Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Savage Collectors A shift in the collection

My fascination with the model 99 started in 2006 or so when I held my first winchester 88. It's a long story........take care. John

Dave, that Savage display might have been by a collectors group from California.

like gnoahhh i was born shooting. as far back as i can remember i was fascinated with lever guns. my first rifle was a 45-70 springfield and the first deer i killed fell to a slug from a model 24 savage 410. i became aware of the 99 when i met my wife's grandfather who had a 1899 in 250-3000.
wasn't until about 10 years ago i got my first as a f model in 250, then it was a f in 284, then a eg in 300, then.............
i still love anything in levers.

My dad started collecting Savages in the early 80's because "I can't afford Winchesters or the darn stuff you like" he would grumble as we stalked the gun shows. He would smile now to see how the tables turned.

"I can't afford Winchesters" ...been there.

That's funny! As a kid I remember my dad lusting after '99s. He couldn't afford those! The only rifle in the house was a heavily "sporterized" Westinghouse Mosin Nagant that was left to him by his Uncle Chuck. It now belongs to my son.

My interest in Savage lever guns was rekindled when I met Jeff Cooper at Graf in West Germany in 1987. He spoke highly of them too. Bought my first one, an 1899A, in 2002. Then I had a fascination with takedowns. An 1899H and 99F followed. Then a 99A Saddle Gun. I know, post mil crap! I finally ended up focusing on 1895's. Many have passed through here...

My "walking around" gun is a fruitwood stocked 99H in .303. According to David's book it's a V1-2. Love it!

I still can't afford any of them. My kids' inheritance has suffered.

Doug

No collection here. Just an accumulation of hunting rifles.

99's have been with me for a long time. I prefer EG's but own a few R's also. The 250-3000 is my favorite caliber.

Steve

This is about when it started for me.
The year before I tagged along with my Dad on a deer drive, he and I were standers in a creek bottom watching a snow covered wooded hillside. A string of deer came thru, Dad drops to one knee and rattled off a few shots, 99F (pic) a deer dropped. THAT was the coolest thing a 10 year old had ever seen! Then I was a hunter/hunter. Time goes on and hunter/shooter. More time and shooter/collector where I'm at now.

I'm somewhat anti Winchester. They are like what a buddy of mine used to say about Mustangs, opinions and your lower backside; everybody has one (my apologies to anyone possessing one of those three items). Winchesters, nice but a bit pedestrian. Savage 99, now thats one hella rifle!

I don't know,,, I could see myself filling a safe with Model 54's. (Anybody know of an affordable M54 .22 Hornet? )

Another anecdote about The Old Man, which actually set him on the road toward Savage. 1956 (I was going on 4 years old and this constitutes one of my earliest memories), and Mom had given Dad "permission" to buy a deer rifle with the income tax refund check, so he wouldn't have to continue borrowing a rifle to hunt with. As luck would have it a LGS had been flooded by the Susquehanna River and was having a big water damage sale. There on the rack, side by side, was a Savage 340 .30-30 and a Model 70 .30-06, both new but with a water mark halfway up their butt stocks. He had $60 to spend. The 340 was discounted to $40, the M70 to $60. He wanted the Model 70 so bad he could taste it but it would suck up his entire stash with nothing left over for ammo. He opted for the 340 instead, and had enough left over for two boxes of ammo and a hunting knife. We all walked out of that shop with smiles on our faces, got in the '50 Ford sedan, and stopped for ice cream cones on the way home.

Later, we went to the local gravel pit to "sight in" the new rifle. Mom even went along. The target was an empty one gallon gas can at what was probably 50 yards or so from the Ford hood which was the makeshift benchrest. I remember being Holy Hell impressed by the loudness and the fact that he hit it the can- this gun was truly the most awesome thing going in my young life. Perhaps it was a subliminal instigation for my current infatuation with things .30-30, and Savages?

