Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Savage Collectors Savage 1895 Questions

I recently acquired a mode 1895 Savage and was told to come here for info from the experts. There are so many variations and things to learn and I do not want to represent my gun for something that it isn’t. Anyways the photos are below of my gun (the one with the scope). It is SN 6392. It has very nice figured wood and a shotgun style butt plate. The gun is in very good condition, but unfortunately someone drilled the side for the scope mount.

What I’m trying to figure out is if the stock is original to the gun or is a 99 stock that was added later. Some of the premium grade engraved 1895s I’ve seen have very similar stocks and the side panel with the point. The stock on my gun has a stamp in it that has the number 12003 or 13003. My initial thought after seeing this was that the stock was added later in the guns life, but after looking at a bunch of 95s with similar stocks I thought it might actually be right.

There is a premium 95 coming up for sale (last photo) in the Rock Island auction that is very similar to my gun except it is engraved. That gun is SN 7127, but on the stock had a serial number of 13890. Is this another gun with a later stock, or am I missing something here?

https://www.rockislandauction.com/d...age-deluxe-model-1895-lever-action-rifle

Could my gun be right? What do I have? Could you order a 1895 with premium wood without the engraving? Is there any records I could find for reference of how this gun was shipped from the factory?

Thanks in advance!

Travis Bryant


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[img]https://i.postimg.cc/Lqd4Kz8G/B9628939-2731-48-F4-9-ED1-9386-BCBDF986.webp[/img]

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Welcome to the Savage Collector forum Travis.

A factory letter may provide a ship date and other info. Then the butt stock number may make sense.
Under the misc. good info above is info regarding rifle lettering through Cody.

The checking and wood are extras.
Could possibly be a model 1895 assembled and shipped at a later date. There were some.
Or as you mention, the wood could have been added later. But someone went all out with replacement wood in that case. Hmmm.

If I were to guess with available info, I'd lean toward a factory rifle. But I'd still go through with a factory letter to try and nail it down.

A few more pics with detail of blue, wood fit, ect. would be helpful.

Thank you for the response! I submitted a request through Cody, so hopefully in a month or so I’ll have a letter and it will help with the story.

It’s crazy that Rock Island has that gun estimated @ $8500-$13000 and it doesn’t have the 95 bolt. It seems like there were quite a bit of variations during the Marlin to Savage transition.

$5 would get a factory upgrade to an 1895 with the new 1899 parts, which included the bolt. It’s not a variation, it’s a later upgrade.

Are there any serial numbers on the buttstock or buttplate of your rifle? (Have to remove the buttplate to see them)

And I don’t usually comment on guns coming up on auction, but that Rock Island 1895 has an 1899 barrel, 1899 checkering, and 1899 engraving. Savage didn’t let parts go to waste… they used a leftover 1895 receiver for an engraved, fancy gun.

Travis, for some reason the image links for your rifle are not opening on my Mac.

" It’s crazy that Rock Island has that gun estimated @ $8500-$13000 and it doesn’t have the 1895 bolt. "

Regarding engraved 1895s, they ain't making anymore, no more than a handful of 1895s were ever engraved, and 1895 bolts were replaced at the factory for 1899 bolts if the rifles were returned back to Savage for any matter. So not a deal breaker.

Beautiful rifle, rare as teen's teeth, suspect it may surpass R.I.A. estimates.

On both the stock and butt plate under it has SN 12083.

My rifle has an 1895 bolt with the indicator in the hole. We’re you able to open the photos? I might need to figure out a different way to post pictures.

Thanks,
Travis

I tried attaching the photos of my gun here.

So.. here’s what I see, no holds barred.

An 1895B, reblued receiver, checkered 1895 forearm. A replaced buttstock with fancy wood/checkering from an 1899 - $5/A/A3 checkering - serial number 12.083 puts it around August, 1899.

Nice gun overall, pretty.

Anybody see anything different?

Thank you for the info! Do you think the stock was replaced by savage? Maybe they wanted a shotgun butt stock and sent the rifle in for the upgrade.

What is the identifier to know the fire grip is from an 1895?

If the owner broke the buttstock and sent it to Savage in 1899, they may have put that buttstock on as a replacement. Maybe as likely as somebody taking a checkered, fancy stocked 1899 apart years or decades later to put the buttstock on an 1895.

