Stevens Ideal No. 51 Schuetzen

About the Stevens Ideal No. 51 Schuetzen

The Stevens Ideal No. 51 Schuetzen is an American single-shot falling-block target rifle built by the J. Stevens Arms & Tool Company of Chicopee Falls, Massachusetts from the late 1890s. One of the high grades of the famous Ideal line, it was a full-dress Schuetzen offhand target rifle offered on the standard No. 44, the heavier 44 Heavy Schuetzen, and the strong 44½ falling-block actions, operated by an ornate finger-spur underlever that drops the breechblock. Chambered most commonly in the .32-40 but also offered from .22 rimfire up through .38-55, it came standard with a heavy part-octagonal barrel, double-set triggers, fancy checkered straight-grip walnut, engraving and a heavy Swiss-style Schuetzen buttplate, with false muzzle and palm rest available on order. It sat one step below the top-of-the-line No. 54 Schuetzen Special and shared its features in the straight-grip configuration, distinguishing it from the pistol-grip No. 52 Schuetzen Jr.

American Schuetzen shooting was a golden age of the single-shot rifle around 1900, and the Stevens Ideal high grades like the No. 51 - with their hooked Swiss buttplates, palm rests and double-set triggers - were built for offhand matches fired at 200 yards, where a rifle's barrel and sights mattered more than its rate of fire.

Stevens Ideal No. 51 Schuetzen specifications

The No. 51 was one of the three premium Schuetzen grades of the Stevens Ideal line (Nos. 51, 52 and 54). The No. 52 'Schuetzen Jr.' carried the same specification in a pistol-grip stock, while the No. 54 'Schuetzen Special' was the flagship with extra-fancy walnut and Vernier tang and wind-gauge sights. Nearly every dimension - barrel length and weight, sights, engraving and finish - was available to special order, so surviving rifles vary widely, and barrels rifled by Harry M. Pope during his Stevens partnership are especially prized.