Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Savage Collectors How late was the .303 Savage made?

And did it ever come factory drilled and tapped? powdr

I believe 1940 or 41. Never factory drilled and tapped!

1941, they didn't bring it with them to Chicopee.

Of course there will be a couple guys here that have a lunch box special and say "oh ya they did", but they didn't.

No, never factory D&T'd.

Yes, there were some factory d&t on the side for Weaver mounts in the late 30's.

However.. there's no way to prove which ones were done at the factory and which ones were done after they left the factory.

Last made in 1945 ........that I am aware of.

Alright, time to argue.

Rory, you sure that's a late 30's ad? That deer is the same one that Savage used on an early 1940's catalog.

If Savage shut down sporting arms production during WW2 how did they build an EG in 303 during 1945, is that gun lettered? Hence the reason I stated some will have a lunchbox special. I haven't really been following dates lately, how many of you guys here have guns lettered in 1943-1945?

No letter on this rifle, but that doesn't diminish it any. There were a lot of rifles made 41' to 45' and some were in un-catalogued variations (example the 99R/T). Savage made rifles as long as it didn't interfere with their government contracts. And when the war did end, there was such a demand that if they had a barrel in bin from 39' you can bet it got screwed into a receiver and built to meet that demand whether it was a .303, a .300 or a .250 or a .30-30. As the saying goes any 99 is better than NO 99.

Late 30's 303 Speigel's had the D&T holes.

Agreed...... for the highly unpopular Belding and Mull Mount.

I don't know about unpopular but it sure is unobtainable!!

See, I'm out of this one.

The op wanted to know a simple question and then we gotta start bringing up Speigels and RT's. RT's were merely made from parts left in the bin but some will call them "uncatalogued" instead of what they really are. And the Speigels? Ya, alright Powdr, my bad, there were 300 rifles factory D&T'd, did you happen to trip over one of those or are you just asking because you ran across a rat that had been drilled for scope, I'm guessing the rat as usually 99.9% of the time it what it turns out to be but some dudes just wanna argue for the sake of arguing cause they're getting bored around here and cabin fever is setting in. No worries guys, spring is right around the corner and we can all get out to the ranges again soon, haha.

And just to add some fuel to the fire:

The RT is NOT an "uncataloged model" it's not even a model at all, it's a name we made up here at the fire so everyone would know what lunch box special we are talking about.

This site has so much to do with what we know about Savage 99's that I'd almost bet that someday someone will write a book and actually put that parts use up in it as a model for cripes sake.

OK, Joe. It's cold here, and there's nothing good on TV, so I'll take the bait. Which parts bin did the 99RT forearm come from?

Rod

Making popcorn now.

Molson is plenty cold.

The buttstock came out of the R bin and the forearm came out of the T bin, haha.

I'd almost bet back in 1940 there were a bunch of employee's sitting around on their coffee break and one of them spit his coffee back into his cup cause he was laughing so hard and said "hey, did you guys see what I did with that left over batch of T forearms"?

Joe, I have that ad as being from 1937. I have other ads from '37'ish also with factory d&t.

Too many R/T's to qualify as lunchbox or parts guns in my mind. Still waiting for somebody to run across a hardware catalog or something showing them, like we found with the Spiegels.

Last CATALOGUED 99 in 303 was 1941. A few show up later.

And my hunter EG lettered as shipped mid-1945, and it's 12,000 higher than 1941 rifles. So I think it's for sure there was some minor assembly going on during the war years, more as the war went on.

Does that EG have a Chicopee or a Utica barrel address?

They should have been packing up the plant for the move during that time, something sketchy with that letter but who really knows what went on then. We just guess at a lot of things around here trying to make sense of history long forgotten.

Can't ever see the "R/T" showing up on paper. What do you mean, "to many" how many do we have numbers on? 5 or 10? Hardly enough to be calling them a model, maybe if they were up over 10000 I could see it.

If you are asking about my EG. It has a Utica address.

If there have only been 5 or 10 documented R/Ts I have been darn lucky to own 3 of em.

I think we have documentation that the 40's RT forearms were not the same specs as the T's. I have suspected it, but IIRC Rod took the time and initiative to measure them and the results were conclusive.

Wanna weigh in on this one Rod?

I disagree that the RT is not an uncataloged model. Too many of them and too different from the R's or T's . If you have ever held one in your hands, the difference is immediately apparent.