https://hunting-washington.com/smf/index.php/topic,267929.msg3637530.html#msg3637530 What do you think would be a fair price for this old gray fellow? I'm thinking not even half the asking price....

Boy...I dunno. .30-30 C but a real rat.

link to gun

Definitely a beater, this rifle has had one tough paper route! I've bought a lot better for $150.00. I've seen this one for sale last year for 1K. Thanks for posting the link.

Not the original buttstock. So there’s another hit.

To each their own.

But:

You could chase me with that gun....

Yep, I have actually bought worse for more than it was worth. 1899 A with an octagon barrel in 25-35 but I had to have it! I'm sure someone will snag it up.

Make a decent lamp stand.

That gun wouldn’t be fun to own

Hard pass for me... I don't mind 'em (actually prefer them for the pricing) a bit rough, but I'm not gonna pay that kind of money for a rifle that rough.

I'm sure someone will end up buying it, though, so there's that... the wonders of internet pricing 🤷‍♂️

first year 30-30, half octagon barrel, full buckhorn rear sight. Has the stock been changed or could that be an optional shotgun buttstock?

Not the original buttstock. The original buttstock in 1900 wouldn't be a perchbelly.

Not a carbine. Might be a special order Short Rifle but probably a cut barrel 1899-C. Might be one of the last SAV30 marked barrels but I can't verify that.

I'm still trying to figure out how the finish on a gun ends up like this one. Rust blue is supposed to be better than the newer types of bluing. Also my dad bought a Remington 1100 in 1964. Hunted the hell out of it at least several times a week during bird season, used it for ducks, used it as w back up trap gun. Then he gave it to me and I hunted it at least 3 times a week during quail and pheasant season, used it as my duck gun and my primary trap gun for about 20 years and the bluing still looks about new. What did people used to do with some of these poor guns to make the metal finish so bad.

Leaving them outdoors in a case where fabric touches metal will do that over time if you are anywhere very humid... eats the bluing right off.

I have an uncle in MN who always left rifles in a soft case in the trunks of his cars, and they pretty much all look like that, with little to no bluing, and pits. He cleans them just often enough to be functional about once a year, but other than that, they stay in the car all year.

Thanks for that. So the ones that look like the one on the link are probably due to bad storage. Now I'm paranoid if all my guns are stored correctly.

As to the question the OP asked. Personally I'd pay up to around $400 depending on the bore and lack of large pits in the metal. I'm always on the hunt for 99 projects and don't seem to find many.

I've got one worse than that. It had belonged to a guy who managed to get it confiscated by the Sweetwater County, Wyoming, sheriff's department. I posted pics here a few years ago. Can't find the pics.

Need to find a few minutes and see if this will just buff right up.

It's really more a matter of neglect than storage.

As long as you don't leave them where they get warm/cold repeatedly, and give them a wipedown and/or oiling once in a blue moon, that will never happen.



Was that in a fire? 😬

Opposite.. story I got is that it was pulled out of a river in Texas.

So... It was 'quenched' in the river...~ Hate to conjure what the bore to look like and/or process of transplanting viable internals! Frankly, I assume the "DO NOT RESCUSSITATE" tag maybe up in smoke! I'd say 'back to the river', but for... Vision of polluting any viable waterway!
Just my take!
Best!

It was the cheapest 1895 I've ever seen for sale.

Picked it up as a wallhanger.