Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Savage Collectors Early Savage 99 serial #'s, are they suppose to match

Savage 99 22HP take down with serial #'s on the receiver and the back of the forearm. From what i can tell both date it to 1913 but should they be matching? Also have not seen the red spacer on the grip cap before, is this original from the factory? My dad bought this rifle the way it sits in the late 60's or early 70's from a trapper from Canada. Getting ready to sell this for my Dad and want to make sure i represent the rifle correctly....



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The numbers should match. There's a chance with it being just 4000 off that it was swapped at the factory, but no way to know.

The red spacer isn't original, and the buttstock isn't either. It's later. I can see the lever has been bent to match the curve of the pistol grip stock.

But it's still a 22HP.. that alone nowadays seems to add a premium.

Good catch on the stock, didn't realize that... Wonder why they didn't replace it with the original style?.. Any guesstimate on street price the way its configured?

I think somebody basically rebuilt/refinished it before your dad got it to keep it working. Couldn’t guess at a price.

I know you added that there is no way to know, but I think it gives false hope to even suggest it might be factory. Where would one make the cut off for it being a factory mistake?

I wouldn't call it a factory mistake.. I'm sure they did those intentionally where the serial number is close but different. As to "false hope", you're talking about October, 1912 for the 129,xxx and about Februrary, 1913 for the 133,xxx. That's very much within the realm of possibility of the factory reusing a forearm on another rifle. There are guns that came out more than 4 months late on every ledger page that I think I've seen.

I'd "guess" that when a different numbered stock part is within 6 months, maybe even a year, of the rifle it's on that there's a chance the factory put it on. The closer you get to the rifle number, the higher the likelihood climbs. We know Savage didn't waste parts, they were going to put those pieces on another gun eventually.

Rory, would there be a serial # on the buttstock to date it as well?

Yes, from 1899 to 1950'ish the serial number should be on the forearm, the buttplate, and the buttstock.

The 1919 250-3000 I got from Randy had the serials off buy a bit. He lettered both numbers. The action number came back with the standard pertinent info. The butt stock came back saying, "No rifle with that number left the factory". The butt and forearm match well. The consensus was it came from the factory like that. I don't remember the spread between the two numbers. I'd have to go get both letters out of the safe. maybe Randy remembers. I was thinking it's only a couple hundred?