Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Savage Collectors Presentation 1899

That’s what I was thinking.

From what little I could find in google - you may be right.

Absolutely awesome. That rifle probably rode many a mile in the saddle scabbard. Would love to know the length of the barrel and see a couple of close up photos of the front sight. The butt stock doesn't mean spit to me, and the 1901 doesn't either. It may commemorate the year of a hunt they made together. Great gun ---- great story. Thanks for sharing.

BTW, how many of the pre 90,000 were engraved?

What amazes me is that Savage only charged $40 for Grade E engraving (which is the type I believe is on this rifle, not counting the add-on presentation engraving). Per Google, the average american annual wage in 1900 was $449.80. Assuming 2000 work hours a year, that works out to $0.225/hr. I would think a skilled artisan engraver like Tue would have been paid more than that. At 50 cents an hour, the engraving would have taken less than 80 hours for Savage to only charge $40 for it.

The barrel stamp appears to be 300? Kind of hard to see from the picture. I guess it could/should be 303. Nice rifle

22"

oldgunsmith, you are absolutely right as I was told "The rifle was carried many miles in a scabbard and shot many animals by 3 generations of Sheffields". The caliber is .303 Savage and barrel length is 22 inches. The front sight is a Gold Bead Sheard sight. I have told that Ben was a test shooter for Sheard in the early days.

Very Cool!
so, is that rib milled into an oversized octagon barrel? Or, is that rib soldered on the standard octagon barrel? ..must be a heavy bugger.. (do you have a close-up of the muzzle, a solder seam might be visible if it was two-pieced.

The front sight mounting and barrel stamping on the rib are very cool details! Why would that rib have been an attractive option? not like the octagon barrel needed stiffening, or would have benefited from the aided sight line...

I don't believe the matted reference refers to a rib. I have had a few Winchesters with matted barrels and they did not include a rib. I could be wrong because $5 seems to be a lot of money to run a barrel through a "matt roll". I have had one Winchister with a ramp barrel but can't remember how it was describe by Winchester. Maybe the member that has some ramped barrel Savage can shed some light on this.

The rib is actually soldered to the barrel which I do not believe to be a standard barrel. The barrel measures .9425" across the flats at the reciever and .6950" across flats at muzzle. Maybe someone can check the measurement on one of your standard octagon barrel rifles.
Yes it is a heavy bugger.

A little bit of information on the Hulman Company

Hulman & Company

Hulman & Company is an American private, family-owned, company founded in 1850 by Francis T. Hulman as a wholesale foods supplier of groceries, tobacco, and liquor, headquartered in Terre Haute, Indiana. [1] Throughout the early half of the 20th century, Hulman & Co. became nationally known for its Clabber Girl baking powder which it began producing in 1899. In 1945, the company purchased the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, in what many thought was an unusual investment for a company with a rich history in the food and beverage industry. The company also owns a television production company, Wabash Valley Broadcasting, dba IMS Productions, which does in-house work for their NTT IndyCar Series, various teams in the organization, and in the past, produced NBA Indiana Pacers and Professional Bull Riders broadcasts.

Thanks so much for the photos of the front sight, it was very interesting to me. The rifle is the most interesting one that I have seen on this forum. I have often heard people say ......"Oh , if that rifle could talk, what stories it could tell." With you having all the provenance, I'm hoping that you got some of the stories as well !!! I'm hoping that when you get the original buttstock, it has a crack that they repaired with rawhide :):):) Many thanks again for sharing your rifle, beautiful piece.

From my notes for other examples with rib.

Here's a link to that superb 1899A Monarch 31.708 that sold last December at Rock Island for over $500k. It has a solid rib. Picture of the letter says it was accepted from the factory on 2/25/1902; forwarded by shipping department on 1/19/1904 to the original consignee entered as Mr Enoch Tue.

https://www.rockislandauction.com/d...ity-savage-model-1899-lever-action-rifle

1899B 21.194 303 nickel engraved also had a rib.

Thanks for that link. I have seen that gun in person but completely forgot about it having the solid rib. I find it strange that there is no mention of the solid rid in the letter from Savage. Not that I doubt the originally of the gun at all.

Everytime I see example's of these rifle's I'm surprised Savage didn't hire someone who could engrave animal's.

Here are some of the photos I have accompanying the rifle. The are from the family album and a book I have with photos by Ben Sheffield.

Great Photos Thanks Brian

Keith, you're right, it's E engraving.

For a while Ben Sheffield was the Sheriff of Moran. While as the Sheriff he carried a Colt Shooting Master. I was also able to aquire this from the family. The gun has seen some use and neglect as it was in a box during a fire but survived.