Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Savage Collectors Savage 1895/99 Orginals still in Existence In North America-World

Hi Calhoun, Today I was reading an old thread of yours from 7/21/17 about your "Happy Dance", for finding a 50's 99RS. In it, you mentioned the case colored rotors and also the possibility of case colored mounting screws for the Redfield 70LH sight. While packing my 99R tonight in preparation for my trip to deer camp this Tuesday, I decided to give it a good looking over once more. While the rifle was made in 1950, and the rotor is definitely brass, the sight mounting screws do not look to be typically blued. The rear one seems about 1/2 blue and 1/2 brassy yellow, the same color as the case color on the lever. The front one seems to be about all brassy yellow. Now, would Savage blue the screws in house to match the blueing they use on the rest of the gun? Or, would they use them, as is, from Redfield?

Also, earlier in this thread you mentioned that 99RS's were cataloged with Lyman front sights. Previously, when I looked, I saw no markings on it. Now, when I put a flash light on it, sure enough, it's stamped Lyman. So now, I have a front sight and a rear sight filler that both say Lyman. I also looked very closely with a magnifier and there is absolutely no, none, zero scratches or other evidence of a rear sight ever being present or removed. The filler is also pristine. No tool marks of any kind.

I know that some collector/seller/traders might add and swap parts to make an RS out of an R, but they would do that in the hopes of increased sale price, no? Yet this gun had a start bid of just $399. That tells me that the seller was not trying to pass it as an RS. Also, if it was sold to him as an RS by a previous owner, he would have paid much more, and so, would have had to resell for much more.

I'd be very curious as to your thoughts and the rest of the knowledgeable members on the forum.