Stevens Tip-Up Pocket Rifle

About the Stevens Tip-Up Pocket Rifle

The Stevens Tip-Up Pocket Rifle is an American single-shot rifle built on J. Stevens & Co.'s hinged tip-up action, in which the barrel pivots upward at the breech for loading a single cartridge. Essentially a long-barreled single-shot pistol fitted with a detachable iron skeleton shoulder stock, it could be carried in a pocket or saddlebag and assembled into a light rifle for target practice and small game. Chambered most commonly in .22 rimfire, it was marketed as a compact 'bicycle' or pocket rifle in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

J. Stevens & Co. was founded in 1864 by Joshua Stevens, whose very first product was a tip-up single-shot pistol. The pocket rifle extended that idea with a longer barrel and a detachable shoulder stock, offering an inexpensive, packable arm for plinking and small game. Often nicknamed the 'bicycle rifle' because it could be slipped into a bag while riding, it helped establish Stevens as one of America's leading makers of affordable sporting and boys' arms before the company was absorbed by Savage Arms in 1920.

Stevens Tip-Up Pocket Rifle specifications

Stevens offered pocket rifles in two broad families: the Old Model (roughly 1869-1886, with silver-finished brass frames and 9-10 inch barrels) and the later New Model line such as the No. 40 (introduced in the 1890s, with barrels of 10, 12, 15 and 18 inches). Calibers included .22 Long Rifle, .25 Stevens and .32 Long Rimfire. The detachable wire or skeleton stock was serial-numbered to match the gun and screwed into a channel on the underside of the grip frame.