Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Savage Collectors What kind of Savage collector are you??

As someone said earlier , this is a cool topic. My very first memory of a savage 99 was when I was about 10 yrs old. my dads oldest brother was a fishing guide and owned a gas station /baitshop just south of west plains mo. my uncle would pull a chair up in front of the gun rack and let me stand in it for a better view. one day he just handed me a 99 off the shelf and let me set there and inspect every inch of that gun. I always dreamed of having that gun. when I turned 13 my dad gave me a marlin 336 30-30. the next year I was able to sell some pigs and get my first 99 , a F model in 308. I still hunt that gun ! I have a real soft spot for the 99s with a history , character and wear. I am a 99 hoarder not a collector ! I am open to all 99s just depends on how it speaks to me ! and I dearly enjoy shooting those 99s ! by the way I still have that marlin too.

My Father bought his 300F in 1956,I was born 1953. All thru my childhood when deer season would roll around Dad would take the Savage out of the case before he left.When he came home I would watch him clean it.When I became of age to hunt I came to see 3 of my Uncle's all had pre 1950 EG's in 300Sav with buckhorn sight's!!Funny,all of them including Dad had Win 94's in 32 Special as backup's ,but I never seen them use 'em.So of coarse I had to buy a 99 for my first deer rifle.Couldn't find that magical 300 locally so I settled for a mint 1957 F in 308 for $165.And wouldn't you know,first time in the wood's with it a nice 4 pt met his demise.So with a safefull of AAA French Kimber's,Remington Titanium's,other 99's etc.,when deer season roll's around what do I grab........Dad's 300F

Thanks for the pic LBK! I hope you and your family are well! -Tom

You betcha my Savage brother. I'm really glad you like that uncheckered EG. I wasn't going to hunt it so it's where it belongs and all is as it should be in the world.

These pictures of oldtimer303’s 32-40 are to accompany his earlier attached post, which I quoted here.

That is lovely.

I guess at this point I don't consider my self a collector. I've owned 7 different 99's over the years, including a nice .250 that I still kick my self for ever getting rid of. I hunt with my guns, so I don't have to have pristine guns. Drilled and tapped is fine. I try to avoid anything with cut stocks or the infamous Savage cracks. My finances just don't allow me to indulge in the finer guns, and I have no problem passing on these to let the real collectors have 'em. Guns have always been tools to me-a means to satisfy and end. So if I run across a weathered but not busted up 99 that's got a few marks from being drug in and out of a hundred tree stands, but looks like it could still kill a deer pretty easily, that's what I'm interested in.

I like firearms .. I guess the 99 appeals to me most because I know more about them the any other. I think they are an icon of American quality . the way things used to be
I like them all but the 1899's are what interest me most.

plab

The one thing that makes me a little different than a lot here is my liking of some post mil 99s. I have known of at least (3) 284s that have shot exceptional well. I have used mine for deer the last 3 years with good success. All deer taken have been bang flops. I really like the 284 whether it be in a C, DL or F.

Could the 300 Savage do the same? Probably. But the 284 is my thing right now.

Something that I haven’t done yet, but would like to is chase elk in the timber with my 99EG in 358. With my 284 being a backup.

Ah, c'mon Jeff. Use the .22 HP. No guts, no glory!

The .284 is pure poison on anything you point it at.

.303 SAVAGE , That pretty well sums it up. At about 4 years old in 1956 living in a rented home on East Broadway in Vancouver B.C. I can remember in my dad's bedroom closet an 1899 A and a BB gun rifle.At that time ,I was more interersted in blowing up my solid rubber bike tires at the corner gas station than anything else.p
That rifle I now still have ,trying to unlock it's secrets, an A with a carbine butt stock whose butt plate , cut off by my dad who told me he was always sorry for doing so and discarding the stock and butt plate serial No. as well.
In the end , he told me to forget about it and just leave the 99 Sav. as it is , but since arriving here I've aquired much knowlege , interest and yes other 1899's while still wondering if the serial # on that long lost carbine buttplate was original to the A.

