Anybody have an idea what serial was the first .284 to hit the market? My earliest are #10727xx and #10773xx. Just curious.

Don't forget there was a prototype that tried to mimic the win 88 full stock and detachable magazine, which I believe was all about trying to use the 284 cartridge. Don't know the dates, but almost certainly it was the earliest 99 x 284

It’s important to remember that the lowest serial number may not be the earliest one.

Guns weren’t always finished in serial number order.

I did not know that. Whatever happened to it?

I also have a 284 that's got a lower serial number but I have no way to know if it's factory. I doubt it.

Roy, I've got it. Unfortunately the sides of the receiver were cut away along with the original serial number if there was one. It does have what I take to be a serial number. It's starts with an S followed by a four digit number stamped on the receiver. The serial number is covered up when the stock is on the rifle.
here are a couple of pics.


It will be covered in my new book. In excruciating detail of course.
It is based on a 99C. they were introduced in 1965 and we have seen 284's produced in 1964 (DL's and F's with hand checkering) so this can't be the earliest one.

Wow, I'd completely forgotten you had that David. Wouldn't you assume if the 99C was introduced to the public for sale in 1965 that this was pre-1965? Or do you assume the 99C was introduced then they experimented with it in 284? I don't know the dates on Winchesters rifles and development but it is interesting to think about the timelines of the two manufacturers and what they were simultaneously trying to do. Or maybe Savage was playing catch-up?

I always presumed this was a prototype done several years later, after the intro of the 99C. The model 88 was discontinued in 1973, so I wouldn't be surprised if this dated to shortly after that.

No date code on the front of the lever or above the lever on the frame?

My Wilson book on Winchester's incicate's that the Model 88 was introduced in 1955 and as Calhoun stated ended production in 1973. Chambered in .243, .308, .284, and .358. Total production of 283,913-SN #'s 1-283,913. I had a 4x scoped 88 in .243 for a while on loan back in the early 70's. Guy I worked with wanted me to sight it in, gave me around 100 rds, only took 15 or so, advised to shoot the rest up. Then asked me if I wanted to buy, kept it awhile, shot maybe another 100 rds in it. At the time I didn't reload and had no use for it, should have bought it.

David, what is the serial number range of that decommissioned 284 receiver you were going to make a cutaway out of?

Mine is 10798xx

Will check tomorrow. I'm in for the night

What do you mean decommissioned? If the means simply a bare receiver I want it. We can make a cutaway on another.

284 Win was introduced by Winchester in 1963 so any serial number or LBC before 63 most likely isn't right. Being that the double diamond pressed checkering started sometime in 64, that's why a cut checkered 284 (that's right) is such a hard gun to find.

I swear Jed claimed to have had a 284 cut checkered F new in the box at one time. Wonder where that gun is now?

Can you even imagine if that thing turned up?

Maybe somebody up in the NE knows where it is?

1,069,5xx lowerst .284 that I have in my data.

I had a double diamond 1964 284 DL at one time. It was absolutely stone mint.

I think I paid $900 about 10 or 12 years ago for it and sold it for $1800 about 6 or 8 years ago.

I bought it with the idea I was going to take it hunting. Couldn't bring myself to do it.

Did I buy it?

You didn't buy it from me. The gentleman that bought it from me was an old man and he told me he had terminal cancer, but he had always wanted a 99 in 284.

So I suppose it is possible that you have it now...?

I have a 99F at 1,062,3xx in my data - but then it's a big jump up to 1,069,5xx and 1,069,9xx, and then another jump to 1,073,xxx.

Mass production seems to ramp up around 1,073,xxx. The lowest at 1,062,xxx would be a very, very early 284 - better part of a year earlier than the others.

I don’t suppose you know the LBC of the very early one?

No, it wasn't visible. In fact the serial number isn't either, but it is from a reputable auction house listing.

Rory, I wonder if that 10623xx is the top one in this photo? If so, you need to know some details for your notes.




The rifle has both the rotor cross screw and interior rotor retaining ring, rather than just the retaining ring of standard .284's. All machining looks factory but who knows?

The forearm is a 99F .284 forearm w/o the cutout for barrel boss for the rear sight that the other 99F's had. There are factory machining marks inside the forearm, not hand done.

The barrel is marked .284, with no other Savage markings, but has white highlighted lettering like some of the factory rifles had.

The receiver is marked 99F, has no date stamp, no Savage proof stamp, etc.

The rifle has a matte blued finish.

The stock finish "appears" factory.

