A friend here in NZ has a friend in Canada who picked up some rifles from an old gentleman who was not in the best health and none of the family had an interest in firearms
Upon getting them home he started cleaning them and this was one of the rifles
I'll upload them and send him the link to the forum and hopefully he will be along

More info

And More info



Amazing what is still coming to the surface
enjoy

This is good stuff.

Is that a full length rib on that barrel? I've never seen such a thing on a 99.

I have never seen a rib on the barrel like that either
I think the stock is a replacement but will wait for more learned comment
the owner has written to savage arms to try for a letter I understand

Something else the owner turned up was that
Herman Hulman Jr. Is the Grandfather of Tony Hulman who purchased and owned the Indianapolis Speedway.

What a great find Graham, agree the butt stock does'nt look right but the fore end does maybe he broke it and had a replaced, sure has some interesting history

Johno

Im pretty sure the Fug99 has a rifle with a full rib like that! Iv seen one somewhere!

He does. More than one.

We talked about this rifle over on the FB Savage 99 Club last week. More info and pics is over there.
The owner got the rifle and a photo album full of pictures and info of the time.
The rifle was purchased from an 81 yr. old gentleman named Benjamin David Sheffield III. Original owners grandson.
The owner has an interest in the history of the rifle and I was able to provide some other information and resources.
Anybody else have personalized Savage rifle? Let me know...

TIMELINE
1903: Benjamin Sheffield purchases the Lovell and Smith homesteads and begins construction on his Teton Lodge.
1906: Sheffied marries Margaret Rice, and the two manage the Lodge.
1907: Sheffield purchases the Allen property that includes the Elk Horn Hotel, the Moran post office and a small mercantile.
1910: A disastrous fire followed by a flood nearly levels the Teton Lodge. The Sheffields decide to rebuild and create a successful Lodge capable of housing up to 300 guests.
1911-1916: Jackson Lake dam construction brings a lot of business into the Moran area.
1929: Sheffield sells his property, effectively selling the town of Moran to the Snake River Land Company. The Company, seeing the advantage of keeping the Teton Lodge open for tourists, hands management over to the Teton Investment Company. In the 1950s, this would transform into the Grand Teton Lodge Company which manages the Jackson Lake Lodge today.
1935: The Teton Lodge’s main building burns down.
1950-59: The Grand Teton Lodge Company moves most of the old Sheffield cabins up to Colter Bay. What can’t be moved is torn or burned down. The town site is re-graded and re-vegetated. Today, nothing remains of the original town of Moran.
1955: The Jackson Lake Lodge is constructed.

That's AWESOME ! 👍

You had me with the engraving and the back story, not to mention that really neat factory solid rib (which I never saw before). The unfortunate butt treatment spoiled it for me, but it is what it is.

Its great to see history like this turn up

The butt can be replaced with something more "correct". Cool rib!

That's grizzly grade engraving. It was the highest grade engraving before the Monarch grade was introduced about 1904//5. The forearm looks like an EG. I guess they could have had a Monte Carlo stock in 1901 and a recoil pad but it just looks too modern to me.

I have seen the rib on another 99, can't remember if it was in an auction or an on line auciton

Hi all, I like to elaborate a little more on this rifle. I am the present owner of this 1899 and have in a very short period of time been able to put together some interesting providence on the history of the rifle. With regards to the butt stock, as everyone is in aggreement the stock on the gun is not the original stock. The rifle came with another stock which is a standard straight grip with steel butt plate also not the original. The original stock is available but just could not be located in the house at the time of purchase. The previous owner assured me he has it but at this time he is going through cancer treatment and I did not not want to push the matter.

As mentioned in a previous post I do have a number of photos taken in the 20s and 30s of the original owner and of his original lodge and hunting and fishing trips.

One thing the is a mystery is the Aug. 30 1901 date on the rifle. Talking with family they could not shed any insight to the reference to this date. I also believe the DOM of the gun is a little later then 1901. I am waiting from the Historical Records Dept. of Savage Firearms for this confirmation. This may shed some light on the butt stock configuration.

The 3 books that I have on 1899 Savages makes no mention of a ramp barrel ever being offered and have never seen one before. It is interesting that there are more out there as mentioned in a previous post. I have a large number of catalogues from the major Firearm Auction houses in the US and have been going through in search of another 1899 Savage with a heavy ramped matted barrel.

Thanks for all the interest and comments and will keep all posted on updates.

The serial number falls into the 1901 range published in the July 1980 American Rifleman magazine, which differs from other sources, but is believed to be more accurate for the early Savage years.

1900 Catalog options.

Welcome to the Savage Collector forum Roadking/Brian!
The serial number indicates 1901 time period and the inscription is Aug. 30, 1901 which is likely when produced and presented so looks like DOM of 1901 to me.
I'll bet when you receive the factory letter the DOM was sometime previous to Aug. 30, and feel free to share that info once received.

All,
On the catalog page Keith posted above there is an extra for "matted barrel - $5". Do you think the matted barrel is what we are calling a "rib"??

That’s what I was thinking.

From what little I could find in google - you may be right.

Absolutely awesome. That rifle probably rode many a mile in the saddle scabbard. Would love to know the length of the barrel and see a couple of close up photos of the front sight. The butt stock doesn't mean spit to me, and the 1901 doesn't either. It may commemorate the year of a hunt they made together. Great gun ---- great story. Thanks for sharing.

