In the later 1980's I had a couple of guns reworked by Savage Arms. For example I had a 1903 reblued by them, had rough wood from Fajen Reinhardt (sp?) that I sent to Savage and they finished it and put it on one of my 99's, and a few other things. I lived in the Southwest Chicago suburbs (Frankfort, IL) and I came back from a trip to PA, only to find all of my guns were gone (stolen in a robbery from my home). The guy I was working with at Savage (Roland Lussier) felt bad for me and said, "you send me some nice wood, and I will make you a new 99" in 250 Savage. My only regret is that he asked me if I wanted a nice rifle recoil pad on it, and I said yes. Who needs a recoil pad on a 250? I was young and did not know what I know now but, it is all "factory". They also put 75th anniversary wood on my grandfathers 99 that was partially destroyed in a house fire, and that turned out really nice. They charged me about $185 for the 250-3000, and I almost did not get it back. I had an FFL in those days and just prior to shipping the gun to me, Roland Lussier left Savage, not sure why. The factory manager was some woman who was reluctant to "sell" a gun to a consumer, as Savage was not a consumer-direct company. I pushed and complained, and they sent me the gun a few weeks later. I wanted to help them out as the guys doing my guns were very proud of their work and had hoped to become a "custom" department for Savage. I used to work with Ron Coburn when we both were with Case knives, prior to his time at Savage, so I called him up and really bragged up the skills of these guys, and said he should turn that department into a custom shop. He replied, "they are doing what"!!! He shut them down from ever doing that kind of work again, because I tried to help and he had no idea what they were doing for me all this time. I have no documentation of any of this though. Just my memory.
Last edited by 1899guy; 05/02/14.
