How rare are they? AT least I think it said "wcf" after the 30. My LGS got one in with a Schnabel forearm, it's not drilled and tapped, and it appears that it probably has the original rear sight on it. The rifle looks pretty good for as old as I assume it is. I'm sorry I didn't get any other info on it, but I was more interested in a couple of others rifles he had. As much as I would like to have a 99, not sure I ever will but would like to know a little about the rarity of the chambering in the 99's. Thanks-Eddie

P.S.-he said he thought he was going to ask 1200 for it. I know no one can tell me with certainty about price without knowing model and condition but I am mostly just wanting to know about the rarity of the 30 in the rifle.

It’s as rare as a 30-30 Win.

They aren’t really rare, but are desirable.

I saw an 1899 A in 30-30 at a pawn shop, he was asking $750. At first I thought I hit the jackpot. When he handed me the gun I could feel the damage on the off side of the stock. Flipped it over and there was a tire track and gravel embedded in it. By the time I flip flopped back and forth whether I should get it, it sold. Like RAS said, they are out there, and like you said, it's all about condition.

If it said 30WCF its one of a kind !!!!! Savage didn't really want to advertise Winchester !!!!!! The early Savages in 30-30 caliber were marked 30 SAV, some actually 30 SAVAGE, and then they were just stamped 30-30. The savage 1899, and savage 99 in 30-30 is not that rare. Don

dang nab it i need to move my guns downstairs! or get my memory back! had to go look at mine to see what it was stamped.
<-------------30-30------------>

Be cool to have one marked 30 Savage

I guess my memory isn't too good. It must have said 30 SAV. Sorry for the confusion. I am going back over there in the next few days, I hope. If so, I will get pics and that way everyone can see exactly what it is. I'm just not up on the 99's other than thinking they are a cool part of the history of rifles. Thanks guys!

I am not the expert but I have collected Savages and Savage ammo for some sixty years. If you have a rifle that has 30 Sav(Savage) stamped on it, you should check the chamber. It should be .303 Savage, not 30-30. If anyone out there has Savage ammo box labeled 30 Sav that you want to sell, It would fit nicely in my ammo collection.

Are we talking about a unicorn here?

Might be time to rattle some cages up this way again Darrell. You had a nice display at Savage Fest 2014.

I have a 1899C s/n 18.922, barrel address has cal 30,"sav 30" over chamber, 30-30 chambers fine,303 savage will not chamber by at least 1/2" the case is to large in diameter.I also have 2 more rifles with cal 30 in the barrel address, and both are stamped 30-30 on the chamber!!1899A s/n 24.633 ,pistol gripped,ckeckered, 1899F s/n 37.844. All the older savages i have seen with cal 30 in the barrel address were 30-30's, all the ones in 303 actually said cal 303 in the barrel address. I have never seen any ammo in sav 30 tho. Don

Most interesting. Thanks for the response. Never say never about Savages. We need a Savage Fest to share more.

I think that there are very few marked sav30, from the time they introduced ,untill they just were stamped 30-30. Im sure savage was really pushing their 303 at that time and not yet chambering many rifles in 30-30. Don

If I remember, the 30 SAV stamped rifles were only a few months worth of production before going to 30-30 stamps.

But all 30 SAV rifles should be 30-30, not 303. We've covered this many times over the last dozen years, don't recall anybody have a 30 SAV that was 303.

The highest serial of a "SAV 30" marked barrel I have in my data is 19700. The barrels were not marked on top of the barrel in front of the receiver till the second caliber was offered. The ones that have been lettered have been from the last half of 1900.

I have not seen a Savage ammo box marked other than ".30-30".

I have a SAV 30 rifle and it is chambered for the .30-30 round.

PS... "We need a Savage Fest to share more." Well, Rick is hosting another in August of this year. See his posting above in the Sticky section. Hope you can make it.

I just text my buddy who owns the shop and it is marked 30 Savage...my bad. So, am I seeing things correctly that it would be chambered for a 30/30 Win? Not being a Savage guy, I"m a little confused...sorry I stirred things up.

You Ruger guys, always stirring us old Savage guys up!

Savage was not about to stamp Winchester on their guns if they could avoid it. They tried a little slight of hand and didn't get by with it. As I have heard it told, Winchester was on them pretty quick over the 30 SAV designation.

nothing wrong with learning new stuff

You know, by golly, if I ever were to cook up a .30 wildcat I would call it the .30 Lightfoot. It has a certain je ne sais quoi ring to it! It would look good on a 99 barrel underneath a Lightfoot mount too. Maybe neck up a .25-35 case to .30 caliber, a light .30-30 if you will.

