Some time ago Rick 99 was kind enough to send me a table that Fug put together with data on 36 .410 barrels. The breakdown of barrel addresses is:

Style 4 - 20 barrels
Style 6 - 5 barrels
Style 7 - 4 barrels
Style 8 - 3 barrels
No address - 3 barrels (all of these had a comment "reworked ?")

For four of the Style 4 barrels there is a comment "(single)". I have a 22 inch .410 barrel with a single line Style 4 address. (There is no line with the patent dates.) I know of no way to date .410 barrels other than by the barrel address. Does anyone know why some Style 4 barrels have the two line address and some have only the single line? Did Savage start making them with just the single line, then switch to the two line, or vice versa, or ?????

Well, this post has had 106 views with no replies so far. Perhaps I wasn't specific enough. The .410 barrels to which I refer are the .410 barrels that could be purchased for Model 99s, not barrels on Savage shotguns.

I thought Rory, David, Rick 99, Fug or someone would have some input.

I found it interesting.. but am swamped with other stuff at the moment. Do appreciate the post!

Can't answer your question, but I have the same spreadsheet and it appears there is a style 4, 4A & 4B. Double line address, Single line address and Double line address both same length. Who knows if there is an order and what that may be??

Beyond that, I recall analyzing the spreadsheet data a couple of years ago, barrel address, 26", 24", 22", 99A, 99B, 99F, 99G, 1920-1940 and my head started to hurt again.

It's a very complicated subject, there were early barrels to fit the pre-1926 barrel rifles with the lightweight barrel (see first pic) in 22" and 24" lengths. The one in the first pic is 24" and came with a 300 Savage combination set that was forwarded to the shipping department and shipped to the retail store in 1923. It doesn't have a barrel address, only the 410 marking.
There were also 26" rifle weight barrels that could fit the 1899A takedown rifles and the 99B rifles produced from about 1921 to about 1926. The 410 barrels were all full thread. I have seen one or two on the earlier interrupted thread 1899's. The barrel address of the one I have is shown in the second pic. The third pic is the 410 marking on the rifle weight barrel. Starting about 1926 when the medium weight barrels replaced the lightweight and rifle weight barrels a medium weight 410 barrel was introduced. I don't have one but if anyone has one they would let go cheap I would be interested.
Savage changed the barrel addresses on the 99's frequently during the mid to late 1920's. I would imagine 410 barrels produced during this period would reflect these changes. But with Savage never say never.

Thank you David. I agree that it is a complicated subject. The barrel address in your second photo matches the barrel address on my 22" featherweight barrel that I mentioned in my original post. (I recently had that barrel properly fitted to a 1919, Style 2, .250-3000.)

With respect to the later barrels, I have a 1931 99K that came with a .410 barrel. My impression from the seller was that the barrel had been with the rifle since new. At any rate, it indexes perfectly, and both barrels have Style 8 barrel addresses. (Sorry, the .410 barrel isn't for sale!)

Looking at the table there are now two single line 22" (yours and mine) and three 26" with single line address. Given that the 410 barrel was originally to be sold as part of a set with 24" barrels I would think that there would be a single line Style 4 24" in the list.

At this time I don't think we know why some have the single line address and can only say it was probably made sometime within the Style 4 time frame.

That is a good question. Maybe something will turn up in the future.

Rick, I see ads for the 410 barrel advertised as an accessory for takedowns several months before the combination kit came out. So I don’t think the 410 barrels were originally meant just for cased sets.

My 1923 vintage barrel doesn't seem to be reworked. it and the rest of the gun show a lot of use. It originally belonged to Arctic explorer Donald MacMillan. Documentation shows it probably made several (or more) trips to the Arctic. Maybe the real early ones didn't have a barrel address?

Just pulled 2 of my 22" 410 barrels. one has a 2 line Style 4, the other has the first line of a Style 4.

That is what I was getting at. If the single line address is early Style 4 then we should find it on 24" barrels assuming they would have been made first for the Combo Kit.

I think that each line is a separate die. The one die might have failed and some barrels were made without it till another was made.

Who knows. It's Savage.

Hmm. Or they decided that putting 1899 patent dates onto a 410 barrel that was going on a rifle with another barrel just didn't serve a purpose. The patents aren't for the 410 barrel, and the 410 barrel wasn't the main barrel of a gun.

