Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Single Shots Savage .30-30

Ya learn something new every day...

Saw a Savage .30-30 single shot in a Pawn Shop today on a hammerless break-open shotgun action. I never knew such a beast existed. I'm a sucker for single shots so I was seriously tempted (they were asking $250).

Rifle was clean and in good shape, a hair of play in the forend. Iron sights, not drilled or tapped for scope or peep.

Anyone have any info on these things?

Birdwatcher

Birdwatcher,

Sounds like you found a Sav. M 219. They came in .30-30, .22 Hornet, and who knows what else. I can only remember those two calibers. I almost bought a used one in .22 Hornet, about 1967 or so. Don't know much about them, but used to see them advertised in the Sav. catalogs in the mid-60s.

forepaw

Sounds like a Savage 219. They were made in .22 Hornet as well as .30-30, and were essentially the same gun as the Savage 220 shotgun. In fact, some were sold in multi-barrel sets, as in 16 ga and .30-30.

As a shotgun, they were pretty good guns for the money. There was an ejector, so second shots could be pretty quick for a single-loader gun. As a rifle, well, they had a shotgun trigger.

That loose forend is just the spring weakening. They all did that after you took them down enough times, and it is an easy fix.

$250 is about what they sell for around here. NEF sells a better rifle for that price, but the Savage is cooler if you like oldies.

I've been tempted by these since seeing one for the first time a few years ago as well. I don't know much about them, but what I do know includes the fact that there are different confingurations designated "A" "B" and "C" with small cosmetic differences like steel to aluminum trigger gards and larger mechanical differences like hammers to strikers, etc. Looks like they were chambered in .22 hornet, 30-30, 25-20, and a couple others. I think I was told that the barrels are interchangable and that the shotgun barrels came on factory guns marked 220 instead of 219.

I think I'll have myself a neglected "B" model with the long 26" barrel that I can push out to 30-40 Kraig and do some stock work on... a charming gun for a "Handi" price <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

Thanks for the info guys.

I'm thinking this was the 26" version, long and graceful was my impression. The quick takedown feature is also a plus (I am exceedingly fond of my old Mod 24 .22/20). I'll have to go back for a second look.

Birdwatcher

I'd like to have one and a Model 24..

I put the Savage on lay-away today, and can get it pretty painlessly (time enough to sell some stuff off to cover it).

The plastic buttplate is cracked, anyone know a source for a replacement?

Also this gun has no visible serial number on the receiver, when did that become a requirement anyway? and if it has a serial number, where would it be located?

Birdwatcher

I've heard some say that guns weren't required to have a SN before 1964. I have guns older than that with SNs. I'm glad you bought the gun, I love my single shot .30-30. I bought another .30-30 myself yesterday. It's a Glenfield Model 30.

If I'm remembering right, that would be a Marlin 336 with regular rifling and a birch stock, a Glenfield .22 bolt action figured prominently in my youth.

I think that our taste in guns, like our taste in music, is formed permanently in our teenage years. For me, most all the best guns were made before 1975.

Birdwatcher

Birdy;

Good grab.

Very solid, serviceably gun, in a very good caliber.

Birdwatcher,

I have three of those old Savage M-219's. As well as a couple of M-220's in .410 and 16 ga. (And I think I have a 20 ga., too)

These are pretty neat old guns. They were utilitarian grade. But now, as with many things that are old, the price has gone up expotentially.

Serial numbers were not required until the [color:"red"]Gun Control Act of 1968 [/color]. Many of the cheaper guns were not serial numbered. I believe production on these ceased in 1965, but were made with a side lever from '65 to '67. Calibers included the aforementioned calibers as well as the .32-20.

I have seen them in .22 Hornet, but never owned one. Have also seen one .25-20, but the owner thought it was worth its weight in gold, so I passed on it. I would dearly love a pair of barrels in .25-20 and .32-20.

One of my .30-30's has been rechambered to .30-30 Ack Imp. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> Mostly I bought them for my grandson's to start with when they get older.

Hope this helps,

[color:"green"] Grasshopper [/color]

Gentlemen, thanks for the input again <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />

No rust on the gun (or at least passed over in my first two inspections), the action stiff as if it had hardly been used at all (top break lever). I'm thinking that hair of play in the fore end could be due to the inexpensive (birch?) hardwood shrinking with age. I dry-fired it once, and the trigger was a pleasant surprise; a tad heavy, but crisp. The grooves were dirty (looked like copper residue) from whenever it was the last time it was shot, but near as I can tell the rifling was not pitted or worn. The blueing is intact, but a bit dull in the way that old bluing gets if it has sat dry for a long time.

Now, if I can just get it out of hock soon enough that I can still see that simple buckhorn rear and thin front blade and bead <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

On the plus side for us presbyobics, the sights are a ways out there on account of the unusual barrel legnth. On the minus side, there are no holes drilled for attaching a 5D peep or scope.

Does takedown on these things consist of just popping off the fore end like with most every other old break action?

Ain't got it in hand yet, and I'm keeping my fingers crossed on how it will shoot, I expect it will shoot at least as well as I do though.....

Birdwatcher

I'm way to far sighted to see that word close up. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

I've been keeping an eye out for one of those for a couple of years. They've become very difficult to locate.

Congrats on the find.

Yep, pop off the forend and open the action to take it down.

I had a 16 ga 220 many years ago. One of the few inexpensive hammerless single-shots, and it had an ejector and a factory polychoke. I hunted dove quail, deer, pheasant, rabbits, squirrels, starlings, and probably some things I've forgotten with that gun. I went looking for one gun to do it all, and this pretty well filled the bill. I just wish I'd known you could interchange rifle barrels.

H. G. Tappley, who wrote for Field & Stream when I was a kid, bought his son a 220 20 ga for a grouse gun. Savage built a lot of good guns, back when a man generally had only one or two.

For whatever it is worth Birdwatcher:

I've seen a few of those 30-30's and Hornets, that were darn accurate. Think the Hornet used the .223 diameter, and they could have possibly changed that later to .224.

The 30-30 is plain ol' factory from get-go.

You have a treasure there, take care of her!!!

wish i had it, bw.
check numrich arms for the butt plate. new wood might be available, too.
the 219 is a nice old rifle.

B.W.

educated guess.....clean that rascal, like every last bit of copper, and run some good gas-checked 160-185 gr. cast boolits, in the 2300-2400 fps realm. Use a Good mold
( proven performer....and adequate proven Boolit lube
.........just a guess, mind you. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

GTC <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />

Gentlemen... once again thanks for the input.

I love them old Savages too, I've already mentioned my Mod 24C, and a practically NIB Savage-Fox 311 sits in my gun safe. Man, I used to admire that same model double way back when in the Western Auto catalog.

Birdwatcher

Birdwatcher,
I saw that you said you dry fired it. My advice is DO NOT DO THIS AGAIN. The firing pin in the 219 is EXTREMELY suceptable to breakage. They are fairly easy to make and are available, but totally avoidable. I use a 30-30 case with the primer pocket filled with silicone as a snap cap. I learned through experience. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" />