Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Savage Collectors 99 R or Rs Help

I recently purchased this early fifties R or RS model in excellent condition. Is there any way to tell if it’s really an RS or just a R model that someone changed the sights on. Rifle details, serial #637691(1952),boss code 2B(1950) very well stamped, Redfield 70 rear sight , case color rotor, Lyman white bead front sight.
I can’t post pictures from my iPad but if a member here could post them for me I’ll take some tomorrow.
Thank You

The 99RS was advertised with a Lyman 31 gold bead front sight, rear sight slot black. Look for any dents on the sight slot blank, a lot of aftermarket ones get dented while being inserted.

Are the tang screws on the Redfield 70LH blued.. or case colored? Mine are case colored.

I don't know how firm they were on sights, but all the catalogs listed the Lyman gold bead.

The tang screws are case colored and sight blank has no dents or flat spots. Front sight looks the same. Rifle also has the eye and hook sling studs.
Thanks Calhoun, hope you can tell me more about the serial number and lever boss year difference.

I think there's been a couple other 99's in the 62x,xxx and 63x,xxx range with B date stamps.

The answer is one of two things. Either they mis-stamped the serial number on the gun (maybe 547691?), or more likely they just used the wrong date stamp on the lever. I don't think that was as uncommon as one might think.. we see a lot of screwy date code/serial number combinations.

2B is commonly found in that serial range. I have several in my data. The inspector used an out of date stamp.

Thanks Calhoun and Rick99 for your input, while I don’t post much here I do lurk often and have learned so much about 99s from your knowledgeable posts. For now I’m going to assume my 99 is a RS model with a white dot front sight.

I have a 99R and it is a real hunk of hardwood and steel. It is a joy. It was scoped by someone other than me and I was wondering whether or not they were drilled and tapped at the factory. I guess I should go to the books but they are in with a lot of other stuff right now.

All the 99R Version 2’s (1950’s) were factory drilled.

Thank you.

My 1950 vintage R is factory D&T'd. That may have been the first year for standard factory D&T. They did D&T a few almost from the beginning of production. They offered period of scopes and mounted them on the rifles. There aren't many of these around.