Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Savage Collectors A premil .. postmil?

That's the best way I can think of to describe it.

1) It's a premil serial numbered rifle, serial number 967,9xx. Chicopee Falls barrel.
2) Tang safety, no cut by the trigger for a lever safety at all (seller emailed me a picture)
3) Gold trigger
4) 1960 date code on lever boss (seller emailed me a picture)

I don't think we've ever seen a premil 99 that didn't have a lever safety. Or any premil finished at Westfield that was made into anything but a 99E. Seems this has to either fall into:
1) Prototype for tang safety
2) A receiver that made it far enough through production at Chicopee Falls to be serial numbered, but not far enough to have the lever safety groove cut by the trigger. Then finished at Westfield as a tang safety.

Considering it has a 1960 date code, I presume it was #2. I would think with the number of changes the tang safety receivers had, that most prototypes would have been done earlier in 1959 to test/document manufacturing processes for 1960 introduction. But maybe it was a prototype..

Wonder how many others might be out there, and we don't see them because the seller doesn't give a serial number or we just look past when we see the gold trigger? Hmm..

https://www.gunbroker.com/item/913095898

SAVAGE 99 F 308 WIN 1959 99F NICE !