Such thing as a Stevens with centerfeed stock?

[guhunter]

I'm thinking about putting together a target gun and starting with a new Stevens 200 as a base. With the limited stock options for centerfeed guns, I was just wondering if newer Stevens rifles are also the centerfeed design.

[possum1]

yes

[placek59]

They make them both ways. I was just recently handling some on a rack at a local sporting goods store, and they had 2 different 22-250's there. One with a staggered feed and one center feed. It probably just depends on how long they have been hanging out on the shelf. The only other ones they had were long action, and I didn't look that closely at them. I would bet if you ordered a new one it would be centerfeed as that is what my 7mm-08 is that I ordered that day.

[pdog06]

The staggered feed one was just old stock they had. All new ones are now centerfeed. But like you found out, ya never know, might just still be one older one out there.

You could always check with Northlander in the vendors classifieds. he has both centerfeed and staggerfeed actions in stock.

[Todd33]

I bought one a couple of weeks ago at academy that was stagger feed. Kinda surprised me. With all the sales they run I figured they went through inventory pretty fast.

[guhunter]

How would one easily tell which one they were handling? Is it easy to tell visually? Is the bolt spacing a giveaway? Thanks guys

[kleeber]

The bolt spacing on the long actions is the same, but they are different on the short actions. I couldn't tell by looking, I'd have to measure it.

It is easy to tell visually by opening the action and looking at the top of the mag box: the metal lips at the top of the mag box bend inward a lot more on a center feed than on staggered. If you take an empty brass casing for the cartridge the rifle is chambered in, it will contact the plastic follower on a staggered feed if you just place it in the action. On a center feed, it will rest on the metal lips (not touching the plastic follower) until you press the case down and it springs through the lips. This spring action of both mag lips is what holds the cartridge in the magazine on a CF; on a SF, the cartridges are trapped between the mag body's small metal lip at the top on one side and the cartridge follower (or following cartridge) from below on the other side.

Incidentally, if you are only interested making a single shot, the fact that the spacing is the same on the longs means you can buy a CF action and put it on a SF stock. The only other thing you need is one of the single-shot followers that SSS sells ($18, look under "accessories" on their web page) that plug the hole in the bottom of the action when you leave off the CF magazine.