Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Savage Collectors Another Odd Savage 1895 thread

Exactly. I have two that I have not shot.

I think we have gone as far as we can with the chambering. It appears to be factory from the info we have.

The length question originated from this statement by Jeff...

"I can’t remember who it was shipped to except I think the address was Jacksonville, FL.
I also think it was marked Light or something like that, but not sure.
I have to dig the letter out sometime."

I think we have only seen this one 1895 in .30-30. I don't think that from this one example that we can assume that Savage was retailing 1895 to the public in .30-30.

On the other hand, we have found several crescent butt rifles with 22" barrels that have statement in the log book of "Light or Lightest" but no barrel length listed. From two of the letters, they were not made in the same time frame and were not immediately shipped out as you would expect with a special order. More data is needed. I don't think there was a listing in any of the catalogs that indicated you could buy a rifle with a 22" barrel off the shelf.

As for Fug's above listing of "cataloged barrel lengths", I guess we should now accept, without question, any 1895 with a 15" to 32" barrel and in any barrel style and caliber as being factory. Really?

The SRC's were catalogued as both 20" and 22" in the 1897 catalog.

I think the context might well be that Savage was a broker of M1895 rifles, not a manufacturer. Marlin did the manufacturing and as such was a job shop for Savage. If Savage had a fish on the line who wanted something a little out of the ordinary (cataloged or not) they would accommodate him because at the end of the day it was all about garnering as many dollars as they could to finance the segue into manufacturing their own guns. Marlin may not have liked it but (I assume) Arthur's checks didn't bounce.

On page 16 of the 1899 catalog they show a picture of a 1895 rifle with a listing of a 22” barrel. It looks just like the 2 i have letters on stating “light” and “lightest” we know savage used 1895 pictures in some of their later catalogs. i ran a 303 in several of the 1895,s i have and they chambered in all of them. Needless to say i had never shot any of them. Don

Same picture of a 22" 1895 is in the 1900 catalog on page 16 - it's the saddle gun, aka 1899A SR. I don't believe it was labelled "Saddle Gun" until the 1905 catalog - where it STILL shows an 1895 rifle. The 1909 catalog finally gets updated with pictures of 1899 rifles.