Bought it on a whim a year or two ago and it sat in a drawer waiting for me to work on it. Both stocks were broken, and the takedown reciever had three extra holes. But come on, a 38-55 takedown carbine? Heck yeah. Fires and smoke kept me indoors today, so I pulled it out and took a look.

I found new old wood for it a while back, but that receiver with the holes just wasn't going to fly. Turns out the reciever was an interrupted thread and the barrel was a solid thread, so it was a mismatch anyhow. Looked thru my stash and found a clean takedown reciever with no problems, so I stripped the holy reciever and used the parts to build the better one. Of course, half the parts didn't fit, so my stash saved the day. In the end there's probably parts from 15 guns inside this new build, but it's dialed now. Smooth as butter. Barrel has a mint bore so it was worth the effort. Fit the barrel and the wood last so it's ready to test.

I'll admit it wasn't all I had hoped for when I found it, but it's going to be an amazing hunting rifle. It carries like a 30-30 carbine but shoots a big slug. If I ever go back to Alaska, it's going.

























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Sweet!

Very nice Sa(l)vage Roy, well-done. That rifle should have another couple of generations in the woods now.

38-55 with a crescent butt plate gave me a flinch, and made me sell mine, .. now I have Your 375 with a steel shotgun plate...much better

Interesting. In normal production they'd have never made a 38-55 barrel with solid threads for a takedown. Rear sight is from an early rifle though. Is barrel address from the 1920's maybe?

1911-1919. Royals Book, pp125 figure A-4, EXCEPT- The two lines are the same length


You have my .375? Dang. I don't know if you've figured it out yet but that rifle is a literally a one hole shooter with factory 200 grain ammo.

Nice job bringing it back from the scrapyard. Great cartridge. Since it’s a pretty much a reloading proposition, what load are you using?
That rifle would give me a warm fuzzy feeling, just because of the cartridge.

I haven't fired this one yet so we'll have to see if it likes the loads from the other one using the 220 gr Hornady. If not I'll go cast 255 gr.

The (holy) reciever that the barrel was mated to was a 1920 production date, with matching (broken) buttstock but mismatched (cracked) forearm #

Nice!

It sounds romantic, breaking the carbine down and putting it in a short case or a backpack. But honestly, if I'm hiking into the backcountry I'd rather carry it on the end of my arm than in my already overloaded pack. LOL

I guess it made sense back then for carrying it in an automobile or on a train, or while hitchhiking to the hunting grounds. Always wondered what the hitch back home looked like with an 8 point buck laying on the shoulder and a guy with his thumb out.

Well done Roy.

The mythical One Gun huh Ted? Ha

Nice work Roy! You have a great aptitude for this stuff.

Thanks Mike. This rifle had the old style split shank safety rather than the later one with a spring. Is that normal for 1920 production?

Not sure about the safety change but always figured it changed at the 90K point with the other significant changes. Would not have expected to see it in 1920 at all.

Then again maybe Savage didn’t nail it back then. Takedowns were never as popular as solid frame rifles and they pretty much disappeared from the catalog in the years before WWII. I see no reason to believe that marketing was more responsive, responsible or accurate in determining what the public needed simply based on age. The good old days only exist in thought.

nicce work roy wish i had your knowledge and ability with mod. 99's

Ed

Me neither too.




Just get a beater and take it apart a few times. They're not too bad at all.

Another one brought back to Life! Great Job Roy! Iv tried to like the 38-55s but that round has been a Jinks for me!

[Jeff, I figured out which 375 you're talking about. I was thinking you meant the one I sold saddlering.

Nice one Roy!!

Well played, Roy. Sorry for the delayed compliment but my gut is twisting me apart, again.

Roy, you need to add a RM to the serial #'s of these rifles you bring back from the scrap heap. prolly add value

I would pick him up!

Nice salvage Roy. Any before pictures?

Mixed new/old wood



Had planned on fixing this but then found the other wood and said phooey on it, I'm ready to go shoot it.

And a good phooey it was!

Much quicker anyhow. I had thought if the rifle was original it would be best to repair the wood but upon finding it probably was not all that went out the window.

Took it out to test it this afternoon. First shot hit the rock I was aiming at at 50 yards. Primer looked good. Good strong firing pin strike. 6 more shots and I moved the rear sight one click down, otherwise it was dead on!

Everything works right, no worries. Tomorrow we go out bear hunting.