Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Savage Collectors When was the bluing transtion?

When was the mirror like charcoal bluing used on the earlier 99s changed over to to the dull blue/black? 1920'S ? Does anybody have a year?

End of WWI.

So 1918 or whenever Jay Gatsby might have returned after the war.

I was ready to say 1920 but I'll bow to Rory.

The oldest gun in my humble 99 collection is a circa-1929 takedown F in .303. My next oldests are a 1933 R and a 1957 EG, both in .300. The R and EG have the lighter silverish colored blue and the F has a noticeably darker black blue. All three are in pretty good original condition. What is the difference in how the two types of blue were produced?

I have an SRC that the serial number indicates 1917 production but the JTC letter shows it shipped in 1919. It has the duller blue. David

I would put it WWI, around 193,000... give or take.

Savage was tinkering around with different finishes on there pistols around WWI and I think there might have been some done on the rifles, also.

PS...there was also a period of brighter blue (higher polish) in the 300,000 to 316,000 range. Not all models. Appears to be more common on the F,G,and K's. We need to do more research on this period of production.

My SRC is serial #1923xx. It's the bottom rifle in this pic from Figure 3-1, p.26 of my book.

David

I like the finishes from the 20's and 30's the best. that semi flat almost black. is that considered a rust blue, or would a rust blue duplicate that look?

Rick99 I saw a 99 with the high blue polish on Cabela's gun library that looked in really good condition. But because of the high polish bluing I wasn't sure if it had been re-blued. Serial 302xxx range. It had a cresent butt plate and was a takedown. What model would that be?

I don't know about the 20's & 30's but they were still doing at least some guns with the rust blue type process in 1951 -

(from a 1951 catalog)

When they started making guns for WWI I think they would have tried to find the fastest & cheapest bluing method available at that time, so I can't see them doing several applications of rust blue to every Lewis machine gun and definitely not a high polish charcoal blue. By the end of the war they probably had much of their blueing department switched over & didn't see any reason to go back to the old methods.

Ed7189, receiver is bright blue barrel is not. Wood has a gloss coat of something, not oiled.

Crescent Buttplate and takedown in that serial range should be a 99B.

Rick,

Thanks for the PS. After reading the first few posts in this thread and thinking that the change occurred 1918 +/- I pulled my bright blue .303 99G, sn. 307xxx out of the safe to look at it again to see if I could find any evidence that it had been reblued. It still looked original to me, so I am glad to know that my rifle falls in the range of brighter blue rifles that you mentioned.

I bought a 95% plus 99-B in that serial range listed on GB by Williams Gun sights..."we think it has been finished". Thank you Williams.

Take a look at a rust blued gun in a room with only one flouresent light. You can see the brown/rust color to the scary point. LED light will work as well but not daylight or incandesent.

i have 2 model Es 304...306 or 7 that i'll check when i get home.

norm

This pic shows the difference between a 1917 high gloss blue receiver on an 1899 250-3000 and the duller blue on a 1919 1899 250-3K.


I think I'll go put a scope on something.
David

Drill and tap the one on the left.

Might as well it has a repaired crack on the forearm.