A friend has just advised me he has brought his first 1899
Not sure if I'm excited for him or sad that he will now be stuck with an addiction
for the rest of his life
He hopes to send some photos soon
The thing that interests me is the serial Number
93,170
which to my knowledge is very early for a 22Hp
I would guess it will be a 1899-H T/D
Anybody shed more light on the Serial Number
Many thanks

There seems to be a bit of a disconnect between the s.n. and the introduction of the 22HP. 1908 & 1912 +/-.
The barrel address may shed some light on the matter.

That's what I'm thinking

Trying to give this gentalman some direction
sent a scan of the barrel address page in Murry's for him to identify
Next I'll get him to take the forewood off to see whats there
As per photos it has been reworked redone etc Might be a good shooter

That rifle has been tortured !!!!!! not much left alone on it! i do hope it shoots good.

He just replied to say the barrel address is No3. but to me the foresight is wrong for a No3
I might have to wait a month or 2 till I see him and dissect it properly

The receiver, lever, butt stock and brl (if marked) look original. Front sight base has been added...maybe to a cut barrel. And what is the groove cut in the underside of the barrel at the front sight?

He just emailed me to say he took the fore wood of and it is stamped 93,170
So it's not a take down I think I had better look into this more

Rick,

I had a round barreled 1899 with that same groove at the first Savage Fest. No one there could answer "why"?

Doug

What model and cal was yours Doug
One thing he did say there was an R inside a circle behind the trigger
Where?
An inspectors mark I would assume

Rick I have some 1899 or 99 with the grove under the barrel

1899A in .303 Savage

Always more questions than answers...keeps things interesting.

A groove like that in the barrel to me screams out "I had a barrel band!!!!".

But that doesn't make sense.

Naturally it could be other things. For example, I can see somebody creating a sling mount using a groove to brace the stud.

How about a silencer?

How about an optical front sight mount

Starting to get a bit confusing this is his last email

I have removed again the fore wood and also the butt.
First the the last three numbers of the serial no 170 is marked on the inside of the gun.

Second, when the fore arm is removed, there is the word OFF typed into the barrel by the receiver with an arrow going from left to right indicating the direction of barrel removal.
There is also a groove cut into the barrel where a designed tool could go to turn the barrel.
I hope this makes sense,..............will send more photos when daughter returns home.


I hope to pick it up to inspect in the next couple of weeks so will give a full report then

I just got my first cup of coffee in front of me, and I can't think of the proper name of the lug that locks into the barrel when the bolt is closed. That sounds like the groove he's seeing by the word off. It's not for a barrel removal tool, it's for the locking lug.

Yes Joe i would agree. He has never owned a Savage 1899 before and know nothing about them.
But I need to inspect to see if the is a dovetail slot for the take down latch
Also strange that the forearm is numbered to the rifle but not a take down and such an early Serial No

That word "off" with an arrow was imprinted on takedown barrels, of which most .22HP's were sold as. Savage simply grabbed those barrels off the shelf for use on solid frame guns rather than make all new barrels for those solid frame guns. You'll see that on other caliber rifles also, usually when using up old inventories of takedown barrels for whose guns were discontinued. Savage was just being fiscally prudent.

Ditto the presence of the groove milled into the barrel aft of the "off" and arrow. That is simply the index slot cut into a TD barrel into which the stud on the TD forearm iron fits to lock it in position. All of that is superfluous when the barrel is torqued permanently into the receiver when using the TD barrel to build a non-TD rifle. (And in a TD rifle that groove/slot has no function in the removal of the barrel, it's there strictly for indexing purposes.)

The serial is too early for a .22HP so the brl has been replaced.

Only .22HP brl with a Style 3 address would be a featherweight.

I think the brl is set solid as we would see the TD button on the bottom of the forearm and there is no TD hardware at rear of forearm.

I think the butt stock and lever are original and would guess the rifle originally had a rifle weight brl. If correct then the forearm is probably a replacement. The front of the forearm appears to fit the brl well while a rifle weight channel would be more open.

David might be correct on the groove being for a silencer.

Front sight is a replacement. I can't tell the brl or forearm length from the photos.

Can't tell where he is seeing the "170" stamping.

I Agree Rick I think the only way would be to letter the rifle to see what Cal it started life as
That would be up to him
the forearm is serial No to the rifle on the end
the 170 No was found when he took the stock off it was stamped into the metal
Cheers