Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Savage Collectors Possible Blue Rat--Is It Worth It?

I've been looking for a takedown Savage for awhile and this one has popped up. The seller is asking just over $500 for it. I'm not an expert on Savages, but it looks like a 99H to me and the blue looks way too good to be original. Caliber is .30-30, date is 1920, barrel length is 20". Bore is crisp and it has a Lyman tang sight. The butt has the Savage stamp on it. I don't really mind the reblue per se, since I plan on exposing it to some outdoors conditions and I'm not a closet rifle collector. But this is well outside my usual area of rifle expertise and my google searches have found asking prices all over the board, so I really don't know if $500 is too much or not.

What do you think?

One of the questions to ask is...is it tight?
I'd wanna make sure to have an inspection/return privelage if i bought it...and i'd wanna feel good about that agreement b4 i sent my $$.

It's a local sale, so no problems there. Overall it seems remarkably well taken care of. Esp. since it's such an old vintage. But I suspect it may have been revived and tightened up whenever the rebluing took place. Either that or it's been sitting in a case for 85 years.

Is the lever on the rifle blued ?

Yes, it is

The end of the forearm has been cut off. I'd remove the forearm, open the lever and check to see that the barrel locks in the correct position. If it will unscrew, look at the receiver end of the barrel to see it there has been any peening done to tighten the barrel lockup. Check for cracked wood and D&T.

If the schnoble has been hacked and it's been reblued, is the price too high even assuming it locks up tight?

The whole thing is a refinish. No collector value. $400 tops in my book and I'm allowin' for the sight.

The dollar amount you are talking would buy you a pretty nice un mucked with rifle.

Thanks for that input!