Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Savage Collectors Anybody have or know of a Savage Model 219 in .32-20 WCF?

Ya, I think I did mention that. Also, the Chicopee barrels were grooved for adding a scope where as the Utica's weren't.

Rory, I've never noticed that before. I wonder if a set of 12 ga barrels can be fitted to my 430 20 ga?

Actually .30-40 runs at pretty mild pressures (unless in the hands of a wild eyed handloader) out of deference to the Krag-Jörgensen bolt guns- 40,000 psi tops, certainly in the neighborhood as a .30-30. Where one might get in trouble is its much larger case diameter than the .30-30, dictating a much thinner cross section of steel over the chamber. The shotgun barrels are even thinner, you may say, but remember also they only need to hold 15,000psi max- and that in the smaller gauges only.

I always thought the .30-40 was close to the .303 British but after checking the manuals I see that it is not. Thanks for the education.

I knew two guys in Idaho that had 219 .30-30s rechambered to .30-40. One was redone because the owner wanted heavier bullets to hunt elk; the other because the original chamber had been galled and buggered by some fool trying to remove a stuck case with a hardened screwdriver or chisel.

Both worked fine with factory .30-40 ammo; neither owner was a handloader. The elk hunter had killed 12 "meat elk" with his and still had 4 shells left from the original box he'd bought. He lived and worked in prime elk country and just waited for a serious clean shot. This was before all the drawing and lottery and hunting in specific zones came into play. But elk were scarcer in those days, too.

I think hat the 219 is stronger than generally supposed, but the hottest round I've seen it (re)chambered for was a .219 Zipper.

Before this I knew enough to buy any in 22 rimfire (and 28 Ga) if I ever saw one, now I know about the 32-20. This also got my curiosity up and I started looking through catalogs -

Catalog #70 with Mar 5, 1936 price list - no 219 or 220
Catalog #71 (no price list to date it) - list only the 220
Catalog #72 with Jan 3, 1938 price list - has 219 and some combinations including Model 224 combination (25-20 & 12 Ga)





Catalog #73 with Jan 3, 1939 price list - adds 220P and 219 in 32-20 and 22 Hornet but drops the listing of the 224 combination (noted that combinations for 25-20 & 32-20 were special order for $3.25 more)



Catalogs #74 & #75 are the same as #73 but with price increases

Catalog #76 with Jan 2, 1942 price list - adds more combinations -






The 219 shows up again in the 1948 catalog but is only listed in 30-30 and 22 Hornet and not combinations.

The 1949 catalog does not have either the 219 or the 220, the 220 shows up again in the 1953 catalog, the 219 in 1959, grooved receivers on other guns started sometime in 1954.

Thanks for this. I have only the 1945 catalog showing the whole spectrum of 219s/220s; all rifle calibers, all combos, all shotgun guages and combos except the 220P (I have one of those in 20 guage, but it's a later, case-colored gun).

There is also a "trap model" 220 but that's not a factory designation since it doesn't appear to have ever been cataloged--as far as I know. Anybody know better?

Those apparently come in all guages (including .410!)with a cheap recoil pad and hand checkering on walnut stocks. Don't know what time period they are since I don't have any to examine. But from pix I've seen they seem to be both "late Utica" models with alloy guards, safeties, and triggers, and early Chicopee Falls guns with the same.

Don't know how they distributed them--employee incentives? None seem to be marked with a distributor or chain store name. But some of them seem to have been decorated with "engraving" (etching??) and one or two with scroll engraving reminiscent of some low-grade Savage Fox doubles.

I love those early rifle forends that Gene's catalogs show, but have never had even an early rifle that had one. All I've had were plain "splinters" without the little beavertail that those have (or whatever you call a forend shaped like that....).