Pics should be coming tomorrow. Unicorns do exist.

You mean I got to wait a whole day to find out! That's not fair Rory, .

Lee

You got a new fishing rod? Discovered oil under your hunting lot? Found an old IBM stock certificate from 1949 rolled up under the butt plate of a tomato stake?

Jeez, that don't seem right.

'Course they do. Shot a half breed last season.

...pix, or it didn't happen...

YEAH! LOL

Lets see it!!

I've seen thousands of 1950's 99R's for sale over the last dozen years, and only once did I happen onto one that I believed was an original RS - and even then I waited for the opinion of several experts before being convinced.

Yesterday I found #2, chambered in 300 Savage. This one I think I'm gonna keep.

As we all know, it's fairly trivial to convert a 1950's 99R into a 99RS. Rear sight blank and a Redfield 70LH will pretty much do it. So the gun has to be high condition so you can see if it's been messed with, but even then...

So how to tell when an RS is actually an RS and not something converted to fool a buyer? Well, one could hope for the original box, because even hang tags are easy to fake. No box here though.

So, the first thing that convinced me this one wasn't an R converted to an RS to fool somebody was that it'd been partially deconverted. The slide/aperture on the Redfield 70LH had been removed, and scope bases put on. The gun has been hunted, but was very well taken care of. Nobody converts an R to an RS, and then pulls the aperture and glues on scope bases (yeah, glued on).

As it was when I bought it:

Are the pics of the one you already own or the one you just bought?

VERY NICE!

The thing that finally convinced me totally was something that I've never heard mentioned about early 99RS's.

As most know, early in the 50's Savage made a bunch of 99's with steel, case colored rotors. This 99 falls into that area - which is a plus. Case colored rotors are cool!

But, apparently for at least some 99RS's made in that time frame of case colored rotors, savage also case colored the 70LH screws.





Bingo! Unless somebody else has a bunch of 70LH receiver sights with case colored screws, in which case I'm gonna be at least a little bit bummed.... Regardless, I'm enjoying my 99RS.

Just picked this up yesterday, I sold the first one in 308 that I ran across.

Very nice, Rory! For a while there, I thought you were going to show us a late 99C in 250 Savage; this is much better.

....if I can get the damn thing off my phone and to post here...no problem.

....if I can get the damn thing off my phone and to post here...no problem.

I could text it to someone now.

Case colored screws !!! ok that's awesome ..I 've seen so many post war 99 RS's and always felt there was not proof enough that would ever make me want to pay a premium for an "RS"
thanks calhoun

plab

Questions: I have a few Rs from the 50s. I have a 70 in my sight box. If I put it on one of my Rs, would that make it an RS?

Is it that the way the gun is configured make it an RS?

In my opinion, I think that's how we should look at it. Because there's no other way to determine it for post war Rs.

RAS

Redfield 70LH and rear sight blank, and no scratches in the blue where the rear sight was. Those are the normal tells.

As stated, easy to convert a really nice 1950's 99R to a 99RS. But very few 99R's would have been changed to 99RS configuration by a normal owner in the 50's, because why convert a 99R rather than save money/time and buy the 99RS? Or better yet, why spend money on a peep sight rather than buy a scope? And if you put a peep on a 99R, why not put a flip down sight on the rear sight slot rather than a blank?

It's the "reconfigurers" among the collectors who turn 99R's into 99RS's.

Heck, this 99RS isn't even 100% original - I had to supply a 70LH slide/aperture to replace the original one.

But for reasons I stated above, I believe this one was a factory RS. Nobody else has to believe, it's my gun and I make the rules at my house.

No scratches where the rear sight sits would completely convince me. Never thought of that.

Both of my post war Rs have Leupold Mountaineer and Westerner scopes.

One slight dimple in the metal where the rear scope base sat, but blue is practically immaculate on the gun otherwise.

Congrats on your find. It's a keeper!

I say if Rory wants to call it a ham sandwich, then it's a ham sandwich. Who am I to tell him it's not?

Nice find Rory!

Yes nice looking Rifle! I mean RS

Nice rifle! Now you can look for the same in a 250/300. GW

That would be an HS, not an RS.

Nice find!

Thanks for sharing. Well done & as usual I learned a ton!

Wow!!

Sweet one Rory.

Very, very nice!

Beautiful rifle.

Looks like an RS to me. Nice pick up R.

Looks a treat, Rory!