It is a shame but true that the working man's gun of American make has now joined the passenger pigeon, apparently never to return. The sad decline of the Stevens/Fox Mod. B /3ll & 5100 series can be chronicled by deterioration of quality materials and handwork (not that there was ever too much of that even in their heydays). Beech was substituted for walnut, pressed in checkering replaced the crude albeit handcut stuff, forend irons were replaced by plastic or graphite moulding. Compare a gun made in the 40's or 50's with one made a few years later and you will be dismayed at the loss of quality. Older Stevens marked "Ranger, Western-Field, Eastern Arms," etc. represent the best of what may always have been somewhat of a clunker, but at least an honest working man's gun. Chopper