December, 1953. This shows nicely why there are so many more Winchester's and Marlin's than Savage's out there. They were cheap guns.

Could get into a Marlin or Winchester for $69. Needed $109 to get a 99EG, $112 for a 99R, $128 for a 99RS.

Those prices didn't change much until after the mid 1960's.

In todays money, that's about like $750 vs $1200, and back then there were a heck of a lot more one rifle pot hunters than collectors with more on the rack than the nearest NG arsenal, so it's no big surprise the Savages were slow sellers compared to the less expensive alternatives.

I grew up in a fairly poor area the first part of my life, and you saw a heck of a lot more Marlin model 30s, Win 94s, Savage 340s and Rem 788s than you did 99s or Win model 70s because it was all about the budget for most guys.

You're right. From 1951 to 1959 the 99 models increased only about $2.

By the mid-60's, the 99E was at $105, 99F/99C/99DL from $134 to $141.
Prices jumped almost 20% in the late 60's.
The 70's saw the prices almost double.
In the 80's prices doubled again.

I didn't see anyone else with a 99 in the late fifties and early sixties. Most people around Ocala could only afford one gun so it was a shotgun. They hunted everything with that one gun: birds, squirrels, rabbits and deer. There were a few 94's and a very few bolt guns, mostly military surplus.

Most people where I was would have a 22, a deer/black bear rifle, and sometimes a shotgun if they were into waterfowl.

My old man had 4 or 5 centerfire rifles at the time, and he would always end up lending one or two of them out every season because we knew quite a few people who hunted that didn't even own a high power. One of them was a 98 Mauser that he'd put a sporter stock and better set of sights on, and then a 7.7 Jap that was as plain as the day the war ended. He ended up building something out of the Jap eventually, though.

I was born in 53, damn I’m old

You are actually old enough I could hang out with you. I follow the credo that "Old guys know lots of stuff". I think Gary is 53 also. I'm a youngun, 56!

I was born in '53 too. My Old Man was an active hunter back then, but he did most of his hunting with a 16 gauge double, with a Marlin 81DL .22 for plinking. Both bought new in the late '40's. The deer herd there back then hadn't yet rebounded to the populations we all have enjoyed massacring, so there weren't a lot of deer being shot, so he made do with the shotgun. I remember a red letter day as a three year old when he bought his first centerfire rifle, a Savage 340. Funny how some early memories are indelibly etched in one's brain - I guess it was ordained there and then that I was to become a rifle loony. (Probably why I've been a skirt chaser too, since Pop took me to my first strip club when I was six. Haha, only kidding! That would be ridiculous. I was 10.)