Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Savage Collectors When did factory drill and tapping start for scope mounts?

I am on the hunt for a .308. From reading a 61 catalog, the 61s were drilled and tapped. I also read that .308s began to be manufactured in 56 for 1957 sales. I would like to find a pre-60 .308 ... if they were factory drilled and tapped, otherwise a later, but early later one when they were still doing hand checkering.

When did factory drilling and tapping actually begin?
When it started, was it across the board for all models in the starting year?

Factory drilling started with the model R after WWII. The other models started about 750K but there are a bunck of exceptions so it's a long story...

Any .308 Savage 99 will be factory drilled though.

Their out their at a premium for the pre 60's in 308 with hand cut checkering. You can find the same thing in 300 Savage for substantially less. Will do anything that the 308 will do with slightly less recoil. GW

If you are in doubt about a particular rifle keep in mind that factory drill jobs never went through the Savage stamp on the breach. Factory drilled guns have the stamp placed to the left so it wouldn't be covered by the scope mount base.

All 308's would be factory D&T and the serial numbers would be above 900,000. As Lightfoot says all were D&T'd starting at approximately 750,000. Some EG's were D&T'd in the 730,000 range and some and then some later ones were not (before 750,000).
I've killed an elk and a caribou and a number of whitetails with a 300 Savage so I can say that they are plenty effective. There's a lot of factory ammo available for the 300 so it's plenty good enough anything in North America with the possible exception of grizzlies.