Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Savage Collectors Maker and model of a "Ranger" .22 pump?

I was able to briefly (too briefly) handle a nice condition hammerless.22 pump that was marked "Ranger" and "(102-35)". I've seen and owned Ranger-marked guns by Stevens and Marlin, but never a hammerless .22 pump. Anybody know what this one might have been? Didn't get a great look at it but I would GUESS that it was either a Savage 29 or a Remington 12. No proofmarks that I could see.

Were Savage 29s ever sold by Wards or Sears as "Rangers"? How about Remingtons? And was "Ranger" a Sears or a Montgomery Ward brand name or both? Is there a good source for info on "hardware store brands like this? Did Marlin ever make a hammerless .22 pump?

I know, lots of ignorant questions...but.this gun had a great bore and I think it was very clean inside--tempted to buy it once I know what it is and if parts are possible to find!

Dr, Google tells me it's a Sears brand .22 pump, but not who made it.

Savage Model 29.. probably a 29A. GeneB can surely tell you everything you want to know about it.

It is a house brand (Sears) of the Savage 29-A. I would guess production in the 1938 to 1940 period. Metal butt plate, round barrel and grooved (rings) forearm.

Best place for info on 25/23/75/23-A/23-B and there House Brands is here on the Savage Forum.

The Blue Book has a section in the back with some House Brands. Any old copy will probably have the same info.

Thanks, Rick! Now I gotta bone up on the 29s. If I recall from some of the discussions, the 29a has some limitations with modern .22 ammo. Not really a problem for me--when I want a hot .22 RF, I go right to the .22 WRMs. This "Ranger" would be for plunkin'.

The Model 29-A has a stronger and much different action than the Model 29 but I would tend to stay away from hot 22 loads. I've seen a couple 29-A actions with distorted locking surfaces. they have their limitations. I don't shoot any of mine much but they seem to be reliable. If you want to scope one you should look for a 1954 or later 29-B with a grooved receiver. I had some pictures of some of the house brands but they were in photobucket and no longer seem to show up in the old posts. Savage made pumps for several different company's besides Sears. The house brands were included in the same serial number sequence as Savage branded guns, the house brand had the number followed by a K and the Savage ones by an L. I've seen the Ranger 102.35's with numbers from around 14,000K to 32,000K with the highest 29-A, a Savage branded one, at just over 60,000L, they started at 1000. In the number 102.35 the 102 identifies the manufacturer and then the .35 the model. 101 was also a Savage/Stevens identifier and you will find a Ranger versions of Stevens 22's with that number and then a two digit model identifier. They seem to have dropped this model marking later on as I just found a Ranger without a Model marking, it's 36781K. Earlier ones also were not marked with a model number, all of these I've seen are under 10,000K, the Ranger marking on these was in large script.

I put all the old photobuckets pictures in a image gallery post - galleries/#Post17177168
The house brands that I know of that are missing in these pictures are -
- 29 based Westernfield Premier made for Montgomery Wards, it came after the Premier Trailblaser
- 29-A based Gamble's Pioneer Model 31
- late 29-A Ranger marked in small script without a model mark.
- 29 & 29-A Rangers with another stamp for Eaton's department stores in Canada, these had the same mark as the ones for Sears but with the Eaton stamp under it.

I appears Savage did not make anymore house brand pump 22's after the start of WWII.

There also are some Stevens marked ones that seem to have been made for Spiegel which could be considered House Brands.
29 action marked SPRINGFIELD REPEATER
29 action marked just PEERLESS
29 action marked STEVENS PEERLESS
29-A action marked STEVENS MODEL 75-A
29-A action marked STEVENS MODEL 29-A
29-A action marked STEVENS MODEL 49

Thanks for the data Gene; it's very hard to get this info elsewhere. My gun is just like the one in your full-length photo marked 102-35. "Field grade" or "economy" wood in them days would fetch a big premium now!

I paid a whole $249 for this little guy and look forward to some fun plinking with it, using standard velocity ammo. So far it functions perfectly. No scope grooves, but I don't like scopes on these anyway and since I lost my cataracts, I have 20 year old eyes in my 79 year old head! Now if they could just fix the rest, starting with the memory chip....