Friend has what looks like a new savage 29A. Some blue wear on the action slide bar, otherwise outstanding condition. I'm thinking $500 would be fair to both of us.

If in that condition, I would say for sure. I have one. Seems like I fired it a million times.

RAS

Here's first pic. the rest looks this good.

Probably not a screaming deal for you and not getting raked over the coals for your friend. Heck, you can’t touch a Marlin 39 for that much anymore.

Pm sent

I would think that's a pretty good deal in today's market. Nice vintage .22 pumps of all makes seem to have hit the $5-700 threshold. I gave that much last year for a Remington 12C.

That's a nice one. Somewhat surprised to see that A with a round barrel. Do not shoot high velocity LR's through that, standard or target only.

I find the ratio about 2 to 1 round barrel 29-A's to octagon. Of the ones I have recorded I have 14 octagon and 29 round. The serial numbers suggest a change in the mid 30,000's and the highest number I have seen is just over 60,000 - so, by the numbers it suggest the ratio should be more like 1 to 1, but house branded versions were included in this and the majority of them fall in with the first 35,000, so it might be that a large percentage of the early production was house brands, maybe close to half, I have recorded data on more 29-A actioned house brands (28) than 29'A's with octagon barrels.

ADDED after initial post - most of the house brands fall under 35,000 and there were some Savage 29-A's made after the move to Chicoppe Falls that were not serial numbered, so the highest known serial number is not an indication of the total production. Almost all 29-A's had checkered wood and all with checkered wood had a Utica address barrel stamp, even the ones without serial numbers. Just a few of the very last 29-A's were not checkered and had a grooved forearm.

I would like to see more pictures, especially a good one of the other side of the receiver and one of the muzzle.

Gene, why did they drop the tang sight holes from the 29B's?

I think I asked this once before but I might not have checked back in for the answer?

Joe, I am not sure, I have thought it was just a cost reduction. They might have seen a drop in demand for tang sights, the 29S that came equip with the No 30 tang sight was dropped in catalog No 76 with a price list dated Jan 2, 1942. The No 30 Tang sight was listed in the 1942 parts catalog but was not in the next catalog from 1946 (first I know of after 1942 due to the war). Along with that they dropped checkering on the 29B's and also had a cheaper looking finish to the trigger guard part of the receiver.

I have not seen a lot of the 29's with the No 30 tang sight even though it was offered as an option from the factory, actually I've not seen a lot of these with any brand of tang sight.

I sold one in like condition on G.B. $460.

I was hoping to see more pictures before forming an opinion on this one. From the one picture I still have questions about it. The the finish on the receiver looks 100% correct but the barrel & magazine tube look to polished & bright and the barrel stamping look like it might be a little weak - need more pictures! Also the little marks radiating out around the barrel pin are something I have not seen before, there should not be any marks like that or any marks on the end of the pin and it should be as blue as the receiver - maybe just the light in this picture? - so I am wondering if the barrel was removed at one time. The stock finish looks light, but again more pictures are needed.

The description says "Some blue wear on the action slide bar", the slide arms on these were not blued from the factory, bluing that is a mistake many make when refinishing.

Here's a 29-A round that just sold on GunBroker. I think this is a good example, this gun looked 100% correct to me but has a Chicopee Falls barrel address, which I question a little but have to think is original, most of these will still have barrels stamped Utica.
gunbroker.com/item/804552939

Pictures 17 & 22 are good ones for comparison to the gun pictured posted above.
pix422207476.jpg
pix683269737.jpg
In picture 22 you can see a small stamp on the lefts side of the barrel just in front of the receiver, you can see the raised edges so it was applied after the gun was blued.

Picture 7 has a good view of the un-blued action arm, which is starting to tone a little toward the front.
pix472979116.jpg
Savage started bluing the action arm about 1953~1954 on the 29-B's

This gun is said to not have a serial number, so this would be one made after the move to Chicopee Falls, that can be figured out from the pictures, the stamp mentioned above is one indicator and it does not have a serial number on the lower tang which suggests it will not have one on the front of the receiver.
pix472979116.jpg
Savage brand guns had serial numbers on the front of the receiver and the lower tang - most, or all, house brands do not have it stamped on the lower tang.

I do not see a date code on this gun so it looks like it would be early Chicoppee Falls, before 1949. I have only seen a couple examples of 29-A's with Chicopee marked barrels, this is the only one with checkered wood, the other was a late gun with plain stock & grooved forearm and the barrel had a 1950 date code - I had assumed all Chicoppee marked barrels would have came after they started using date codes until I saw this one (but I can't be 100% sure this doesn't have a date code just because I don't see it in the pictures).

Some other features -
The muzzle's were not blued, picture 26.
pix357011519.jpg
Hard rubber buttplate (or maybe plastic by this time??) attached with slotted head screws (during the 29-B's they started using phillips head)
pix194551031.jpg
Numrich sold new checkered forearms & stocks for these for many years and I think some of them had metal buttplates instead of rubber or plastic.

Just got the OP gun in. will get some pics up soon.






Charlie

Charlie, I think you did real well on that one, with the extra pictures it looks 100% correct, and it has a Chicopee addressed barrel, not common for a 29-A.

thanks Gene. Nice to get confirmation like that.

Charlie

Great looking 29A!

Thanks for posting the pictures, the one on GunBroker was the first checkered wood 29-A I had seen with a Chicoppe Falls barrel stamp, yours is the second - I've looked at 100's of these guns and had begin to think all had Utica marked barrels. You mention of " Some blue wear on the action slide bar " had me wondering, the new pictures cleared that up, I now see you must have been referring to the magazine tube were it goes through the forearm as the action bar is not blued and is correct. With the one picture I really could not tell that much, the lighting made some features look a little off so I thought the example on GunBroker would be a good one to compare it to, I didn't realize how good, you gun is almost a twin.

A Chicoppe Falls marked 29-A is one I don't have, and with the checkered wood one I didn't know existed. That is same barrel stamp I have found on all 29-B's, I have yet to find a late 29-B with a Westfield stamped barrel (or any 29-B with a Utica stamp). I have a checkered 29-A without a serial number or date code that looks very much like yours but with a Utica marked barrel, it has a couple stamped marks on the left rear of the barrel that look very much like the stamps on yours, it's in the back of a safe but I think I might have some old pictures that I will try to find.

Sounds like a lot of good info for a book on Savage 22's.....

...another piece of the puzzle.