I gave my nephew that 340 a few years ago, but I still have the knife, and the two tattered boxes of Remington ammo are sitting on a bookshelf. Geez, I'm getting a little misty eyed from remembering Pop and his 340 proudly posing beside the first deer he killed with it as it hung from our back porch. Somewhere I have that pic- if I can find it I'll scan it and post it.

Growing up poor, my grandad, who was actually "just" the old man next door that adopted me, built everything he could in his tiny woodshop. Any and everything was recycled, including wood, nails and screws. One Christmas he and my mom decided to go all out and build dad a real live locking gun cabinet, out of NEW wood. You remember, the kind everybody used to have with glass front doors made of plywood, usually oak, in this case birch, probably because oak was too expensive.

Dad was so proud of that case. I remember he had the old 30-06 Springfield, a sporterized Krag, his deer gun was a Marlin 30-30, mom's Mossberg 22LR, and his Remington 511 22LR. No shotguns for us, we were a blacktail deer hunting family, and birds were too small to be worth hunting for.

I remember sitting on the floor rummaging through the gun cabinet, dreaming of when I was old enough to hunt for myself. I went through the drawer underneath where the ammo was, taking cartridges out and rolling them around in my hand, pondering what I could kill with such things. I could look at the guns too since dad always left the key in the door lock. Even though we and most everyone we knew was poor, nobody stole anything then, so the lock was more in the way than anything.

There was one box of ammo in the drawer that dad didn't have a gun for. It fascinated me with it's Grizzly Bear on the front, and the name of the cartridge sounded positively lethal. It was something called a Savage 250-3000. I used to look at those cute cartridges and that Grizzly Bear, and dream of hunting both someday. I imagined what I could shoot with a mighty 250-3000, my imagination fueled by that big bear on the box!

I never knew anything about Savage 1899's or 99's then. But the seed was planted, and germinated in my teens.

I would love to look up from my loading bench and see one of those Grizzly Bear Boxes full of cartridges in the mighty 250-3000, just to remind me of a much simpler time, and dreams I had as a boy. Maybe I need to go shopping for one.

Do it, Roy. They're expensive, but it's only money. I have some ammo boxes from my formative years, duck decoys my elders used on the Susquehanna River, and other such memorabilia displayed all over my place. My ex-wife considered it junk and banished it from plain sight. Yet another reason...

My dad had a local woodworker guy (circa 1966) make him a solid walnut gun cabinet with glass door. Holds seven guns, two drawers below, and cost him a whopping $60. I have it setting in my bedroom today, with guns in it of course- all of my dad's guns I still have and a couple of mine. Secure? Nope. But my landlord lives downstairs and he's home all the time (he has put an honest to god 8,000 miles on the Yukon he bought in 2002), and is even better armed than I am.

Gary, you keep your landlord in the basement guarding your guns? Dang, I need to get me one a those.

That was my job as a 10yr old(early sixties), to run out an set up the water jug's at 40-50yds.My Father & Uncle's would whip out their 300 Savage's and 180 Corelokts, demolish the jug's ( open sight's)and almost alway's had their buck's hanging the next day.

Maybe in our striving and hoarding, we've lost sight of some of the simple things. I think I'll ponder that a bit...

Indeed.

Shot my first buck in 1976 with a pre-mil F 308 with a William's foolproof and a few thereafter.Scoped rifle's were nonexistant.How time's have changed.Now everyone is bent on shooting 1" group's.

You know what they say about the man with one gun. To that I'll add that maybe it enriches our appreciation of what we have and how we use it. Or at least it makes for better memories - perhaps even better experiences.

Nope, scopes aren't necessary.....but plaid and blue jeans are.

Funny how everyone has gotten into the bench rest game, even if they had no intention on doing so.

Winchesters are fine, but they are like Schwin bikes were when I was a kid. You paid an awful lot more for just the name. My first store bought bike was made by AMC - the bowling ball company that also owned Harley Davidson. They made cheaper Schwins. I rode the krap out of that bike. My next store bought bike was actually a John Deere. That's because my Dad worked for Deere and got a good discount. It was a 10-speed and I swear it was built as stout as their combines!