Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Savage Collectors How Rare Are 1899 Short Rifles?

How many on the forum have 1899 short rifles? What was more manufactured, short rifles or saddle ring rifles? If you had your choice between a 38-55 short rifle and a 38-55 saddle ring, equal condition. what would you take?

I have 36 1899ASRs in 25-35(6), 30-30(10). 303(14), 32-40(2), and 38-55(4). I didn't buy any of them, I inherited them in 2000.

Not common.. but not uncommon either. Probably a bit more common than pre-WWI saddle rings?

38 55 saddle ring would be my choice. Suspect the saddle ring would also be slightly more difficult to find. GW

This is my favorite gun. It sat on the gun rack in a local shop for almost a year. I always wanted a marlin 336 y which was the youth model with a 16" barrel. 99s have always been my favorite lever action so I gave the guy 200 bucks for the gun and a 100 bucks to cut and crown the barrel to 16" and this beauty was born.

There's some nice 1899A SR's out there...

Sweet!

Two 38-55's that meet conditions...I would be buying both!

Is gungasm a thing because I think I just had one looking at those last few

What calibers of the three guns in the photos? Beautiful rifles
...would love to have one!

My cased A-2 special is .303 Sav

My two that I showed are both in 303 Savage. Don't have one 38-55, would love to find one.

Heres a couple in 32-40! the second and 4th one down.

Gezzzzzzzzzzzzz your making my knees wobbly

Wow! Some beautiful Savages in this Thread! Centrefold quality for sure! I'm not particularly familiar with the definition of "Short Rifle"
So... Thanks much! Pix do so much more than verbals in descriptions!
Best!
John

I love that #2.. and with a crescent buttplate!

YA big time.

Norm i have 2 -303s and 1 30-30------ 5SRCs

A Savage Short Rifle was standard with a 22" round barrel and a metal shotgun butt plate... 1899-A SR... all options available for a rifle was available on the SR. So the key was the 22" round rifle weight barrel.

Mine isn't nearly as nice as any of the examples above, but it is my favorite rifle.

303 made in 1909.

This 1902 vintage SR has A5 checkering, some figure in the wood and the unmarked steel rifle BP, serial #37.7xx. Savage started putting early Indian head on the rifle BP's a few years later.



and now the well used one, 1899 production, serial #10.7xx. The guy I got it from said he got it from a Sweetwater County, Wy., sheriff's sale. That's what the sticker on the stock is about. It must have belonged to a criminal. Not many of criminals here in Wyoming


how about that tang crack

this rear sight filler showed a lot of handiwork. He probably had time to kill between crimes

Is that an 1895 forearm?

Sure looks like an 1895 style forearm. I have one in the same serial number range, 10.75x with the same forearm style. Shipped to Howard Fugate, May 12th 1899.

Some absolutely stunning rifles I really appreciate looking at what I can't have. oh my 75th birthday in 5 days now one of those stunners would make a nice present

Johno

I have a 1903 saddle ring which was sent to savage after 1909 . All numbers match, all look like they were stamped by savage. It is in 25 35, however I got my letter from mr Callahan only to find it left the factory as a saddle ring carbine in 32 40. When I got the letter I looked more closely and found the staple holes had been tapped and filled with screws, the barrel is 24 inches as well.

The forearm on the beater appears to be an 1895 style. I also have serial #10.449. It has an 1895 forearm with the serial # penciled on the back of the forearm. I will check the beater for a serial # on the forearm. Savage was using up leftover 1895 parts on the early 1899's.

I don't believe there were enough leftover 1895 forearms to account for what is likely hundreds or more of very early 1899's with that style forearm.

I think that was just Savage's first forearm style, that they dropped pretty quickly.

We should do a thread looking for 10.xxx-12.xxx serial numbered rifles that don't have that type of forearm.

I have 10.1xx that also has the 1895 style forearm, 11.5xx that has an 1899 forearm (but it shipped late), and a 12.1xx 1899C that has an 1899 forearm (Rick, that was that "trapper" gun I had at Tulsa).

From my count of 482 Savage 1899s in the three Scarcer Winchester calibers.
25-35 - 194 guns (7 SR + 3 SR TD = 10) 5.15% were short rifles
32-40 - 140 guns (16 SR + 6 SR TD = 22) 15.7% were short rifles
38.55 - 148 guns (11 SR + 4 SR TD = 15) 10.1% were short rifles
Overall 482 guns (34 SR + 13 SR TD = 47) 9.75% were short rifles
There is no way of verifying these percentages will transpose accurately to 303 and 30-30.
BillR