Lack of good early Savage Model 1899s/99s out there

Perhaps I was spoiled, but, within the last 6 months or so I was able to acquire four nice 1899s/99s from a collection dating between 1907 and 1927 at a really good price. All factory original with decent or better condition.

Having accomplished this, I’ve been searching for a few others of certain configurations/calibers that I don’t already have.

Given the great number of these manufactured in the first few decades of the 20th Century, my observations are that these rarely come up for sale, and when they do, they have issues with being refinished or otherwise being altered from original.

So, one cannot seem to even find these at any price and on the rare occasion on surfaces, it’s often wildly overpriced.

Just my observations. YMMV.

Comments?

Back when they where new, they were used as tools for hunting and used accordingly! For me, all those dents, dings, scratches, and worn bluing are what give the rifle character and add to it's history. "I sat in somebodies gun cabinet" is a boring story compared to, "I hunted big game all over the world"!!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Big Al1

Back when they were new, they were used as tools for hunting and used accordingly! For me, all those dents, dings, scratches, and worn bluing are what give the rifle character and add to its history. "I sat in somebodies gun cabinet" is a boring story compared to, "I hunted big game all over the world"!!

---

Dings and scratches are okay, even 60% condition is fine. It’s the reblues and modifications that are problematic.

Gotcha!! I especially hate seeing one drilled full of holes!:disgust:

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Big Al1

Gotcha!! I especially hate seeing one drilled full of holes!:disgust:

---

Me, as well. Are my observations correct or noted by others?

Observations, anyone else?

A million Savage 1899s/99s is a lot, so there should be lots of early ones out there still…

Early, pre-WWI Savage 1899's with lots of condition have been sought after for collections for a number of decades now. So they exist, just have to wait for current owners to shell them. 99's from the 1920's and later show up more often, still have quite a few that are dropped as "This was grandpa's gun". But they all tend to be the common models. Takes work to find the uncommon configurations, even from the 1970's to 1990's.

I've got a slight addiction to 1899Bs and I have a very difficult time passing one up. They are getting tougher to find too.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Slinky Pickle

I've got a slight addiction to 1899Bs and I have a very difficult time passing one up. They are getting tougher to find too.

---

I agree with your statement. Any idea how many 1899 B’s were manufactured to begin with?

Nobody has even good guesses for most models.

One gentleman on Facebook has been building a dataset of Savage 1895's/1899's/99's that have sold and their prices. Looking at 1899's from 1899 to 1917, 60 of the 389 rifles listed were 1899B's. That's 15.4%.

Of the 168,000'ish rifles made during the 1899B's existence, that would come out to be just under 26,000 1899B's.

Is that right? Maybe.. maybe not. I'd have guessed the percentage closer to 10% off the top of my head, but what do I know? :p

I'm really fond of the 1899B also, I killed my first deer with one chambered in .30-30, I still have it in the safe. I have seen very few other 1899B's for sale but I keep an eye out for them at the gun shows.