Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Savage Collectors A Tulsa story...

Back in 2000 at Tulsa I found a 1903 production 1899-A, crescent butt rifle in 25-35, very nice condition, had a front dove tail but no front sight...and a 20" barrel. Didn't look cut but a 99 plus% chance that it was. So, I walked on. Well, I have a soft spot for .25-35's so the show ended with the rifle making the trip home with me.

The rifle went on the rack and was a fun shooter. Over the last 20 plus years I had thought about lettering it but never did. This weekend at Tulsa the Cody Museum had tables and for a small fee would do a quick serial search. Not knowing that they were going to be there I hadn't brought a list of serial. The first rifle that popped to mind was the .25-35. For a few dollars I could scratch that itch and finally know that the ,.25-35 was in fact cut down.

So, paid the money and found... .25-35, round barrel, 10/14/1903, shipped 3/28/1904, C&W McClean (sporting goods, St Louis, MO)... with a 20" barrel.

Savage... never say "never".

Awesome

Cool!

Lee

A with factory 20" barrel.

How cool is that?

Sometimes you are lucky and sometimes you ain't. you hit a home run with that one.

So Rick, what’s the rest of the story? What did you do about the front sight?

Rick, did you bring anything home from the recent show?

All I've heard is the prices on the 99s that were there were outa sight!

Does this mean Cody had a searchable data base onsite at Tulsa?

Yes, they’ve offered the same deal for both Savage and Winchester’s at Baltimore for the last 2 or 3 years. Jessie and a couple staff at a table with a laptop. Believe Joe Martin posted on here about a search on a gun(s) that he had done at Baltimore. Pretty sure the cost is $5.00.

It's not a "searchable" database per say.. but they can look up a picture of the ledger page with your serial number and report it.

Getting information was $15 for a non-member, less for a member. But it's just a hand-written note. Not a factory letter that's printed out.

Ok thanks.
Just having pictures of ledger pages must have been a herculean effort. Digitizing entries is probably not feesable.

To early of a rifle for the 22B so Sheard or Jack. I opted for the Jack, Jaaack. Looks and works fine. Rear is the standard Rocky Mt.

One box .375, 250 gr, $50; late 2 pc Savage .32 ammo bx...not full,not great but at a good price.

Prices on rifles just keep going up. A majority of what was there was $1000 and up. A very nice late 99E in .308 was $900 but I had no interest. Did see a last issue 99H, 30-30 at $1800 and a near new .250 99-H at $3000. I would have bought both but not at those prices.

I've gotten a few of the 'letters' at the shows, they have been $10 each, I am not a member. Here are two I just got at Tulsa -


I lettered those two because they have the same replacement stocks with the same buttplates that do not have the normal sharp contours on the pistol grip. They both have work orders just 11 days apart, so to me, that explains them both having the same style replacement stock. It was never worth letters before to find this out, maybe not even worth what these cost.

Here's one of those two -




An original stock for comparison -

Curiosity got the best of me, so just checked. Joe Martin indicated that he got 6 ‘letters’ at the Baltimore Show this past March at $5.00 apiece. Different prices at different venues?

Now that was worth the wait ...just under an inch a year.

Inflation...

Which explained you walking up to our tables with a HUGE smile across your face … 😊👍

Rick, was the 25-35 barrel a standard 26 inch barrel cut to 20 inches at the factory or a 20 inch rapid taper barrel with the same diameter at the muzzle of a full 26 inch barrel?