Henry Rifle Forums

Since Sir Henry stepped out for some cold north woods plinking, I figured I better do my duty as a north woods gal and do the same.

This afternoon with a temperature right at zero, I stepped out on the deck with my favorite daily plinker and went to work. Given the temp, my 1953 vintage Marlin was just the ticket for cycling the action fast with CCI Quiets. In no time at all, I had the Marlin 39 emptied before my fingers got cold. Only missed once, shooting the 2" steel swingers at 25 yards.



Today, I also finished working on my S&W Model 63 22 LR that had been showing some sticky extraction when emptying the cylinder on my first range trip last month. Polished up those chambers till they shined and then did some test firing. It empties as sweet as can be, now. Can't wait to get out and shoot this little jewel, again.



Next project was restoring one of our vintage 10/22s with a better stock. When I bought this 1968 10/22 earlier this year, a previous owner had added sling studs front and back.


While not a big deal for shooting, it does reduce the value and collectibility because up until 1971, all Ruger 10/22 stocks were made for Ruger by Overton. This means that if you want to replace the stock and maintain authenticity, you can't just add any old 10/22 stock. It has to be an Overton. Finally found another Overton and now my '68 Carbine is wearing this one, just like the stock came when new. Much nicer.



More projects to go, but I'll have plenty of time over our long north woods winter to get it all done with plenty of time to do some more daily plinking, too.

Two inches at 25 yards is a real challenge. I have several Overton stocked 10/22’s and dont do anything to them except shoot them. I do modify newer ones. I think that is one thing that draws me to the Henry rimfires -I can do anything to them and not butcher a classic like a 39 or 9422

I agree. That's the beauty of 10/22s. You can make them into whatever suits you without ruining a high dollar gun. Henry levers are much the same. Both are made to get out and shoot and have fun. That's the thing I still remember the first time I shot a friend's 10/22. It was like, wow, what a fun gun to shoot. Have to get one of these.

NCG, I would love to hear how you polished the chambers on your M/63.

Who/what was Overtons and do they still exist?

Sorry about that. I should have explained it.

Overton means S.E. Overton woodworking company. Overton made stocks for the U.S. military in WW II, such as the M1 Carbine and others. Overton also made stocks for some private gun companies over the years. Given how the 10/22 and the 44 mag Carbine were Ruger's very first rifles, Ruger had Overton make their rifle stocks to get production going.

Circa 1970, Ruger moved production of the 10/22 to a new factory in Newport N.H. and then started to produce their own stocks sometime in 1971, so Overton stocked 10/22s are only found on 10/22s from the first year of production in 1964 up through sometime in 1971. All these early Ruger 10/22 stocks were walnut, by the way.

The most famous Overton 10/22 models are the finger groove Sporter which ran from 1966 through 71 and the even rarer first 10/22 International (full stock) which only ran from 1966 through 1969. These are the holy grail guns for 10/22 collectors. Here's my 1966 finger groove Sporter. It originally came with its own unique set of sling studs.


Overton 10/22 Carbine stocks are bit tougher to spot on a gun rack, but if you look closely at the knob at the very front of the stock (below), an Overton carbine stock will have a slight backward taper at the tip, unlike the later flat tip of Ruger Carbine stocks. (Overton Carbine sticks did not come with sling swivel studs. The one in the pic below was added by a former owner.)


The surest way to ID an Overton carbine stock, though, is to remove the stock and look at the barrel channel. The Overton will have a cut out in the barrel channel that the later Ruger made stocks do not have.


All original 10/22 Overton stocks in excellent condition can easily run several hundred dollars for a finger groove or International and a hundred or more for the Carbine. I paid a hundred for the one above that had not been altered by adding sling swivel studs.