I've searched the internet quite a bit, but have not found a definitive answer, so forgive me if this is rehashing.

1) How many 1895s were made?
2) Did Savage produce any of them, or were they all manufactured by Marlin?

I've seen pics of Callahan letters that said "“An arrangement was made by the Savage Company to have John Marlin produce the first firearms in his factory as Savage did not have the plant or equipment at the time to do this. The first 8200 rifles were produced by Marlin and are stamped with a “JM” or “M” marking under the barrel.”

... and I read a post by Calhoun that said the 1895 production was from 3000-8200ish

Taking those two comments together would imply that all the 1895s were made by Marlin and there were about 5200 of them.

Never say never....

But approx. 5000 Savage 1895's were made, presuming there weren't a lot of QA failures that got tossed. Serial numbers from 3156 to 8200, plus a handful of higher numbers that appear in the ledgers.

All parts were made at Marlin, I've never heard differently.

Now having said that.. there's a newspaper article out where Arthur states he has men in 1897 building a small number of 1895 rifles for the President of Mexico. I would presume they were building them from leftover parts they got from Marlin, maybe mfr'ing some small parts. But that's the never say never part...


Somebody correct me if I'm wrong.

I've read a lot of vintage news print, read many things here and elsewhere and your assessment is likely correct. ~5000 main runners and some outliers as Calhoun has stated. The majority were produced by Marlin in New Haven, Conn. However, there were 1895's assembled and shipped from Utica as well from parts post New Haven to Utica move. Read that here, verified with letters IIRC.

Parts is interesting. Yes, all leftover 1895 parts went to Savage Arms after they incorporated in late 1897. And Marlin returned all the mfr'ing jigs and fixtures because Savage owned them (it's thought Colt made most of them in late 1893).

Parts like the hard rubber 1895 buttplates continue to show up on special order 1899's for years. Some 1895 buttplates have been seen.

Some early 1899's show up with 1895 style stocks, including the rounded panels on the buttstock.

But then you have things like the early 1899's with concave forearms. Were all the early 1899's with concave forearms using leftover forearms, or did Savage continue making some forearms in this style?

The buttstock is an 1899 style on this 10xxx 1899A SR. Forearm is an 1895 style.

Hmm.

Fug just reminded me that he has an 1895 that was accepted from factory in 1909, and shipped a couple days later.

So that seems to settle the question of whether any were assembled/finished later.

Great info. Any idea why the SNs started in the 3000s?

They didn't start in the 3000's.

They ended in the 3000's.

Yeah... okay. So...

From what we know, it appears serial numbers started at 5000. And went upwards.
For some reason they hit 8200 and stopped.
Then it appears it continues at high 4000's and works it's way down.

5000 ... 8200, 4999 ... 3156.

If you have an explanation, I'd love to hear it. I just know the accept and ship date's we've seen match this. We know that the 5000 range were the first guns out the door.

While talking about this subject....

Anybody ever seen a JM stamp on an 1899? or a Savage Repeating Arms address on the barrel? I think the answer is no to both, but better to ask.

My two really early ones have this:




(the address, only one has that funky unique barrel band sling stud holder)

Just an observation after looking at this pic, is that Winchester never covered a stamp with a barrel band. The stamp was either moved or a shorter forearm was used.

We've discussed this before. I remember the lowest serial numbers (in the 3000 range) were shipped last. I have letters on several 1895's all shipped in 1896, The lowest # was 47xx and it shipped last. 51xx was shipped early in the year and 78xx was shipped fairly late. The letters aren't readily available or I would give exact dates but you get the idea.

10.021 has the same marking as this one.

I doubt that band is factory.. so it's option C, the barrel band sling stud holder was added.

If it held the forearm on, I'd consider it. If somebody was to suggest it was some kind of prototype, I might consider it... but there's no indication it is.

Here's the gun taken apart.

Pretty gun.

Plus it looks like a mouse chewed the inletting in the forearm where that band fits.

That rifle is in beautiful shape, Calhoun, how long have you had it?

Six years or so.. it floated around gunbroker for a year at least, I bought it for next to nothing. Stock's been refinished, but they did a fair job. Bit of wood off the bottom.

With that barrel band for a sling stud, it was just different enough to pique my interest. And being a 10.7xx gun.

At one time I had close to 60 1895's. I now only have 2 left. My records show that the earliest was #3266 and the highest number was #8278. ...... Dick

That explains it, just didn’t look right.

60 1895's! I'm jealous! My accumulation runs from 3355 to 8068, all received/shipped between 1896-1898.

Dick,

Will you tell us about the two you have left?

Doug

According to Callahan, your #8278 was an “odd rifle”.

The #8278 was purchased at the Tulsa show on 04/06/01. Rick 99 lead me over to it and it was love at first sight! This was my first 1895, gave $1000.00 for it. I have one on GI right now #6743, it is a fairly good gun with wood repairs. The other one #4378 is home in the safe. Nothing special, just whats left. I had all of mine lettered and still have some copies of those letters. I seemed to have wandered off the Reservation and got into Colt's and Winchester's etc. But still lurk around here often .........Dick