Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Savage Collectors When did Savage start/stop numbering breech blocks on pistols?

Some light is shed by Stern's book "10 Shots Quick" (page 59):

"By the fith anniversary date, .32 output had crossed #89000, attaining an even slightly faster pace than the first three and a half months.
But the engineers were still unsatisfied with the sear, and on April 17, 1913, introduced a new version. But, instead of halting the assembly lines, the altered sear was fed into the production sequence without a number break.
This time however, they had a problem. As usual, Savage had been turning out arms with little regard to serial numbers so there were a large quantity of frames both above and below #89000 that had been assembled into pistols with the old sear.
Since it did not seem advisable to mix the two types within the same general number sequence, a method of control had to be devised. The answer to the problem has created one of the biggest question marks among Savage students, and it is believed that this is the first time that the answer has appeared in print.
The solution devised by Savage for guns with the new type sear was to number the breech block with the same serial number as the frame."

He goes on to estimate that 7,000 to 9,000 pistols may have numbered slides & breech blocks.

I believe pistols that have only a partial number (last 3 digits) are factory repaired or refurbished - especially if they also have an "R" stamp anywhere not normally seen (In the slide, under the grips, etc.).

Jim

Do not trust Numrich diagrams (or parts lists) for Savage automatics. The 1907 and "1910" diagrams are for 1908-1911 m1907s; parts for later m1907s show up in the m1917 diagram. For example, the trigger bar in your set of parts does not appear in the m1907 diagram although Savage started installing it in 1912, eight years before the m1917 began production.

The m1917 used the same barrels, slides and breechblocks as the last versions of the m1907. Really, the only difference between the last m1907s and the 1917s is the shape of the grips, since the hammer spur had been available on m1907s since about 1914.

Bill

"Finally got home with the parts, and I noticed that the breech block had an extra lug in the middle. I tried it in my 1912-vintage breech block and it didn't fit. So a quick check on the E-Gunparts shed some light on this--its a 1917 block!"

You need a Type I breechblock, used until about s/n 65000. With a s/n of 546xx your m1907 is a 1907-10-2, dating to 1910-11. It is the last of the "early" m1907 Savages. The next version of the m1907 (1907-12) had a different, incompatible slide, frame, breechblock, barrel, magazine catch, etc.

Bill

"My 1912 vintage is SN 546XX"