Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Savage Collectors New York Military Trials misc

Picture of the Savage trial rifle as printed by the Brooklyn, NY Daily Eagle. This rifle matches the "1899 transition musket" in David's book on page 13, from the lever shape to the finger grooves to the 2 sling swivels on the barrel. Discrepencies are the cleaning rod sticking out on the picture isn't shown on the rifle in David's book, and the forearm in the picture on top of the barrel extends slightly past the first barrel band, whereas in this picture it looks like the wood stops at the first barrel band.

It also appears to me that the rear of the receiver in this pic flares out like the 1899 transition musket - tho the graininess does make that somewhat questionable.

This picture definitely doesn't match the 1893 musket, and it's not a good match to any 1895 musket we've seen.

That squared off lever with the Marlin style bulge on the bottom is pretty convincing... I've only seen it on one Savage rifle. Since Savage already had pictures drawn up of a Savage musket for their catalog, it makes sense this was drawn from the rifle at the trials rather than a pic handed out by Savage. The musket in the 1895 catalog does have finger grooves on the sides, and does have a cleaning rod sticking out beneath the barrel, but it has a Savage lever and not the Marlin style and the catalog pic has no wood on top of the barrel at all, and the catalogued pic has 2 big sling swivels with only one far forward on the barrel and one far back on buttstock.