Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Savage Collectors Savage 1899 CD with Letter

Here are pictures of my 1899 CD and the Cody letter on it.

I guess I am comparing Mr. Callahan's letters that I have been receiving since 2006 and every one of those mentioned the caliber, even the 303 Savage.

If I hadn't been able to visit with you all how would I have known that this was a 303? Thanks for your help.

Bill

Worth the cost of a letter to confirm that a gun is still in the original factory configuration.
Adds a lot of value when one decides to sell the gun.

Sweet rifle! Congrats on that one!

Yeah, the Cody archivists are stuck doing what they do for letters for other manufacturers - and that's just telling what's recorded.

There are rules you need to know about the Savage ledgers, like they didn't record 303 on early ledgers and sometimes they didn't record barrel lengths. And Cody won't use Murray's 1899 models because they didn't exist back then.

As a note, I think they started recording 303 in the ledger shortly after this.. by 1908 sometime, I think.

PS: there was a McIntosh Hardware in Cleveland in 1907

Thanks Bill. A picture is worth a thousand words...

JTC stated the contents of the ledgers. He also expanded upon that to include some value added info such as model, calibers, etc.(which he either got from Doug Murray or here!)

Read the stamp on the barrel.

Hey Rick, yes I did read the stamp on the barrel, but I had a 25-35 that I got a letter on; and it came back from John Callahan that it left the factory with a 30-30 barrel.

That is what I meant about not putting the caliber in the letter.

Thanks for the info on McIntosh I tried Googling that and came up empty.

Best Regards
Bill

That looks like a NICE one Bill.

Maybe the "24" should start selling fill in data sheets given a Cody letter and a photo.

The 30-30 from John was a non standard barrel, so it would be noted. I just looked and my Cody Search Letter on the 1902 engraved rifle is hiding somewhere? My JTC letter for my 1912 H, does say it was made in 22 HP.

That is a handsome rifle...

Ahhhh, I see. Good question.
I had a rifle once that must have had a barrel swap somewhere along the way too as it lettered in a different caliber than what I had.
As others have said, .303 was the default caliber and generally not recorded. A Winchester caliber would have been noted so I think your .303 is legit.
Sometimes the barrels had the serial number or the last 3 digits of the serial number stamped on the underside of the barrel. Does yours?

I have a letter on 812xx that completed and shipped on Dec 23, 1907 , almost exactly 2 months after yours, and the Callahan letter states 303... now he might have been just adding it, knowing it was a 303 because the ledger did not say otherwise. It was also a highly customized rifle that the ledger showed the original consignee was the "Advertising Account" meaning the Savage Arms advertising department, so maybe additional details were recorded in the ledger?!?! Hard saying.

If you ever get a letter from Griffin and Howe, they actually include a full 8.5x11 photo of the ledger page itself... which I think is really cool and lets you see what other neat stuff was made around that time. I've seen photos of a few pages of the Savage ledgers but not too many out there.

Drew, a bit higher than yours and a few entries had 303 recorded in them. Not all though.. so it might have been recorded or Callahan might have interpreted it.

All records having the chambering recorded happened sometime in year after. I think every ledger page I've seen from 1909 and up recorded it for all entries.