doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Riverside Double

My brother-in-law found a Riverside Double 16Ga. and was hoping to find out some info and load data on it. It`s has a patent date of April 1915. Serial# 879xx. The butt plate is stamped " AIROCEL " Lock up is pretty tight with the barrels closed.

Burch

Apr. 20, 1915, refers to the patent date of Patent No. 1,136,247 granted to G.S. Lewis and assigned to the J. Stevens Arms & Tool Co. of Chicopee Falls, Mass. This patent covers a hammerless double with coil-spring driven strikers, rather than internal hammers rotating about an axle. From the time of the patent until WW-II this action was used on a number of different Stevens, Riverside and Springfield doubles as well as many marked with a variety of "trade names." The gun of this design was introduced in 12- and 16-gauge as the Riverside No. 315 in the J. Stevens Arms & Tool Co. Catalogue No. 54, with a list price of $16.50. The plants of the J. Stevens Arms & Tool Co. were taken over by, as I recall, New England Westinghouse for wartime production during WW-I. After The Great War they were sold off to Savage Arms Corp. and became J. Stevens Arms Co. J. Stevens Arms Co. continued to make this gun during the 1920s as the Riverside No. 315. By 1925 the 20-gauge and .410-bore were added to the No. 315. The same action was also introduced as the Stevens No. 330 with a capped pistol grip walnut stock, while the Riverside had a half-pistol grip walnut stock. My Mother's double marked "Ranger" was one of these. By 1930 they dropped the Riverside name and the gun was the Springfield No. 315. For 1931 they introduced the Springfield No. 311 which was a similar gun but with an uncheckered "walnut finish" stock. These guns remained in the line up to WW-II. After WW-II the No. 311 emerged as a cheaper version of the Fox Model B action with a Tenite stock and forearm as a Springfield No. 311 in 1947. By 1948 the Springfield name was gone and the same gun was a Stevens No. 311.

WOW !!! Thanks alot Researcher for the indepth history on this one. That`s pretty interesting. I wonder if this gun could handle modern ammo, maybe bird shot or do ya think we should keep pressures low. The interior barrels are new looking with no signs of pitting or rust. The outside has most of the bluing gone but seems to be pretty sound overall.

burch

burch use low pressure, short 16 Ga. shells. I use RSTs, when I use factory ammo in my old 16s. That is my opinion.

I once had a 20ga version of this Stevens 315 marked as a Central Arms Co. One thing Researcher didn't make really clear here, likely just assuming we all knew it, The Stevens 311 & associated models are fired by a rotating hammer, & not the spring loaded striker as in the 315 model. At the same time I had the striker fired Central Arms Co gun my Dad had a 16ga Eastern Arms Co one which was hammer fired. Both guns had a very similar shaped frame & looked very much alike. One difference of note is the location of the two cross pins through the rear of the frame. On the striker fired guns the rear pin is higher in the frame than is the forward one while on the hammer fired guns the rear pin is lower, very near the frame bottom.