BTW, how many of the pre 90,000 were engraved?

What amazes me is that Savage only charged $40 for Grade E engraving (which is the type I believe is on this rifle, not counting the add-on presentation engraving). Per Google, the average american annual wage in 1900 was $449.80. Assuming 2000 work hours a year, that works out to $0.225/hr. I would think a skilled artisan engraver like Tue would have been paid more than that. At 50 cents an hour, the engraving would have taken less than 80 hours for Savage to only charge $40 for it.

The barrel stamp appears to be 300? Kind of hard to see from the picture. I guess it could/should be 303. Nice rifle

22"

oldgunsmith, you are absolutely right as I was told "The rifle was carried many miles in a scabbard and shot many animals by 3 generations of Sheffields". The caliber is .303 Savage and barrel length is 22 inches. The front sight is a Gold Bead Sheard sight. I have told that Ben was a test shooter for Sheard in the early days.

Very Cool!
so, is that rib milled into an oversized octagon barrel? Or, is that rib soldered on the standard octagon barrel? ..must be a heavy bugger.. (do you have a close-up of the muzzle, a solder seam might be visible if it was two-pieced.

The front sight mounting and barrel stamping on the rib are very cool details! Why would that rib have been an attractive option? not like the octagon barrel needed stiffening, or would have benefited from the aided sight line...

I don't believe the matted reference refers to a rib. I have had a few Winchesters with matted barrels and they did not include a rib. I could be wrong because $5 seems to be a lot of money to run a barrel through a "matt roll". I have had one Winchister with a ramp barrel but can't remember how it was describe by Winchester. Maybe the member that has some ramped barrel Savage can shed some light on this.

The rib is actually soldered to the barrel which I do not believe to be a standard barrel. The barrel measures .9425" across the flats at the reciever and .6950" across flats at muzzle. Maybe someone can check the measurement on one of your standard octagon barrel rifles.
Yes it is a heavy bugger.

A little bit of information on the Hulman Company

Hulman & Company

Hulman & Company is an American private, family-owned, company founded in 1850 by Francis T. Hulman as a wholesale foods supplier of groceries, tobacco, and liquor, headquartered in Terre Haute, Indiana. [1] Throughout the early half of the 20th century, Hulman & Co. became nationally known for its Clabber Girl baking powder which it began producing in 1899. In 1945, the company purchased the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, in what many thought was an unusual investment for a company with a rich history in the food and beverage industry. The company also owns a television production company, Wabash Valley Broadcasting, dba IMS Productions, which does in-house work for their NTT IndyCar Series, various teams in the organization, and in the past, produced NBA Indiana Pacers and Professional Bull Riders broadcasts.

Thanks so much for the photos of the front sight, it was very interesting to me. The rifle is the most interesting one that I have seen on this forum. I have often heard people say ......"Oh , if that rifle could talk, what stories it could tell." With you having all the provenance, I'm hoping that you got some of the stories as well !!! I'm hoping that when you get the original buttstock, it has a crack that they repaired with rawhide :):):) Many thanks again for sharing your rifle, beautiful piece.

From my notes for other examples with rib.

Here's a link to that superb 1899A Monarch 31.708 that sold last December at Rock Island for over $500k. It has a solid rib. Picture of the letter says it was accepted from the factory on 2/25/1902; forwarded by shipping department on 1/19/1904 to the original consignee entered as Mr Enoch Tue.

https://www.rockislandauction.com/d...ity-savage-model-1899-lever-action-rifle

1899B 21.194 303 nickel engraved also had a rib.

Thanks for that link. I have seen that gun in person but completely forgot about it having the solid rib. I find it strange that there is no mention of the solid rid in the letter from Savage. Not that I doubt the originally of the gun at all.

Everytime I see example's of these rifle's I'm surprised Savage didn't hire someone who could engrave animal's.

Here are some of the photos I have accompanying the rifle. The are from the family album and a book I have with photos by Ben Sheffield.

Great Photos Thanks Brian

Keith, you're right, it's E engraving.

For a while Ben Sheffield was the Sheriff of Moran. While as the Sheriff he carried a Colt Shooting Master. I was also able to aquire this from the family. The gun has seen some use and neglect as it was in a box during a fire but survived.

Wow Just Wow, thanks for the Info on this Great 99, please keep us up to date on the letter!

Or time the buttplate screws.

I like the "sighting in" photos. You could change the caption to read "and back in the day we used to keep our own personal firing squad on retainer."

I bet not a one of them had hearing protection either!

Found a couple more photos with reference to Ben Shefield.

Nice to see that the old girl still has some colour left in protected areas.

Really like the photos and the history. Thanks

Lee

Maybe that rifle needs to come home to Wyoming?

For now the rifle is not for sale. Really enjoying the history behind this rifle and original owner.

Great rifle - great provenance!

I might be a buyer if you ever decide to sell.

I enjoyed looking at the photo's and background info. Congrats on a fine rifle.

Just a quick update. I contacted Savage Arms today regarding my request for Historical record search on my rifle. Was told that they have my letter, sent almost 7 weeks ago but have not got around to doing the search yet. Oh by the way a search letter now costs $65.

Must be a lot of requests for letters or?