Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Savage Collectors Diminished value to to rebluing

Last week I purchased a Savage 99EG that was made in 1941. The only modifications are a different rear sight and the gun has be blued to a high gloss finish.

How much does the refinishing of the barrel and receiver have on the value of the rifle?

Are you a collector or a shooter?

I bought this gun because my Grandfather had one when I was kid. I used it to harvest my first deer when I was about 12 or 13. When he passed, we would out that he had gifted it to someone else and I was very disappointed. He knew that I had a lot of nice rifles and left it to someone that didn't. I gave up hunting about 35 years ago as I did so much of it that I got tired of it. Only this year did I go again and took a really nice Texas Whitetail.

I like to go to the range and am not sure if I would hunt with this rifle.

Of course you should hunt with the rifle. You won't hurt it, that's what it was made to do. Since it's been re-blued you don't have to worry about collectors value, just get out and enjoy it.

That's a pretty subjective situation. It all depends...

Serious collectors wouldn't even touch it. On average I would put $100-150 as an estimated range. YMMV.

Wonderful in the garden.

30-40%

But no harm IMO of re bluing an old gray rat. Just don't confuse it's $ value with one that has original bluing.

Sentimental value however is hard to put a price on..

Use the thing like you borrowed it from your brother-in-law, and cherish each scratch, ding, and worn spot. That is what makes them worth having.

CRF75,

I will ask you to reconsider your decision to hunt with that rifle. You have a pre war rifle. To me, that means that rifle was made at a time that I believe was Savage’s best years. Quality was never higher.

An EG is the most common model, and 300 Savage is the most common chambering for it. There was a reason for that. This configuration worked like a champ, word got out, and a lot of people bought them.

Go out and make some memories with it. I have taken a lot of big game with the EG. Speaking as a hunter, they work flawlessly. The 300 Savage is perfect for deer. Recoil is very similar to 7x57.

I may have misunderstood the OP, but it appears to me he bought the rifle because it reminded him of his Grandfather and his youth.

Everybody has reasons for buying guns and owning guns and not everybody's reason is to hunt with it or to kill something with it.

Maybe the guy doesn't want to hunt with the rifle, not because he is afraid of ruining it's value, but he just is at the point in his life that he doesn't want to kill anything? Which is A OK with me.

Sometimes we as hunters, we can take a narrow view of what guns are for...

Nice you've gotten back into hunting again. I took a hiatus for about 8 years and jumped back in a few years ago.

I completely agree with RAS, hunt it. The .300S is a very versatile cartridge and a 99 chambered in it is plenty accurate enough to take game with. Also, they're a pleasure to shoot. In my opinion It having been reblued is a plus for a hunting gun, because the collector value ship has sailed and you can cover it with some honest wear. If it gets too bad, you can always reblue it if you like. At the same time, there's nothing wrong with keeping it as a gun.

Funny how things like a reblue drive the price down when you are a collector but when you become a shooter it can drive the price right back up. They are just different ways to think about the same thing. In this case the thing is your 99EG. Maybe you would get a better working answer if you stated how much you paid for the rifle.

Reblued 99's are for hunting and shooting. Value is whatever you consider that rifle to be worth as a hunting rifle. It's a case where other people's opinions shouldn't mean much.

If you're worrying about resale values.. probably shouldn't pick a reblued rifle.

Value definitely takes a hit over a 95% rifle, but may be on par with a 70% or 80% rifle. Depends on model and cartridge partially.

You already bought it so value is of little importance. An old collector will walk right by it. A guy new to collecting might jump on it. But, you bought it to bring back those child hood memories For that purpose alone, it's worth what you paid for it. Keep it long enough that you find some one you would like to gift it to, and let them worry about value.

Use it a quit worrying. Don't worry ....be happy!

Guns are what they are.

+1

You can hunt it without abusing it. Slight honest wear won't hurt the value, as it's already a re-blue and as such not a collector. That makes it a shooter, IMO.

I'd shoot it.

DF