Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Savage Collectors Front sight inserts

I just acquired a group of the Chadwick patent grooved front sight inserts, I assumed there were going to be some differences but was really surprised when I started sorting them. There is differences in the taper making the heights of the grooving vary. One missed getting grooved, it's not usable, it will not slide in a grooved slot and if it did it could not be secured because of the open ended slot.

All except for 3 of the small ones appear to be German Silver with most blackened, those three are steel.

The longer ones, if cut down, cannot be made to look correct unless the slot were opened up toward the back.

There have been some listed on eBay for a few years, it looks like they still have a few left -
ebay/itm/333845750476 0.250" high
ebay/itm/233845379303 0.281" high

The Chadwick patent - patent/US830052[/quote]

Are these for several varieties of Savage rifles? Or just 99's?
Is it safe to say the short go with the short integral sights? and the long with long integral sights?
Was Chadwick a Savage designer?

Yep, Chadwick had a number of patents under Savage. The takedown patent, sights, etc.

I think the number of grooves on the side of the sight is not of importance. The sight can only set so deep until it bottoms out and can only be raised till the screw shaft no longer catches the bottom of the blade.

Looking at them.. the grooves seem to be on the flat sides, and as soon as it starts sloping in the grooves stop? So did they just mill grooves into as much of a flat surface as existed?

They are only grooved on one side.

Other sicario is that the side is grooved then the upper slop and bead are machined.

Gene,
Are all of the steel ones drilled for an insert? Do they have inserts in them?

The steel ones are notched and drilled to take a bead but the holes are open so the beads were never put in. A beaded sight would be more more expensive to make. And yes, they are only grooved on the left side, also none are marked in anyway. I have no idea if these were all made by Savage. The different height of the grooves is due to the taper being more on some leaving less of a flat, it doesn't really affect the function. They measure about 0.070" thick over the grooves with the bead at 0.063"-0.065". From experience I found the grooves do not engage very much and it's easy to drive these in crooked if you're trying to set them higher. Some un-grooved inserts with a closed hole I have are 0.062" thick, but I'm not sure what they are for.

The tapers are not the same on each side and on some it's not straight -



I don't know why there are prick-punch marks on this, maybe to try and tighten it.

I can't see anyone other than Savage making those blades. Just not enough demand. If a replacement blade was needed you went to the local hardware/gun shop and bought whatever Lyman/Marbles/etc blade they stocked. There are a lot of Savages out there with none Savage replacements. And the Savage blade only works in a Savage.

I wonder if it was an experiment to try and add a bead to their blades. Either didn't work or added to much labor to warrant the additional cost of a sight. I've not seen a Savage blade with a bead or made of steel on a Savage rifle. Anyone have one?

Leftover parts some how made it into the publics hands... pants pocket, lunch box, found when moved to Chicopee...?

Just my take on the subject...probably wrong.