Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Savage Collectors Model 1914 Gold Medal Grade

A recent acquisition, condition is not great and previous owner made it worse by going over all the metal with what looks like a wire brush... and they sleeved the barrel. I almost passed on this due to the condition, I would have been happy with it if it had just been left alone with rusty, but untouched surfaces. Although all the higher grades & options that were always offered on the 1903's were also offered on the 1914's when they came out this is only the second higher grade 1914 I have heard of and the only one for sale (other than the super hi-grade one in the Wes Adams collection). I decided I might never have a chance at another. I have heard of a few of the later 1903's with this style stock in Gold Medal Grade but only one was for sale and I missed getting it by one day. I wonder what the higher grades of checkering looked like for this style stock? none of the catalogs have pictures.












I wonder how many 1914's are out there with barrels longer than 24", I'm keeping my eye out for one with a 30".
I have 1903's with 30" 28" and 26" barrels, the one with the 26" barrel is the 1903/1914 style.

Although never a cataloged option, I have seen two 1914's in 22 SHORT only, that's as many as Gold Medal Grades I've heard of.

I understand your angst over the metal cleaning but it could have been much worse I'd guess.

Always smart to take the one in sight and wait to replace it when the better one comes along.

I'm not a big fan of engraved guns but I do like the pichers on that one! Glad it found a good home!

As always, an interesting and informative post with great pictures. Thanks!

This is what it preferably would look like, what might look like some smudges above the dogs is actually very fine line engraving to represent clouds - those are almost all gone on the 1914 -

Very nice, Gene. Sad to see guns that folks have tried to "clean".

So was Savage trying to go for the "somewhat" higher grade market with this 22? What would have been its direct competitors in the market place? Thanks again, when it comes to Savage 22s (and I suspect other firearms too), you "rock"!

Gene, what were the up grade sights on the G.M.? Wind gauge front, tang sight and folding rear?

The 1914 was $13 but for $3 more you could get the Gold Metal which had $6 engraving and $2.50 checkering. Interesting.

All the other manufactures offered engraving on there best 22 rifles, The Gold Medal was not as elaborate and much less expensive than anything I'm aware of the competition offering. The Expert was more in line with the competitions lower end offerings. The EF was much more elaborate, and rare, I doubt I will ever own one of them.


Rick, I think any combination of sights that would work together could be ordered. One option was the same sight set as used on the non-engraved GH, they had the No 21 rear sight and a brass Rocky Mountain front sight, the standard sight was not tall enough for the No 21 rear which does not adjust very low. I do not know what sights would have been used when the NO 21 was discontinued, on the 1905's they started using the No 25 rear and a standard front sight - the standard sight set for the 1914's and later 1903's. I have three G.M.'s with Lyman tang sights, one has a Lyman NO 6 folding barrel sight and No 5 combination folding front, One has the standard sight set (so it may not originally had a tang sight) and another had a Broken King Triple Bead front and the barrel sight was a modern folder that was installed backwards so I do not know what it had originally, probably a Lyman No 6. That last one was also an English Pattern with the larger shotgun butt with hard rubber pad and it had upgraded wood -





The GH's also had a higher grade of checkering than the Gold Medal, the sights and the checkering always put it about 25¢ to 50¢ higher than the engraved Gold Medal, I find those to be rarer than both the Gold Medal and Expert Grade. I do not know what sights would have been used after the NO 21 was discontinued, on the 1905's they started using the No 25 rear and a standard front sight - which was the standard sight set for all the 1914's and later 1903's. I have only seen a couple GH's for sale and bought both, the earlier of the two has finer line checkering.


Bottom is of a stock I got off ebay when a GH was parted out, they also had a No 21 rear and Rocky Mountain front sight listed so I know it was a GH, but with upgraded wood.

PS, all the above photo's are old Photobucket, so it appears they have changed their policy again to allow them to display.

thanks Gene, good stuff.
Tom

That English Model is sweet Gene!