Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Savage Collectors Savage Rifle Presented to Shah of Iran 1971

I have heard of this rifle but never have seen any information about what it was or looked like. From what I can gather it was presented to the Shah in Oct 1971 by David Rockefella Chairman of Chase. Anybody have additional info? Tom.

IIRC, there is a picture of a 99 Iranian Presentation Rifle in one of the early 1960's Savage catalogs. I think that it was a 99DL/M style rifle that was highly engraved and had gold inlays.

Just went through all the 1960 catalogs and did not find any info, thanks for responding, Tom.

I have an ad in my Savage paper collection that feature such a rifle.

It very well may be that the reference I found (1971) may be for another rifle given to the Shah. I know all the Presentation and Citation Grade Savages came out in the mid 60's but these did not have any gold inlay and I would think a rifle given to a foreign dignitary would be one of a kind. Tom.

IIRC, the rifle that I have a picture of has the Iranian Royal Seal engraved and inlayed with gold on the receiver.

And why would anyone be interested in that?

The gun to the Shah seen most was a late 30'S given by F.D.R.

Tom,
There is a picture of a rifle presented to His Imperial Highness..............of Iran on page 24 of the 1953 Savage catalog. Presented by FDR.
John

Thanks for that info John. Naturally I am missing 1953-1956 catalogs. May have to get some repros to fill the gap, Tom.

Somebody here probably nice enough to send you one or take a picture of the rifle and post it.
John

Frank De Haas article in the November 1958 GUNS magazine mentions it. http://www.gunsmagazine.com/1958issues/G1158.pdf

Interesting article. It has quite a few errors, the most glaring of which is that it says the 250-3000 was the most widely used of the Savage cartridges to date (1958). The 300 greatly outsold the 250 from it's introduction on so unless the rifles in 300 weren't getting much use that statement is incorrect.

He states the .250 was most widely used, and next paragraph that the .300 was the mainstay of the line (of 99s)since inception in 1920. Widely-used to me would indicate production beyond the M99.

Are you absolutely sure his statement was incorrect?

Thanks for the article. Even given the errors I printed it. Took some time because of the way it was broken up but it was worth printing.

As others have noted there are some mistakes in the article.

Given that the article was written in 1958, the most interesting thing in the article to me was the following sentence: "A sliding shotgun safety on top is offered as a special feature by Savage, for left-handed shooters." (Near the top of page 16.)

Has anyone seen or heard of such an option on a Utica or Chicopee Falls 99?

As I read it I thought he was talking about the post mill rifles with top tang safety, was Nov of 58 too early for those?

1958 was too early for the postmil tang safeties, but plenty late enough for the aftermarket tang safeties that we see. I don't recall seeing any information that Savage would install them though.

kgb41. I took it that the author meant the most widely used cartridge available in the 99 since that was what the article was about. I doubt if you lumped all the rifles in each caliber together the 250-3000 would be more widely used than the 300. I would be interested on any statistics you could provide on this topic. Thanks, David

As I recall the engraved "Shah of Iran" Model 99 was illustrated on the inside cover of the 1948, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53 and 1954 catalogs. The gun as ordered by President Roosevelt to be given as a gift, was a target single barrel shotgun, fully engraved. How this got applied to a Model 99 is lost to history. Anyway, something happened to change FDR's mind in giving the Shah a gift and it was returned to Savage Arms and was never presented to the Shah. The gun was engraved by W.H. Gough who was the company's engraver for the A.H. Fox shotgun line. The "Shah" rifle remains in the United States in the care of a private family. JTC