Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Savage Collectors Model 1920

Rich.... My 1920 is mfg. for the LYMAN 54...but of course, my luck runs the way of NOT having a LYMAN 54 when I bought it. To add to that, I was told by the boys here that my rear site is NOT original or correct...I want to say that the boys seemed to think it was a Winchester site.

Hard to tell from the pics, that rear sight looks like either a Lyman 16 or a Marbles Sporting Leaf. I'm thinking the Marbles cause I can barely make out a set screw hole on the one side of it.

...where my LYMAN 54 SHOULD be!

The elevator is.

Does it have a patent date stamped on the side of the elevator?

Joe....these are old photos...I will try to get some others up, but you can see the sight just to the left in this shot...partially any way!

Winchester !!

Joe...no markings anywhere...elevator nor sight.

BTW...sorry for hi-jacking the thread!

The lettering on mine is fainter than on yours making me wonder if it has been reblued at some point. It's still pretty nice. I'm liking this rifle, as soon as I get some kind of sights on it, I'll be headed to the range with it.

I have yet to shoot mine! I am curious if recoil is the same as say an EG? When I get to it!

I don't think the guy that owned that gun liked peep sights.

With a serial number as high as that it makes it a model 20/26 which means it never was dovetailed for a rear sight, someone had that done after the factory.

The last serial number was 13006 iirc, I used to own 13002. Still own 12710 but it's cherry and most likely will never see the light of day again till I'm dead.

Joe...you think it came through the factory sans dovetail and that some DONK had it cut in after? Yup...the hits keep coming! Hey, I knew this was NOT a safe queen collectable, but I didn't realize the rifle was dovetailed after the fact...I knew the 54 was not there and that the rear sight was not factory, but the fact the dovetail was not factory is a "hmmmmm" moment....what about Rich's rifle? Was that Dovetailed after as well ya think?

I thought I lettered this rifle...sure enough! It was shipped in October of 1927. JTC added a special hand written note saying the Improved 1920 could still be ordered in the begining of 1927 with open sights OR Lyman...BUT not both. He is of the opinion my rifle was of the Lyman variety. As an added note of interest, it was shipped to TOEPPERWEIN HARDWARE. Further digging found this to be in San Antonio and tied to a famous sharp shooter and record holder of the day Adolph Toepperwein of the "Shooting Toepperwein's"...personally, I had never heard of him but he was quite a shot from my readings.

Ya, the 20/26's only came with the front sight and the Lyman 54. Someone correct me if I'm wrong. I remember every now and then someone would trip over a 99G with no dovetail for a rear sight, most likely because it was meant for a 20/26. So you might have got one of the 99G barrels that was dovetailed for a rear sight, either that or it was done aftermarket.

Rich is correct because his was made in 1923, it's a model 1920 not a 20/26.

Wish I could find the factory letter on my 20/26. I know I had it lettered and I couldn't save my life tonight if I needed to find it. More crap on this desk than a gunsmiths work bench.

As Don Said Looks Like a Winnie Rear, The Elevator For Sure.

Ad Topperwien and his wife "Plinky" were trick shooters who traveled the country putting on their exhibitions. If I remember correctly they were subsidized by Winchester. Topperwein was the guy who would draw the outline of an Indian chief on a 12" piece of tin with rapid fire shots from a Winchester 1903 autoloader. Those "portraits", if substantiated, bring big bucks today.

Remington sponsored the Topperwien's.

Doc

Beg to differ. It was Winchester. I just googled it. He once shot at 72,000 hand thrown 2�" blocks, and missed only nine. His longest run without a miss was 14,540. The record stood until 1959 when Tom Frye of Remington broke 100,004 out of 100,010 wood blocks, hand thrown over 13 9-hour days, using a Nylon 66.