Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Savage Collectors Sporter 23A magazine missing

I had rotten luck with Triple K mags too.

I picked up one of those Savage Model 1922 Sporters minus a magazine back around 2011..... Was searching for the mag. online all over the place for almost two years but I finally got one; it popped up on E-Bay IIRC.

I usually have parts and mags on ebay

What's your eBay site?

Feeding problems are not just with after market magazines, you can have issues with factory magazines, especially in early production guns like the 1922's and early 1919 NRA's. This is usually because of the length of the rear rib which sets how much below the bolt the magazine sits. Savage sent out an instruction sheet with replacement magazines on fitting them, it involved filing off the bottom of the rib - in my experience I have never found a magazine where this would work, all I have found with problems seem to be from the rib being to short.

This is a sheet I would include with magazines I sold -

As usual, the oracle has spoken! When Gene speaks it behooves we mortals to sit up and pay attention!

Thanks, Gene. I hope I didn't sound flip. Your knowledge and your willingness to share it is a treasure to this forum.

tal38

Yep, my 1922 had no mag so I picked one up on Fleabay.

It works fine but you have to remember to push it in and then pull back down on the mag after it sets or else the bolt hits the back of the mag.

Somewhere buried in here is my post about my 23A Sporter. I almost thought someone was retreading my post. Lol. I picked one out of a truck load of junk guns from a police impound auction. After spending probably $200 in parts and trading a member on either here or Rimfire central for a magazine. I have a nice $125 plinker. I too am on the waiting list of Triple K for the mag I ordered and paid for. The 23A sits besides a nice little $250 Remington 580 single shot thats worth $125, a Savage Sporter in 25-20 that I probably have $300 in parts, also worth $200. How do I make money in this investing of firearms when I lose $100 a gun ,you ask? I plan on selling in Volume!

Have you looked through Sarco's web site? They've got a ton of obscure magazines.

Like I mentioned earlier, I just got 3 of the Triple-K's for a little less than retail, but I will not sell them to anyone until I can figure out a way to get them to work with more than 4 rounds loaded, and that is not a high priority project... and it may not ever work anyway. The originals show up on ebay regularly, there's been over 20 listings in the last three months - .ebay.com/savage+magazine

From my experience your better off paying the extra for an original, occasionally you find them at bargain prices at gun shows but most dealers will have them priced in the lower end of the range you see on ebay. One dealer I know will pay me $65 for them, I haven't sold him any because I know I will probably need some in the future and would be looking at possibly paying a lot more to get another.

The 7 shot magazines for the 1903/1909/1912 can be modified to work in a bolt action and will still work in the pump's. There are some earlier aftermarket magazines based on the Marlin Model 50 magazine for the Savage's that seem to work well and look better than the Triple-K, I believe these were made by Numrich with the old tooling for the Marlin's, I have tested these in the pumps.

Added- With photobucket working again I found these old pictures, the notch in the rear rib is different for the bolt actions -
(old picture, should no longer have '????' marks)


The original Savage magazine is in the center, the Marlin type for a Savage on the right. To get the rib thinner the third thickness of metal that was folded over on the rib was eliminated, this puts the the rib off center by one metal thickness. Savage Magazine also have rib's of 3 metal thicknesses, but they use thinner metal.


Not a bad looking magazine, they do fit kind of tight due to the rib being off-center, they rub on one side.


Added again - found another old picture that has one of the Marlin style magazines for a bolt action, notice the notch in the rib is wider but the location of the top of it is the same as for the pumps -

has anyone used a 3D printer to make old hard to find magazines?

So the story continues..... I bought a 7 rd magazine for the 23A - $40 total includes shipping - online from Bob's gun parts. tried to put it in my 23A but it wouldn't stay in. Then I realized the rifle is missing the magazine retainer/ejector and the magazine retainer spring. so now into this $79. So I went back to the pawn shop I had seen another Savage Sporter and looking at it It didn't have any serial numbers any where and no magazine and no front sight post. only the patent info and 22 long rifle are on the barrel. Not even Sporter. The guy said $40 cash and it's yours and he will throw in the background check fee, so I had to do it. brought it home and cleaned it up. Barrel looks pretty good, but the stock is a little scratched up and a crack around tang area. I thought maybe there may be serial number under the barrel hidden by stock, but nothing. So I figure it is one of the first 1922 Sporters. The butt plate and stock both have 4284 stamped on them. I got pretty excited that the magazine I just bought for the 22A fit in the 1922. but that went away when after I loaded the mag and inserted it, it didn't chamber the rounds from it. The magazine retainer spring from the 1922 fits the 23A but the retainer/ejector does not. debating to put the front sight post from 23A on it, or take magazine retainer out of 1922 and put on 23A Or just wait to find parts or wait till I find another cheap sporter. hahahahahahahaha