Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Savage Collectors Totally tubular--Savage 1914 with factory letter info

I have been looking on-and-off for a Savage 1914 to round out a collection of early 20th-century tubular magazine .22s having just missed one for sale by Griffin & Howe (yes, *that* Griffin & Howe) by mere hours. So by sheer dumb luck I found one for sale on Gunbroker, with a nice tang sight, at a price I could afford.

(auction photos)





Don't want to spam, the rest of the images are here

It does have some freckling on the barrel, some honest wear, and the all-too-typical cracks at the wrist. However, GeneB declared it to be a very good buy and that he had considered bidding on it himself--praise from Caesar!

When I got it, I function-tested it with #6 drywall *anchors* [correction] and was surprised they fed through with no problems (you are only supposed to use them as snap caps BTW). The metal issues are manageable and pretty soon I hope to have the buttstock off for repairs. In the meantime, I ordered a factory letter.

Per John Callahan, this rifle (SN 245xx) was accepted on March 31st, 1916 and shipped April 3rd, 1916 (left the factory on a Friday and shipped out on Monday). The original consignee was the Holly-Mason Hardware Company of Spokane Washington--more on them in a bit. Callahan also added a cryptic sentence: "An additional entry shows a work order #409-20 indicating that work or an accessory of unknown nature was done before shipment". My own theory is that its the Lyman S2 tang sight, which someone had shimmed with a sliver of vintage cardboard from a box of .22 shells.

The Holly-Mason Hardware store emerged with a merger of two hardware stores in Spokane Washington in 1889, and they had the first fireproof building in Spokane in 1905. In fact, the building is still there at 157 South Howard Street in downtown Spokane (originally at the corner of Howard and Railroad Streets, it looks like the latter is now and elevated rail line)



With my best Google-fu, I discovered Holly-Mason was bought out by Marshall Wells Hardware sometime during/after the Great Depression, and then the business was sold to Jensen Byrd in 1960. In 1995 they became Jensen Distribution Services and left the building. Now the building has been repurposed and preserved as a historic building.

The seller on Gunbroker is located in Wenatchee Washington, a mere 137 miles from Spokane. So I am floored that not only is the rifle in great shape for its age, but it spent the last 95 years in the same general area.

I'm going to email Jensen and see if they by chance still have the old files and ledgers, it would be awesome if they could find the sales record.