I have to question Winchester caring about Savage doing that, I would think it more likely Savage immediately found a problem with that designation confusing dealers and buyers as to what ammunition the guns actually took since there probably wasn't anyone making boxes of 30 WCF that were also marked 30 SAV or 30 SAVAGE - anyone asking for that probably was handed a box of .303 Savage and told 'it must take this, I don't see any 30 SAV'.

Marlin called the 30 WCF the 30-30 Marlin as least as late as 1915 and they also are probably the ones who came up with the 30-30 designation - Winchester did not use or have any special rights to the name 30-30, I don't think Winchester stamped 30-30 on any guns until sometime after WWII, before that all were stamped 30 WCF, the official name. Remington originally called what became the 30 Remington the 30-30 Remington, but that also cause a lot of confusion so it eventually got changed, but not because any involvement by Winchester. The only cartridge I know of that was officially named 30-30 when introduce was the 30-30 Wesson from about 1881, and it was a true -30 using 30 grains of blackpowder. The 30 WCF was introduced as a smokeless powder cartridge so I don't think the '-30' ever really applied because I don't believe it was ever factory loaded with blackpowder.

Like Mike mentions it seems other gun makers did not want to put anything referring to Winchester on their guns, even if it were just initials (or maybe that's what Winchester told them they couldn't use???). When Remington started to chamber guns in 22WRF rimfire they called it the 22 Remington Special and never changed that as long as they made guns in it. Stevens stamped their guns in 22 WRF as 22-7 or 22-7½ for many years, they did refer to it as 22 WRF in some catalogs, usually in parenthesis.

The first reference to the second chambering I can find is on the 1901 powder can and it is listed as the ".30-30".

From the serial number range of the "SAV .30" (it is stamped SAV .30 not .30 SAV) stamped rifle production started in the last half of 1900.

There is no 1901 catalog that I know of. I can't tell when the first Savage loaded .30-30 ammo started.

Looking through advertising from 1900 and 1901 the ads just state ".303 and .30-30 calibers". It is interesting to note that the .303 Savage chambering is simply stated as ".303".

Well...everyone knows Rugers won't shoot worth a darn, so we have to keep everybody chasing their tails and hope they don't notice that they won't shoot. So, for everyone's viewing pleasure, I found this which I believe that Savage might have been a little confused when Mr. Bill was still a gleam in his daddy's eyes...lol.


Sav 30 link

I'm sure some of you gentlemen have already seen this, but I found it interesting.

Guys-after going back and re-reading the forum I have linked to in my post above, I guess I am more confused than ever. If one end of a box of 303 Savage (photo in the link) is marked 30 cal Savage, and yet it is not the experience of you gentlemen who own a 30 SAV that the 303 will chamber in it. That's strange or am I way off the mark on this. And by the way...I don't have a 99...yet. But if it counts, I do own a Savage 110 in the venerable 30/06. But I don't think that is what it will be when it grows up.

Your link is to a discussion of ammunition as it relates to the 1895 release of the Savage lever gun.

1899s stamped with 30 SAV is a whole different context in my view. The members of this forum resolved this issue years ago and remain quite sure the 30 SAV stamped guns are indeed .30-30s.

Trust us...

Sorry about that

Lot of incorrect information in that thread, tho understandable. First, the 303 Savage was THE FIRST cartridge for Savage, Savage introduced with their very first rifles. Savage was entertaining ideas of selling Savage 1895's in 30-40 Krag (30 US) also at the time, but they never sold any that we know of. Savage did interchangeably call it a 30 caliber rifle and 303 caliber rifle constantly in the early information, which is probably due to the rifle being a .308" bore rifle and the ammunition being .311".

What UMC had in their 1895 catalog doesn't correlate to the SAV 30 stamped rifles which were 5 years later. In 1895 UMC was producing 303 Savage ammunition under contract for Savage, for the Savage 1895's which were only chambered in 303 Savage. That ended in 1897 and Savage started producing their own ammunition.

Here's a UMC / Savage box from 1895-1897. Clearly marked .303 SAVAGE. There was no "30" listed on them at this time.




Both UMC and SRACO and 303 (Savage Repeating Arms Company) on the headstamp:

Thanks for the link...very interesting. That sight is were I first saw the earliest Savage boxed Ideal loading tool many years back. Great guys on there.

Rick,What is your earliest rifle s/n with sav 30? just wondering how tight the range is. Don

It's all been interesting to me. Wish I could afford the rifle. Thanks for all the information Gentlemen.

Don,

1338x
1500x
10 in the 16xxx range
2 in the 17xxx range
6 in the 18xxx range
5 in the 19xxx range.

Rick ,Thanks ,thats what i was looking for. Don