitro Special" action with a cast rather than a forged receiver, and that the "Western Long Range" singles are the "Lefever" singles with a cast action.  I'm no metallurgist and probably couldn't prove it if I had the two side-by side. 

As an aside, many--probably most--successful 19th and early 20th Century economy break-open shotguns had cast iron receivers and are still blasting away just fine.  I've seen a very few cracked receivers but never one that blew up and caused injuries. 

When there was an exception to this practice, the manufacturer usually advertised it as such, hence the Winchester Model 37 "Steelbilt" shotguns, whose receivers were made on auto manufacturing equipment Winchester bought from a failed auto plant, as were the Model 24 doubles!