I recently acquired a Stevens 87J for similar reasons...

by rob , Monday, March 18, 2013, 18:34 (4271 days ago) @ Sarge

I've been wanting a good rimfire that will shoot shorts that I could sight in and dedicate to CB Shorts for quite work. This rifle is pretty clean with just some minor scratches in the stock that would refinish easily and nicely if I were interested. The firing pin was broke and I ordered an upgraded version from Numrich and fitted it. Only problem with it now is the chamber is pinged from someone dry firing it and needs a little chamber iron work. I need to buy or borrow one (Brownells has them for around $22 IIRC) and I should be able to clean it up and get it back in service. Neat rifle, long barrel and real nice ballance and the barrel looks brand new except for the firing pin dent. It's semi-auto and when you pull the trigger it fires and captures the bolt and firing pin in the open position. When you release the trigger it releases the bolt capturing the firing pin. With shorts you are supposed to chamber the round manually and push the bolt pin into the receiver to lock it. I suspect if it doesn't cycle all the way back it can chamber another short and machine gun it like an open bolt MG because it has to cycle back all the way to catch the firing pin/hammer. I'm really looking forward to cleaning up the chamber and putting it into service!