Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Savage Collectors Savage 330 made by Valmet

I just purchased a Savage 330 O/U 26" with Mod./Imp. Cyl. It was made in December 1970 according to the stampings near the serial number. All numbers match. It is realy a nice gun in great shape. I have seached the net and this forum and found very little on these guns.

Anyone here have any information that can be shared?

I am looking for a manual, parts scources and or general information. I have a couple of Savage 99's one in .303 and one 250/3000. They are great guns and expect the same results with the 330.

Ron

I'm curious. Whats stamped near the serial number that told you it was made in Dec of 1970?

Never heard of that before.

On the lower left side of the chambers, right below the serial number is "12/70" then right near that is "Mod/Imp Cyl". It is in the exact matching type.

They were imported from 1969 to 1980 by Savage so I just put it together. In the other locations of the number this is not repeated, just the one time.

Ron

Cool, never seen them do that before.

I believe 12/70 is 12 ga/with 70mm chambers (2 3/4 inch).

You may be correct that it is the gauge and shell length. However on the exposed blue of the barrels it does say "12 Gauge" and "2 3/4" also. Seemed logical to be a date to me but I admit to guessing.

Ron

Gary is correct. Just checked some European 12 gauge ammo I have.

Cool. I will call it confirmed and it does make sense. Now I need to know production dates and serial numbers as well. While I am leaning more I find I know less. SOS.

Thanks for the help!

Ron

GL, Welcome - sounds like you're happy with your new purchase. The only place I can suggest for a manual is Steve'sPages, and hopefully that site will have a match in the Valmet section.
http://stevespages.com/page7b.htm

If you've done a search here you'll likely find only a few posts on Savage shotguns, and most of those will be related to the combo-guns or the 219/220 switch barrel single shots. Others come up though and hopefully you'll get some more hits.

Dons1:

Thanks for the link. I just printed the Shotgun booklet. It is not directly on point but it is a very good start. I have searched a bunch and that is the first time I saw that page so again, Many Thanks.

Ron

You're quite welcome. Some more input may arrive here, but you may want to also post a question on the shotgunworld.com site. I'm a big A-5 and Ithaca 37 fan and post most of my shotgun questions there. Like here at 24Hour, a good group to deal with.

Ron, Is there a oval stamp with a number and a letter in the oval any place on the gun. (Im wondering if they smacked the date code in these like they did so many others.)

It would have had to have been made in 1969 or 1970 then.

I don't think they went into the X's and Y's did they?

Thanks for the ideas and questions. I am a member on shotgunworld.com as well. I will post there eventually but this Savage forum seemed more likely after reading the related posts after a few searchs on that site.

As far as other symbols I will have to check and get back to you. It is not acessable to me right now.

Thanks again. I have been a member just a few hours and have lots of great information on an obscure weapon and many new friends.

Ron

https://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbth...ored_a_nice_Savage_double_12#Post5889164 Here is an older post.

You may want to contact the OP, he is a regular here.

Just checked; it has other marks but hard to tell what. One is a tiny triangle with what appears to be a pile of rocks or dots in it. No identifiable letter. The other mark is a tiny series of many very small marks and the last 2 of the serial number maybe.

No ovals. No clear dates or letters.

Thanks

Ron

Ron, the "Gun Digest Book of Exploded Gun Diagrams" (or something like that) has exploded diagrams of the 330 that show you all the parts. If you can't find it, PM me and I'll snail mail you the page copies (I'm scanner/fax challenged....).

I have had a passel of these Savage/Valmets over the years: 330s both 12s and 20s, 333s in both, and 2400 combos in .222/12 ga. and .308/12 ga. Still have a 333 12 ga., a pre-Savage Valmet "Lion" 12, a 3" magnum 30" barrel 330 (only one I've ever seen) and both of the combination guns. So I guess it's apparent that I have a high regard for this series of guns.....

Keep light grease on the locking surfaces of the action (I use RIG) and you won't have takedown or action opening issues with the gun. Ungreased it can get stiff.

