Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Savage Collectors Yesterday I got a Savage 1904 at the gunstore for $50 and shot it

Mad Dog's 1905-B has a full sized stock, here is a picture that compares the 1904, 1911, 1905-B & 1905 with Swiss butt plate, so you can see the 1905-B is not just a 1905 action in a 1904 stock, it has an adult sized stock -



Here are a couple 1904 Junior Specials that have wood with some figure and checkered stocks, the lower one is very early with a fixed rear peep sight and no provision for a regular sight, it also has the early trigger guard that is all the same narrow width, later trigger guards are much wider and contoured -



The action used on the 1904, 1905 & 1911 was Arthur W. Savage's last design for Savage Arms.

I checked out my 1904,and 1905 last night,there was nothing odd about the barrel addresses! Rick, there is still some pretty awesome cider up to the camp,but i dont drink it anymore!!! that stuff will get you into trouble.!!!

Gene, I see one of your Jr Spl's has the early rear peep. What is the serial range and do you have a feel for when that changed? I have one 1904, 1048x, with the peep.

Have any of you guys ever seen a 1904 stamped "Sport" on the receiver?

Guy was posting pics of one at SS, I've never seen anything like it before. Has the dovetail for the early peep sight but has a sporting rear in it now.

None of mine have it.

I'm right confused by it.

Right now to me it looks like a 1904 stock with a Savage buttplate but the bolt looks like a model 3 or something.

Actually now that I look at it closer, it's not a 1904 it's a totally other brand that somebody has modified a 1904 stock to fit, isn't it?

I just put a post on the SS site about that gun... it's a COOEY single shot with a Savage butt plate and possible a Savage stock... made in Canada, where ever that is...

ADDED - here's one of the links I posted at SS, a different version but same action -
-cooey-82-training-rifle/

Rick, I will get some better information on these later this week. Joe, the early peep sight on these was just pressed into a small round hole and the later leaf sight was held on by a screw, so no dovetails.

Ahh, never knew they were pressed in, always thought they were in a dovetail. Never owned one with the peep, mine all have the 29B rear sight on the, I believe my model 1922's have the same sight. For the life of me without opening the safe I can't remember if my 1911 wears a 29B or the same rear sight as my 1909 and 1912.

A COOEY? How did a Cooey get down into the U.S., haha.

Cooeys are like 99 EG's in 300 Sav up here, everybody has one.

I still want you to find me a COOEY 35.

For the peep sight there is a milled channel to keep it aligned but it is held in by a round pin on the bottom.

Rick, that one with the peep sight in the picture is serial number 16551, it's gone (actually just sold the stock, the receiver was cracked at the locking lug - probably from shooting modern Hi-Speed ammo), I replaced it with a another Junior Special, serial number 18479, that also has the peep sight. There is something in one of the catalogs about the peep sights still being available after the 29-B sight was introduced and I think the Special versions were still cataloged as having the peep sights for a time after the change to the 29-B sight on the standard version - I have to look through the catalogs again.

The 29B sights that were used on the 1904 & 1922 Sporter were a little different, this is an old picture I made of them a few years ago. The sights on the 1904 are held on by a #5-48 screw and the 1922 Sporters used a #10-36 and because it was larger it needed a flattened area around the hole to help it seat, they also made some of them from thicker metal which allowed for better seating of the screw -



The 1911's did use the same sight as the 1909 & 1912.

I missed one of them Cooey 35's by about an hour last year, tougher to find than a 99T up here.

Checked on my 1904's #1 11xxx dovetail sight just ahead of the bolt special butt plate--#2 207xx small lettering big 1904 -- special butt plate very small dovetail and sight behind bolt #3 363xx sight on barrel 2 screws -- #4 367xx sight behind bolt dovetail with very small peep sight special butt plate --#5 1502xx small lettering big 1904 -- #6 1690xx small lettering small 1904 --#71828xx small lettering small1904 --#8
1842xx small 1904 .

S/N 78052

Doug, I am thinking that's a typo & it should not have the 7?

I have not dug mine out of the safe yet but I had these parts guns at hand, other than the repaired weld these are as I got them and were just thrown into the 'project & reference pile'.

Very early 1904 and a very late 1905 -



This is from a Junior Special and I sold the stock, the buyer did not want this action/barrel because of the condition and the repair.

Early and late trigger guards -


Early peep sight -


Late 1905 sights, the windage locking screw is missing and from the patina on the parts it apparently was missing for a long time, there are two brass shims in the sight probably put there to put tension on the sight so it would better hold the windage setting. I see nothing to suggest that these sights were not original to the gun, the front sight in the low version which would be correct for that rear -

Gene #7 gun serial 1828xx

Gene, thanks for all the pictures!

I wonder if the switch in rear sights is in the area of the 364xx to 367xx that Doug posted? That would be around 1906?

Sorry for the long delay since the previous posts, these rifles were in the back of a safe & I just kept putting off getting them out, they were behind my Model 4's among others. Comparing these was a 'when I get time' project and I finally got a little time.

I also looked through the catalogs because I had remembered seeing something about the peep sight being an option for a time -

- #15 first with the Junior Special and the description mentions 'ivory bead front sight', mine have Lyman's
- #16 ~1907~ still only has the peep sight
- #17 shows barrels sight in the picture of the standard 1904, peep on the Special
- #24 says "can be supplied with either peep- or open sights"
- #35 the same as #24
- #40 ~1911~ no more mention of the peep sight.

I do not have pictures of a really late production 1904 (by then cataloged as the 04) that had "REGULAR CARTRIDGES" stamped under the 22 S, L & LR and the serial number on the side of the receiver, I had worked on one for a friend and I must not have taken pictures.

I do have pictures of the peep sight and both an early and late barrel sight and some variations of the barrel stamp -







Both of the 1904 Junior Specials appear to have had the original finish removed (unless it were some kind of oil), they are not sanded down much but do show some coarse sanding marks and some dents show signs of being sanded over, but the checkering is still quite good.

My inventory showed one more 1904 than I could find, when I went to put them away I thought I could sneak a 1904 sideways behind some other guns in the safe... NOT - there was already one there.

Late gun, bluing is more of a matte look than the others, different butt plate, different model stamp -


1905's - found the model stamp was the same on all, two different barrel stamps, on the early gun the special extra tall front sight is not stamped Savage, later ones are and they can be found with the Savage Stamp on either side - see the pictures Southern Wi Savage posted of his, it has a sharp stamp on the left side and a partial on the right, the one pictured here is only stamped on the right -





This example suggests that at least when introduced the 1905's started with a separate serial number sequence and were not included with the 1904's, I have another 93xx. The highest I have is 433xx and I don't think there could have been that many 1905's made, so later they may have been included with the 1904's.

Thats what sucks about modern day safes, the racks are to high for the gun barrels to touch so you can't seperate them.

My 1904's, 1909, 1911, and 1912's are all leaning against each other till I mod a safe for them.

Stick dowels in the barrels to make them longer.