Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Savage Collectors Springfield 1922?

I have little knowledge on these but a few years ago a dealer showed me some odd looking magazines he had - I had not idea what they were for, he explained they were the earliest version for the 1922 Springfield's and were really rare, I tried to remember what they looked like just in case I ran into some cheap, but couldn't identify one for sure now (I think his were priced well over $500 - I might see him this weekend and will try to get more information... if you want a couple extra magazines let me know, I'll ask if he still has them .... and the price!....). I could not find a picture of just the magazine, here is a link to someone looking for a magazine who says a M1 magazine will fit but the original should stick out the bottom, he also has a picture of his rifle minus a magazine - rimfirecentral 995105

Two of my most prized firearms possessions are my M2 and my Savage 1920/26. I think they represent the state of the technology for bolt guns of their time.

I've had mine for a few years. It came from the estate of a Korean War Vet. This was his last rifle as his others were sold before I was aware. Mine is a M2.







I need to get in the safe to see the barrel date.

That will make you drool!

Sweet!

Barrel has a 6-26 date.

Show off! I'll have to look last night but I think mine was one of the early guns made in early WWII after a period of non-production. It dates to 1942 with a corresponding barrel date. I doubt that any of these rifles ever suffered having their barrels shot out. I mean, could you ever shoot out a 22 barrel?

I sure have refined a bunch of 22's lots of Stevens among others. I could use a sling for my Springfield only the top half was present and it is not good. What do your recomend?

IMO the only sling fit for a Springfield .22 is a M1907 military sling, either original (pricey for a nice usable one) or a quality repro.

My barrel date is 2-1930, the month and year my Mom was born. But the gun started life in 1927 as an M1. Like I said, it made it to the civilian world one piece at a time. M2 production started in 1933 and ended in 1942. Brophy reported that the highest serial number he was aware of was #12328, with records ending at 11171 for July, 1942. With so few of the guns made (2000+ M1922's, 20,000 M1's, and 12,000 M2's) it's a miracle they aren't priced a lot more these days. (Each of the 3 models had their own serial number series.)

The saga of the .22 Springfield ended with the growing popularity of the M52 Winchester. After all, the main reason for the gun's existence was to fill a niche for a quality/accurate/heavy enough .22 bolt gun for the then extremely popular smallbore position shooting competition. As soon as commercial interests rose to the challenge, the gov't saw no reason to stay in the manufacturing game. Since then to this day the gov't has always purchased their .22 training/target rifles rather than build their own.

To try to tie all this in with Savages, the M1919 was Savage's attempt at a .22 bolt target gun. (Bolt guns of all ilks took off in popularity with the return of the Doughboys from WWI.) Even though they had excellent barrels, their one piece receiver/barrel assembly was frowned upon by the top shooters (as mentioned in articles in ancient American Rifleman's)*, and even though they had passably good triggers their light weight and crummy sights kept them out of the hands of serious competitors. The writers of the day, guys like Ness and Landis, recommended them as entry level guns with which to learn the basics and to use while saving the nickels to buy a Springfield, M52, or Winchester/Ballard/Stevens/Martini single shot.

*Remember, that was still the era of corrosive .22 ammo. A brain fart in the cleaning protocols could very well result in a rusted bore necessitating a barrel swap- a near impossibility with a M1919. Another gaff on the part of Savage engineers along with the 1-14" twist .250's.

Oh yeah, I forgot about corrosive ammo. Funny, I always correlate it with center fire ammo, especially the military issue stuff. On another topic, Turner seems to make a good 1907 sling. At least they did the last time I got one. There's a guy in Hawaii who is supposed to make a good 1907 sling too, but I don't recollect his name right.

Out of the three .22 target rifles I own from the early 30's- M52, M19-33NRA, and M1I Springfield- if I were forced to keep just one it would be the M52.