Up until right before the War, Hervey Lovell said that the .22 Maximum Lovell was his favorite for efficient use of the .25-20SS case to drive .22 bullets. After the War when he had relocated to the Pacific NW, his attention drifted toward larger case sizes and higher velocities. I reckon this rifle was built while he was still in Indianapolis, sometime prior to WWII.
The gun weighs a shade under 10 pounds without scope. The 15X Unertl pushes it over a point where I wouldn't want to lug it very far out across the woodchuck pastures. I need to find a little Unertl/Fecker/Litschert of around 8-10X to live on the rifle.
The box magazine + all of its internals was removed, as was the Krag side plate (which was replaced with a simple nicely fitted simple steel plate inside the 'boundaries' of the receiver). The thick heavy stock covers the 'amputated' appendages on both sides of the rifle. A collar was fitted inside the bolt face to snugly capture the rim of the smaller cartridge, and the extractor hook lengthened to snag same. Ejector was eliminated- empty cases must be plucked from under the extractor. Approximately 1/4" was removed from the leading edge of the sear (to accommodate the set trigger kicker, and possibly to shorten the length of firing pin travel), the cocking knob removed, and the safety was reversed (why, I don't know).
A chamber cast revealed a lot of freebore in the throat, allowing bullets to be seated waaaay out. Maybe Hervey was thinking in terms of using extra long heavy bullets, but if so why the 1-14" twist? Extra powder volume for even more 'Maximum' velocity- wringing out the nth degree of velocity? Who knows?
The trigger definitely took some getting used to. Out of 50+ shots fired, I must have forgotten to set it 30 times. (That coming from someone with traditional double set triggers on most of my bolt guns.)
This rifle may well cause me to abandon my 20-year hiatus on woodchuck hunting this summer. Something about a Lovell chambering that stirs that desire! (Previous addiction to that sport back in another lifetime centered around other Lovell chamberings in single shots.)
I think old Hervey Lovell would have been a cool guy to sit and talk guns with, and take turns with punching holes in paper or taking pot shots at groundhogs on a warm summer evening. I swear I was born 30 years too late!