On the forearm: the bottom of the forearm of an 1895 isn’t straight - it’s slightly concave. This is occasionally seen on a few very early 1899’s (I have 2). But your forearm also has an 1895 checkering style that isn’t found on 1899’s.

Calhoun,
Thank you for the honest info. Would Savage have only replaced the butt stock if it was sent in for the upgrade? Would the original 95 have had a fancy stock also?

Yes on the buttstock. I've owned a couple of 1899's which had later factory replaced buttstocks and the original forearm.

Would the 1895 have had fancy walnut stock..?? That I don't know. We've seen pretty wood on some guns with factory replaced stocks, I think Savage would sometimes upgrade the wood to make a disgruntled/unhappy customer happy again. You'd have to letter it.

Checkered 1895's are extremely rare, so the fact yours started out as one and has the forearm is cool. Most of us collectors don't have a checkered 1895. Marlin did the checkering for those, as well as manufacturing all the parts.

Your rifle might not be an ultra-expensive collector's gun, but it sure as heck is an awesome hunting rifle.

Your rifle has been pieced together, although it may have been done at the factory. It probably isn't one of the left over 1895 rifles that was pieced together after 1899 production started, the low serial number makes this unlikely. Savage also replaced the 1895 bolt with the early 1899 bolt on the leftover 1895's. "But with Savage never say never." The checkering on your forearm may be 1895 checkering. It's hard to tell from the too dark picture. If it is 1895 checkering the rifle would have been factory checkered when produced about 1896. This would have been a rare rifle and probably had high grade wood also. We need better pictures.
The Rock Island rifle is obviously a leftover 1895 receiver that was pieced together after 1899 production started. It has Enoch Tue grade "C" engraving (not Conrad Ulrich as stated by RIA), 1899 bolt, 1899 barrel, 1899 checkering and 1899 buttstock. It does have an 1895 forearm although the checkering on the forearm is 1899 checkering. I would like to know what serial number is stamped on the buttstock and buttplate. The Rock Island description says the serial number is penciled on the back of the forearm. 1895 forearms didn't normally have the serial number on them. The factory must have had a lot of leftover 1895 forearms since they appear on many of the early 1899's. The correct 1899 serial number is penciled on the rear of the 1895 forearm on my early 1899.
You have an interesting rifle. David Royal

Evidence that I've seen showed the factory didn't have many leftover 1895 forearms in 1899 - a handful or so probably. I'd say it's very likely that Savage started out making at least some of their forearms concave on the bottom like the 1895's. Remember they had the same jigs/etc that Marlin used, so there'd be nothing difficult about that. The only odd thing there is that it doesn't show up more consistently on early rifles.


And his forearm from a facebook picture.. definitely 1895 checkering.

I phoned RIA. the buttplate serial # is 13.890 and the buttstock has 13.890 and 7127, 7127 is the serial number on the receiver. 13.890 indicates an early 1900 production date. This indicates a leftover 1895 receiver that put together after 1899 production started.
I am pretty sure Tkooper's rifle was changed at a later date, either by the factory or a gunsmith.

"It has Enoch Tue grade "C" engraving (not Conrad Ulrich as stated by RIA),"

I think Identifying the engraving as Ulrich is a big mistake for RIA to make.... along with a few others.

Tkopperl, your serial number would fall in the April/May 1896 production range. Production had started just a few months before that in 1896.

What Rick said.

From a ledger page for 61xx:
March 1896 - 5 entries
April 1896 - 26 entries
May 1896 - 4 entries

At just 200 numbers higher than that ledger page, I'd expect it to fall in that same range. Later on in the 1895 production there were a lot of delayed guns, rather than just a 3 month range for a ledger pages you might see a 6 or 9 month range. But early on they were more "efficient", it seems.

What evidence?
I too suspect not too many 1895 forearms went to Utica. Quantity? No idea.

Savage/Utica start making some 1895 forearms?
This seems unlikely as Savage was setting up for new 1899 production. Setting up 2 fixtures/processes simultaneously for the same purpose is twice the effort and the 1895 process would be decommissioned in a short while, 1895 forearms go against the new model 1899 grain and as you say, they don't show up often.

Yes we see a few early rifles with mismatched 1895/1899 wood, but likely just utilizing material for their own reasons.
If Savage we in a pinch or lagging with 1899 forearms the Foreman would just create a priority job and go after it. In the scheme of things a forearm fixture/process is relatively simple compared to metal work. A blank, a channel, filing and a lot of sanding.
JMO