I was never a fan of Savage guns. Where I grew up all my friends, and their dads, uncles, etc, hated them and most would refer to anything Savage as 'junk'. The only Savage that I had really ever handled, was my dad's first gun, a .22/410 O/U. I never shot it and he never fired it since I've been alive. I do like lever guns though and have picked up a bunch of them over the years. Then about 1 year ago a friend of mine inherited a gun collection that he was trying to liquidate at friend prices. I picked up a lot of them off him, but there were a couple of 1899s in the bunch. As soon as I touched the 1915 250-3000 I was hooked and bought both of them he had. That was also the first time I had ever seen a 99/1899 and honestly didn't even know they existed. Then I shot them, and the hook was set deeper. I now have 6 of them and am looking for two more. Not sure where I fit in in the spectrum, but as long as a gun is unmodified I'm usually interested in owning it. I'm actually drawn towards the ones that have honest wear, even if it's a lot of honest wear Since buying my first 99, I am now on the lookout for a model 1905 target rifle and a model 1920. Sometimes I buy guns that would be considered in "collectible" shape and sometimes I buy just shooters, as long as they are unmodified. I also like to restore guns, but will only mess with ones that have already had the collector value stripped by someone else. If I couldn't walk without money falling out of pockets, I would own a lot of engraved ones though.

I learned at the First Savage Fest that I am NOT a collector. Like some others here, I am an accumulator of things gray!

My Dad thought highly of Model 99's, but could never justify spending the money. "The Rifle" I grew up knowing was a sporterized Westinghouse Mosin Nagant. It is still a killing machine. It belongs to my son now and has been turned into a pseudo scout.

I got divorced in 2000 and suddenly found myself with disposable income!!! My accumulation includes many brands, but if I counted numbers, I may have more Savages than anything, with possible exception of Colts. I don't care for pistol grips or "skull crusher" rifle butt plates. I like short barrels, straight grips, carbine butts and tang sights. The first Savages I bought were an 1899H and an early 99F which are virtually identical except the 99F has interrupted threads. Somehow I got hooked on 1895's, so when I finally found an 1895 SRC for sale, that was the Holy Grail for me. Sadly, here in Ohio I cannot legally hunt deer with a .303. I can however, hunt 'yotes, squirrels, whistle pigs, and feral cats!

I own other Savages as well. A few pistols, a 16 gauge 720, an as new 110 in 30-06 and nearly a dozen 1911 rifles, which are slowly being gifted to my eight grand children as they display proper behavior.

While nothing I own is "Collector Grade", they all make me happy! Oh yeah, like Gnoahhh, they all MUST have shootable bores. I am amazed at how many guns I find with virtually no finish, and bright, shiny bores!

And then I went home.

Doug

Key word legally.

Some laws were written to be disobeyed, it would seem.

Ohio is kind of strange in that respect. It would be legal to hunt with a .600 Nitro Express but not a .30-30 (straight wall cartridge only) . I'm one to talk- the part of MD where I live it's legal to use a 12 gauge 3" slug out of a rifled barrel wearing a scope but not a .30-30 or .44-40 lever action carbine (shotgun only). Bastids.

I wonder just how much regional laws/customs effect us in regards to what turned us on as young people and thence effected our collecting sensibilities as adults? For me it was growing up in PA and western MD where the word "rifle" automatically conjured up a lever action carbine, milsurp sporter, or heavy single shot varmint rifle.

