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

"SAVAGE NEVER SAY NEVER" !!!! thats why collecting these rifles is fun ,entertaining !!!

Mad Dog
The photo you see was first used on the 1922 Savage-Stevens
calendar as far as I know I am looking at mine now.Ther are several listings for the T7 mount by Savage!!!

Doug, what picture? The 1922 with the mule deer on top? PS... didn't Winchester use the upper part on one of their later calendars, late 40's?

I'm pretty sure the T-7 mount was not made in 1922. Weaver didn't have a scope for it at that time.

There is only around 10,000 rifles in the range of the first S-7 mount till Savage stopped logging serial numbers. I don't know of anyone lettering a D&T'ed rifle in that range. Another item for the bucket list.

If demand for Savage rifles was like most everything else post WWII, I can see the desire for the factory to simplify production by making both EG and R barrels the same length.

Didn't mean to start anything. Sure is nice though seeing grown men state their opinion w/no name calling or cursing. That's why I like this forum. I can't believe there were so many changes and modifications over the years. powdr

I agree with you and thus why I asked if it was confirmed that Savage cataloged the R in 1946, which Rory confirmed and which JTC has stated in several letters to me.

I think we should call it the Savage Model 99MD just for you.

To add to the idea that even Savage didn't know what it was, I have one at 430,xxx in my records that had EG stamped into the front of the receiver. I know that I they stamped the front of the receivers with EG as late as 445,xxx as I owned one.

Adding to the idea that this was a unique model, a handful of the others after 430xxx were stamped with a 5 on the front of the receiver. As we know, pre-war Rs were all stamped with an 8.

Correct. My letter is from 2008 and I have no idea what I sent him in terms of information but the letter states

"What I did find specific to your rifle is that it was shipped against factory shipping order #80295 and that it is a Model 99-EG, built in .300 Savage Caliber. Using information from the company's record of shipments, this occurred sometime in late 1944."

In another letter from him for a 1951 production rifle that did not have any additional information in the factory logs other than when it shipped, he stated "From the information that you provided, this is a model 99-EG..."

I have seen (and have) numerous letters in which JTC always refers to "the information that you provided" and I always assumed he was very careful to do this to not mislead someone later if he was provided bad info.

In my records of the RTs, I have one with a 20" barrel in 30-30 and one even earlier than that one in 300 with a 24" barrel. Both of these were listings from GB so I can not confirm either way but its interesting that there are several in 300 with 22" barrels after the 24" one. I also have one other 24" 300 near the highest in the records.

Old post on the 30-30 with 20" barrel here:

http://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php/topics/2881160/2

Yes as I recall we have seen some variability in barrel lengths.

Most however had 22" barrels IIRC.

The point I was trying to make is that post war R's as we know them, all had 24" barrels and it was not just a different forearm that makes this (R) a different creature than the "RT". It's not a just post war R with a pre war T stock screwed on it. There is more to it than that.

Wether you call it an early R or an RT or a baloney sandwich...it's clearly not the same gun (configuration) as the post war R.

This is especially clear, given the fact that a lot of the RT rifles are chambered in 30-30, a caliber that almost no pre-war R's and no post-war R's were made in.

Rod

So, who's on first?

My head is spinning!

The speigels were one thing because we can verify their originality.

The problem with these weird looking R's is that we can't prove they were a model or just a parts use up. If it was a parts use up where the heck did those forearms come from???? Nope, I think Savage started something and then just modified the forearm to the post war R we see now and the other R's were just a start run and someone didn't like them.

That's a valid guess and one I wouldn't be surprised at... but why would there be a 3 year gap between the RT's and postwar R's then?

It's just one of those things we have to wait and watch for any documentation to explain it. We couldn't explain the Speigels until the catalog page was found. Wouldn't be surprised to have somebody find a catalog page for these.

Agreed Joe... probably went to the 24" barrel and limited chambering for cost savings and commonality with the EG when they moved plants.

The one in the add Caloun put up was done by
Louis Agassiz Fuertes the Winchester was done by
Phillip Godwin and they are not alike as to the t7 all I ment was that their are several adds showing and stateing the Savage
would drill and tap a 99 for that mount a time frame was not
offered by me!!!

LATE to the game here but Jimmy and I disagree I have a 30-30 from 43-44 cant remember ser no right now but SHE's A pretty nice mater stake ,so there MMMMmmmadog

norm

Never mind posting pics of the gun Norm, post a pic of the letter, then I'll believe what I read.

Doug, I understand what you posted, now. Thanks.

Joe
I understand a letter means alot to verify, How ever i have several never lettered from 415,000 to 446,000 So From 1941 to 1945-56 according to Serial Number Gathered over the years. with 22Inch and 24inch B.L. In Non Checked and Checked E.G.'s

Just sayin:

how can we say that these guns are from such and such a year when there are no records showing when these guns were accepted?

All there is is a shipping date, so more or less gathering serial numbers is pointless on these guns because everyone here would just be guessing on an acceptance date.