Nice photo chop

JTC letter for this rifle says "Savage never offered a full length forearm option".

FUG says, he's seen at least one mannlicher 99 that he believed to be factory.

disclaimer: (..in case you were fooled by my picture..) Hemingway never shot a leopard with a 250-3000. We all know it was a tiger and a 22HP!

I thought it was a bunch of elephants with a 7x57. I'm so confused.

His fav was a 30-06 ,,But the pic was most likely a 6.5 x 54 mannlicher sohoenauer another fav at the time ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,Where is the stock in the second pic ? at muzzle

6.5 x 54 mannlicher, that's purty dang close to a 250-3000 mannlicher, and photo-chop was really rough in 1954

the forarm stops about 1/4" from the muzzle

I'm not sure what the crux of this post is about. I assume it started with the two 99s in the first photo by implying that they may have been factory offerings. After all, that seems to be what the phrase "never say never" implies. I don't know about the 99 in the top part of the picture, maybe someone can point out its specific peculiarities to me. As for the bottom 99, I'd cast my vote for it never having been a factory offering.

I'm afraid I wasn't being very clear in my original post. My "never-say-never" title is about the fuzzy history of my mannlicher forearm'd 250-3000, which we discussed here a couple years ago. The two-gun photo is from the original auction site, and one of the better full-length pictures of the mannlicher that I have on my computer.

The full-length forearm rifle is an early 250-3000, and has had several unique non-factory modifications. While they seem to be similar vintage to the original rifle, the consensus is that they are not original work, and that was meant to be the double-entandre' of my original post' title.

I'm just piling on with the other Savage Christmas-time nostalgia threads circling around here, bringing back some interesting discussions from the past.

I realize what I think is interesting or funny might not translate well to everyone. I didn't mean to mislead or offend

I’ve never been accused of being the sharpest tool hanging up in the barn. Thanks for the explanation.

Alrighty then! I shall n- say the "N" word ever again!

Two years ago?!!! I can't remember what I et for breakfast! That's the great thing about getting old, everything's new again!

Looks like Hemingway was thinking something like "if only I had my 300 we could walk over those mountains over there and shoot herds of elephants and drink whiskey because we are men but I only have my 250 so I'm stuck shooting leopards and I didn't bring my 22HP for tigers, but I can still drink whiskey and walk over mountains."