No fluted comb, or lightly fluted comb.

The buttplate is much earlier Savage, "SVG"

Front and rear sights appear Savage and in correct locations.


With the forearm being a factory .284 forearm but pretty much everything else pointing to a custom, I would say slim chance it's factory. It is a beauty and well done, but the really early buttplate, matte finish, lack of Savage barrel markings, etc lead me to believe a gunsmith built it. If anyone needs more information, let me know.

Aha.. you pick that up in 2017, I take it?

I'm sorry I don't have a date but that may be about right.

Cool.. that cleans up the one-off early 284, so 1069xxx looks like the early ones, mass production at 1073xxx.

My damaged receiver is serial # 107669x. It has a crack in the receiver behind the bolt. It extends back through the first scope mount hole.

I just noticed the index line on the bottom of the barrel on the "early" 284. That looks like a factory index line.

No barrel address though?

Barrels were available but the snap ring cut is very difficult doubting someone else other than the factory did that.

Can numbers that late be lettered?

No LBC?

No.

Nothing on the barrel but the caliber.

Barrels and wood are easy to change but how can there not be anything on the lever boss?

Matte finish. Maybe they polished it off, I don't know. Maybe it never went down the assembly line and was a prototype? I don't know that either.

Weird. I believe you.

I’m just trying to figure out why they’d have done a prototype with an unstamped barrel. I have a 284 with a Chicopee Falls barrel, that kind of shows there were profiled and stamped barrels sitting around waiting to be bored and chambered.

Not the first 99 to have been reworked to a 284 aftermarket, if it was done aftermarket. Lots of work, but apparently doable.

My prototype 99CD doesn't have anything on the barrel except the caliber. It has an RD serial number.

By 1975 I think most of the models had the model name in the barrel address. So it kind of makes sense they didn't use a barrel stamped for another model on a prototype.

Like i said that cutis very difficult

Chris I know you've been working on the .284 and other receivers for your 450 Bushmaster work, what are you saying about the snap ring cut? Can it be done? What do you think about the early bastardized .284 from a machinists point of view?

What's intriguing to me is the combination of the .284 forearm, barrel index line, and snap ring cuts inside the receiver say factory .284 but the metal finish, buttplate, barrel stamping, earlier serial number, rotor cross screw, things like that say aftermarket .284.

It doesn't matter to me one way or another, just interested in the later transitions. I considered sending you this rifle to rechamber or rebarrel to 450 Bushmaster, but I don't want to do it to a historically significant rifle so I'm torn what to do.

I thought I'd heard of one standard 99 that had been converted to 284.. but maybe I'm mis-remembering?

But another prototype 284 is out there somewhere with an RD serial.

What I would LOVE to know about the .284 RD gun is whether or not it had the snap ring rotor retention or the cross screw, or both.

The 35-300 prototype barrel had no markings.

Roy the 450 I built is based off a standard receiver starting life as a 243 win. So the receiver looks exactly like your .284 having both the snap ring cut and holes for the screw. So from the factory one side comes threaded and the other is just a through hole is your off side tapped for a filler screw?

The snap ring groove needed to be very exact, special tooling and fixtures purchased. It was done on a CNC mill with a very experienced machinist at the helm.

I don't want to change that rifle of yours.

The cross screw on the 284 is just a standard cross screw, no filler screw.

I've also got the 30-284 99E it wouldn't be a big loss to make that one a 450.

So I had assumed that the rotary magazine 284 front C-clip retainer was part of accommodating a longer-than-308 rotor. Do these cross-rotor screw 284s still line up the front of the rotor bell with the cross screw? (like a 284 rotor would fit in a 308 receiver?). And How do the C-clip rotors adjust for rotor tension?

So the front clip/spring was to accommodate the larger diameter cartridge and memory says went to holding 4 only. The larger diameter interferes with the internal rotor spring. One could design a drop in rotor that could still use the screw but would need to think differently than the savage r&d dept.

With 3 d printers may be doable?

Your 410 rotor must be very close to the internal spring?

Edit to add finally got over for the birds eye schutzen the Covid was going around there so I stayed away. That critter is amazing! Thank You.

Yes, the ruthlessly modified .410 rotor exposed the center spring, and the internal walls and belly of the receiver were also ground back to accommodate the large diameter rounds..., not good engineering, especially for high-pressure rounds...

The rotary magazine 284 holds four rounds. The detachable magazine version holds three.

I have a cut checkering 99 in 284, I'll dig it out and check the serial #.

My 284 is a cut checkered F 1073182