Let me start by saying i like 99's. obviously or I wouldn't be here. I'm also LEFTY so i take to leverguns readily. I've owned Winchesters and Marlins,but after buying my first 99 I was hooked. It was a well used 1913 303 sav TD and it shot like I was a master. Next was a 300 Sav from 1950 in '13, It was another great shooter. Then came the 30-30 TD from 1922 in '16 then the 22HP last year. All of them are shooter class, some have extra holes but they still make me look like a real marksman, with the exception of the 22HP. gnoahhh has been helpful in getting me setup with that one but it continues to baffle me. the 300 is my favorite shooter and I reload for all of them.
So I guess I'm not really a collector, more of an accumulator but these guns are the ones that go to the range the most. I don't hunt as much as I used to,but I've killed lots of paper with them,
Right now I'm looking for a fairly priced 250, so as to complete the Savage cartridge set. I have 4 sons and I'd like to leave each one with a unique 99.

Not a collector. I buy 'em, fix 'em if they need it, shoot 'em until I know what I want to know, and trade or sell 'em off so I can go through the whole cycle with another. This keeps me busy, lets me learn a bit, fits my budget (I take my "gun money" only out of funds or trade goods raised by my other hobbies, never from "family" accounts), and keeps the clutter down to a level that my command structure will (barely) tolerate.

What I have always liked about Savages in general is that everybody can afford them and use them, and they are made to be used. The ones I've kept over the years are a few that are well-used, but I really mean "used well." And I have used them myself, in the same spirit.

A late 23B--sure it's clunky, but it really handles and shoots well and was an affordable all-around gun for some Vermont Green Mountain woodchuck who took really good care of it. Wonder how many whitetails it killed, legally and not? (No need for a suppressor....I've sneezed louder. When I was a kid, owning a .25-20 was "probable cause" for suspecting poaching....).

A Utica 1930s .219 25-20 with a .410 barrel I added. Nifty package for somebody who doesn't need "too much gun," but needs a versatile gun. Trim, slim, and economical in all ways.

An early 1970s (I think) clip-fed 99 .243. Has ALL the stuff real 99'ers love to hate but REALLY shoots and doesn't disturb my right shoulder rebuild.

An early 110 that was a .30-06 wreck until I restocked it with an early 110 factory walnut stock and put a "prefit" Brownell's Shilen barrel on it in .257 Roberts. Since I don't hunt deer or pigs much any more the 99 .243 will go to my son and I'll keep this one since I put some serious time and love into it (and the Roberts is a verified Old Fart ctg. anyway, my younger friends tell me....). The gun that "brought Savage back"! To stay, I hope.

I also like Savage's "taste in imports" and have several "Savage" Finnish Valmet O/U shotguns and combination guns, and have had more. Great design, great price (I got 'em all used, like all my guns). And deadly. I also had a "Savage" Anschutz Model 54 Sporter but my buddy got that one. (A "one-holer," and I don't mean that scatologically).


So LOTS of Savages have passed thru my hands since the first one in 1950, but only a few have stuck. All of them have left good memories, and I hope, some knowledge.

On the subject of engraved guns, I DO admire restrained, expertly-executed gun engraving, which most FACTORY-engraved Savages display. But when I run into an over-embellished arm, meaning one whose real purpose is "look at me," not "BANG, flop," I remember my hunting buddy in upstate NYS who had never had any shotgun but a bolt-action Mossburg 20 guage, and who was a perfectly deadly wing shot, the very best I've ever hunted with. (Likewise the whole custom fly rod, size 20 barbless dry fly, catch-and-release-only cult thing makes me long for a farm pond, a telescoping True Temper steel rod, night crawlers, Eagle Claw snelled hooks, and a mess of bullheads, sweet butter, and fine corn meal....I guess there really is such a thing as "reverse snobbery"!)

But I, of all people, have no right or need to crap on other guys' fancies. Isn't it great that we are still a little free to be our own weird selves?

Ah, somebody had to bring it up- fly rods. They fit right in with collecting classic guns. My tastes run toward split cane, light lines, and tiny dry flies- used to fish to rising trout only. Not snobbery, a highly technical approach that appeals to my sensibilities. I promise myself to get back out on the water this year.

I’m late to 99’s. I like the mid fifties F models. I have a 308, 358, and a 243. I have Sakos, Kleinguenther’s and 700’s mostly.