These guns are a Finnish re-design of an action originally patented in France right after WWI by a Czech (actually Bohemian, meaning German) gunsmith/inventor. When the European patent expired in 1932, Remington started using it in their Model 32, later in the 3200. It is also used in the Kreighoff O/Us, but I don't know when that started. A Valmet designer simplified the action and made the parts compatible with cold-weather shooting and hunting beginning in the early 1950s. The gun was imported into the US by Klein's Sporting Goods as the "Finnish Lion" in the late 1950s and early '60s, then slightly redesigned for Savage to import in the later 1960s and early 1970s.

The date you give your gun is logical enough, but what you are citing is just the caliber stamp, as noted.

I think this gun will grow on you, especially when it's cold out. Very glove friendly.

I just found a near new one in a CA gunshop for $400 and jumped on it as a present for my Marine son when he returns (for I hope the LAST time!) from Afghanistan next month. His is a 28" 330 choked F/M; I loaded up some scatter loads for him in case he wants to use it for quail; all he has to do is put a scatter shell in the full barrel and punch the barrel selector.... I'd get it rechoked but don't know where he's going to be stationed next and it might be Duckville or Pheasant City! And gunsmiths hate rechoking Valmets of any breed; my barrelsmith says the barrels are tougher than woodpecker lips!

You were lucky to find a 330; people tend to hang onto them. Enjoy one of Savage's many GOOD ideas!

I owned a 330 for a while. It was sold after I patterned it

I have a 12 and a 20 gauge 330 and like both a lot. shot a 24/25 at trap with 12 which is as good as I can shoot! My regular trap gun is a Berreta. The 20 is nicest looking shotgun I own.

The 330/333 series are not without flaws, although I think the design itself is pretty much genius. The main problems I've observed in the dozen or so I've owned:

Wood quality is like a lottery (kinda like Ruger, in fact). You can find a plain-Jane 330 with wood good enough to eat, and a "fancy" 333 with pallet-grade "walnut-imitating-birch" wood. Sometimes you got a beautiful stock and a plain forend. Not a problem. But the reverse looked funny, at best.

The stamped checkering runs from just cheap to super-suck. On the super-suck models, the pallet-grade wood is crushed in the wrist of the stock by the die that stamped the checkering so that any little shock cracks the stock. Back in the day this wasn't a problem: I got my 333 Skeet for virtually free because it had the stock cracked all the way thru. Just bought a new stock, which was very pretty, and bolted it on. NOW it IS a problem: factory stocks are very hard to find and a custom restock costs 3 times what the gun sold for. (Valmet "Lions" and Savage/Valmet 2400s have nice hand-cut checkering, tho.)

You could get at least the 330 in a two-barrel, two-guage set, which sounds like a great idea. But often the set was a 26" IC/M 12 guage and a 28" F/M 3" Magnum 20 guage, which strikes me as kinda wierd. I assume that having a 12 guage duck gun and a 20 guage upland gun makes more sense, but I never saw such a set. And if the longer 20 guage barrel was to correct the balance, why not make it in a more useful choke?

(HAS ANYONE GOT a different set than the one I mention above? A two-guage 333?)

I've never had patterning or POI problems with these, but I can see how a little slop in fitting the barrels together might cause POI issues. Patterning problems are usually just a re-choke job; expensive and kinda a pain, but really no big deal.

But tex n cal, if you mean the chokes were too tight, that's how the Finns roll, chokewise. Because of what they hunt, and how, their "Full" is REALLY FULL, and modern shotshells make it SUPERFULL. That's what choke reamers (and scatter loads) were made for! My 2400s have chokes marked "Improved Modified," but it is really Full. I shot a .38 ammo box at the range the other day with a 2 3/4" standard ounce and a quarter of 6s. At 30 yards there were 18 holes in the side I shot. Dead turkey. Dead coyote. Missed quail or minced quail, tho.