Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Savage Collectors letters ?

has any one used the Savage Co, for a letter? if so, how long did it take? how much? thanks, Ken












hold on Newt, we got a run away..

Cody Center of the West museum has the ledgers now. So their web site has the information and it's $75 for each for non-members. They'll just give you the information that's in the ledger, you get to interpret it.

Rory, are they sending a photo of the log page with each request?

No. Closest they come is saying that if you are planning a trip to Cody, they "might" let you see an original record of the firearm if you submit the letter request while there.

We didn't know how good we had it when JTC still had the ledgers and was writing the letters. Had I known the turn(s) for the worst when Mr. Callahan gave it up, I would've campaigned like crazy for a different solution.

I think the trick is to letter a bunch while a member.

For $150 member, you can get info on 5 rifles. Not factory letters, but an email detailing what the ledgers say. That's $30/gun.

For $250, you get 2 factory letters and info on another 10 guns. That's $21/gun.

For $500, you get 5 letters and info on 15 guns. That's under $17/gun.

But yes.. if you just want info on 1 to 3 guns, the Callahan days are sorely missed.

So... Conjuring this sort of exponential letter bargain process, at some point "such a bargain" on multiple letters... Maybe just selling all my Savages, to afford some sort of "Leger Letter" grand coup? O. Henry classic, "paradox"!

Seriously... Anyone conjuring a Cody letter, should visit their Website, Both for obtaining ordering instructions and more relevant; determining exactly what eras for which they have records available. Sounds like much of the Cody info in the 'nice to know' category at best. The exact configuration a rifle might have departed the factory, seeming not within documentation parameters. (Hope I'm wrong!)

https://centerofthewest.org/explore/firearms/firearms-records/

Would be good to hear from past letter recipients concerning their experience and content yield.

Best & Stay Safe!
John

Shades of "Gift of the Magi"!

Frankly, spending enough money to get a "package deal" from those folks just ain't happenin'. Not when that same money will buy a lot of other more meaningful things. At the very least they should include a photostat of the ledger page for what they want to charge me, or hell, even the original page itself. How about that!!

We need Calhoun to retire and start his new parttime hobby, CCH, "Calhoun Clearing House". We send CCH SNs, and CCH bulks them up. Talk Cody into providing snap shot of the ledger for each SN and CCH could interpret for us.

I'm not sure what you mean by "The exact configuration a rifle might have departed the factory, seeming not within documentation parameters."?

You would get the same exact information from Cody that Callahan or Roe saw when you sent a request to them. There's not information missing now that the ledgers are at Cody. There were limits before on how much information was in the ledgers, the same limits apply now.

I've contacted Cody requesting two letters for 1895 Savages. They informed me they had no data on 1895s. Only 1899s beginning at serial number 1...

I tried to politely tell them they were mistaken. I've been waiting on a response...

Doug

David and others need to get to Cody for a data dump and straighten those folks out.
They DID have 1895 ledgers.....

They have them, they just don't know what a Savage 1895 is. Or how an 1899 differs from a 99. Or what an 1899A is, or a SR...

As I said:


For 6736, you would get a reply back with:
"Octagon barrel accepted on 2/9/97, shipped 1/27/98 to <xx> Exposition."

Hopefully they can read those 2 letters better than I can. But it won't say you have an 1895B. It might just say the ledger line includes an O.

N. Y. Exposition. aka New York Sportmans Show.

I was going to Cody tomorrow but the weather is looking a little chancy. I'll go when it looks like I can get over South Pass safely. I'll hopefully straighten out the things mentioned above while there. I asked Ron Coburn to look into what happened to the letters for rifles produced after WWII. He told me he's looking in to it.

I wouldn't be surprised if Cody has those, and just doesn't know it. Were they ledgers, or microfiche, or ???

Calhoun,

I believe you are correct. Angela Bertalot, Firearms Record Assistant, reports that they only have records for Savage Model 1899's. From serial numbers 1 through 436558...

Sad,

Doug

They havent figured out that serial numbers under 10,000 are actually 1895 models !!!!!! they will get there some day.

I’d give them a break, they’ve had the ledgers all of two months. With input from the members on this forum pretty sure they’ll figure out what’s contained in all those factory records in short order.
The ledgers are where they belong.

I'm hoping the case is what Rory said. That they have the ledgers and just don't know it. I was really hoping to go there today. Maybe next week although Monday is President's day and next week may not work for them. We hadn't had much snow until a few days ago. Winter may be finally setting in making it hard for me to go over there in the next few weeks.