Maybe the one line barrels are the very earliest ones from summer of 1921, and discontinued when they started including the 410 with the cased sets in the fall? There weren't any 24" barreled rifles before the fall of 1921, so all the earliest 410's would be for 22" or 26" (and 26" are rare as heck).

" There weren't any 24" barreled rifles before the fall of 1921, so all the earliest 410's would be for 22" or 26" (and 26" are rare as heck)."

I forgot about that. Good point. If that is true and there are no 26" with a the two line address (need more examples) then it might indicate that all were from an early one time run.

Thanks guys for all the responses. As Rick alluded to, the only three 26" barrels in the spreadsheet all have one line addresses. I like the theory that the one liners were the earliest barrels because that would make mine "correct" for my 1919 Model .250-3000. Obviously that's going to be hard to prove though without more info.

With respect to Rick's comment about the two lines being separate dies, I believe that is correct. On my rifle, as close as I can measure, both lines are the same length (2 3/4 inches), but the patent date line is offset about half a letter to the left of the address line. If they were struck with the same die I'm sure they would line up exactly.

One more piece of the puzzle in place...

I don't know how meaningful this is, but there is a rifle on GB advertised as a 99 G in .250-3000. (No serial number is given or seen in the photos, but the description says the rifle is from 1918-1919 which would make it a second variation Model .250-3000.)
Accompanying the rifle is a .410 barrel with the single line barrel address. No way to know how long the .410 barrel has been with the rifle, but the fact that it is with a rifle from roughly the same time as the introduction of the .410 barrels tends to support the theory that the one line barrel address .410 barrels were the earliest ones.

Just saw a 26” .410 barrel for sale on GB. It has the one line barrel address, which is consistent with the other 26” barrels.

This is not proof positive, but here is a little more evidence that the single line barrel address might have been the early .410 barrels with the two line address coming later.

See this link: www.gunbroker.com/item/953199243 This is a 1921 Combination Kit in a Style 1 case. Photos 5 & 13 of 16 show the one line barrel address on the .410 barrel.

Also see this link: www.gunbroker.com/item/955514841 This is a 1922 Combination Kit in a Style 2 case. Photos 1 & 2 clearly show the two line barrel address on the .410 barrel.

I saw those, and that red set with a 24" barrel with 1 line address is a very early cased set.

My cased set,s/n 238010 has a 2 line barrel address 410 barrel. Don

Thanks Don. Based on the information in Rory's book, that is a very late 1921 rifle and right at the changeover from the Style 1 case to the Style 2 case. Not that it has anything to do with the .410 barrel directly, but I'm curious which style case yours is? Thanks.

Its a style 1 case.

Thanks Don. Looks like Rory will have to revise the starting serial number for the Style 2 case by at least 10. (238001 to 238011)

Don is a special exception.

Did my best on serial number ranges on cased set variations, but there just aren’t enough examples. And throw in sets that have had guns switched and it’ll drive ya crazy.

What is the most common .410 99 barrel length? What is the least common length? Are all 1 line addresses a certain barrel length or can they be on any (22", 24", 26")? What was the original release date of .410 99 barrels? With the .300 Savage 99G release? Is there a guess on how many .410 99 barrels were mads? And how much is a 99 .410 spare barrel running at this point in time for purchase from an individual (average range cost)? thanks

1) 24"
2) 22" and 26" for sure. I have not seen it on a 24"
3) see above
4) see above
5) We have some sales info. Not sure how it correlates to production (rounded):
1921 - 1500
1922 - 1100
1923 - 850
1924 - 600
1925 - 450
1926 through 1932 no info
1933 - 30
1934 - 40
1935 - 30
1936 - 60
1937 - 50
1938 - 30
Ruff guess around 6000-7000 total barrels.
6) $400-500 range...? I have not seen one sell for a while.

So, hypothetically speaking there should be no more than 1500 case sets in 1921? But that number should actually be lower, because someone was able to purchase barrels outside of combination kits at that point in time in time, or no?

410 barrels could be bought separate.

There were few combination kits sold in 1921. Economy sucked, lots of folks were out of work.

The 410 barrel with my cased set doesn't have a barrel address. The rifle letters as sold in 1923. It is the lightweight 24" style. It belonged to an Arctic explorer and is well worn. The patina on the set is the same on all the parts so I think it was purchased at the same time. The case had unique latches that haven't been seen on any other case.
I also have a 26" rifle weight 410 barrel that has the single line address.