Now the big question I have: when was the last 1895 assembled by Marlin ? And what date did Savage fire up their plant and start producing rifles ? Did Marlin just pitch the extra receivers and barrels they had out the window, or did they send them along to Savage ??
I believe they sent alot of the old parts along. I've seen and owned low serial numbered 1899's made in the 10.000+ with 1895 furniture and barrels although the bolts were switched out to 1899 bolts but they were doing that pre-10.000 anyways. IIRC I think I saw a couple 1895 barrels on low 11.000 1899's as well but definitely on the 10,000's.
Not jealous, more curious. A letter from the historian stating it left as a 30-30 would be a first for an 1895 and would up the worth of the gun quite a bit. Just having a hard time believing one left in 30-30. It almost seems like from the start of this thread that were trying to talk ourselves into believing one left the factory in this caliber but I tend to believe facts over fiction. No malice towards the gun, and I think it would be awesome to know that one left in a different caliber other than 303 but now we've taken it to another level than what we've learned over a number of years which is that 1895's were only made in 303 Sav. I've got photo copies of factory ledgers of 1895's and all are in the same original caliber.
