Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Savage Collectors A couple more reasons to like the 340

Shot these two this morning when they came out of the tall weeds by the driveway. The poor 340 doesn't get a lot of respect, but I like them! Flame away

Lee

Nice shooting 👍

Those 340s do the job well

What cartridge?

Good shootin'!

222 Rem, Mike. Fist one was shot a bout 55yrds, 2nd one stopped for a moment just before going into the tall stuff another 15 yrds away. His mistake! Both shots were off hand.


Lee

When it comes to rifles, they are better than no rifle at all.

Well stated

Could not have said it any better with 1000 words

I'm not a huge fan of 340's (nifty ones posed beside dead whistle pigs excluded!), but appreciate their utility. I often wondered why Savage didn't offer it in more chamberings though. I often wondered why they ever discontinued it. Had sales dropped off badly?

Savage imploded in the mid-1980's and quit making the 24s, 99s, and 340s. They were so desperate to generate money that they assembled an unknown number of 99s in non-cataloged configurations from whatever parts were left in the warehouse. I read somewhere that when Ron Coburn took over as CEO in 1988(?), Savage was losing millions of dollars each year. Coburn decided to focus on the 110 series and that plan pulled Savage out of bankruptcy.

When it came to rifles, 340s beat the crap out of a rifle you couldn't afford. One of the many things I like about the Savage brand--value for money, including everyone.

(It certainly wasn't worth saying twice....).

True, several of my high school hunting buddies had Savage 340 series 30-30s.

Ron did what he had to do to save the company.

My first centerfire rifle was a 340 in .30-30 and I killed my first deer with it. It was a relatively late model (340C as I recall, with pressed checkering). It went down the road sometime after I acquired a .270. I bought two of my boys 340s in .30-30 for their first deer rifles and a few years later stumbled onto an older one with a 22 inch barrel that I snapped up and carry in the PA woodlands from time to time. They've performed as well as several much more expensive rifles. I like them.

So which gun would garner your most respect. A plain-Jane economy grade 340 that's actually killed game or a never bloodied top shelf highly engraved 99K? My vote goes to the 340.

This is why I really like the 340s. Mine don't go in the safes with the other guns because of their low monetary value, makes them a lot easier to grab instead digging through a safe . One of them almost always goes the shooting bench when I'm shooting just for plinking during cool down time for the other rifle. I have a steel target 100yrds off of the porch that I use one of the 340s on for off hand practice all the time and of course they're easy access for garden pests and alike. I was on TC Encore kick until I found a nice 340 in 22 Hornet for half the price of a Encore barrel, that was the end of a switch barrel gun theory for me. Any way, I must have low standards but I have fun!

Lee

The 340 was made to capture a particular target market.

In this regard it was very successful. Consumers then and collectors now that appreciate utility find them interesting. Collectors now that appreciate quality and craftsmanship do not. One of the interesting things to me about the history of Savage gun making is that they found a way to make a chair for every ass.

There ain't no wrong or right because we are all in it for different reasons.

Whatever is on the business end of the lead winds up just as dead regardless of what the owner paid for the rifle.

If your Savage 340s give you a feeling of pride of ownership and they make you happy, isn't that all that matters?

Don't know about the pride stuff but happy is pretty high on my scale. And sometimes finding the things that fall off most people's radar and go cheap raises the happy bar for me. I guess I'm different as I find the fancy factory guns nice to look at but it all pretty much ends there. Value isn't always a measure of a man's wallet.