Well, where do I begin? I guess well start low and work our way up to the last 99 offerings. First off is the model 1892, this is an easy one to identify, it will have a serial number under 10.000 and the pads on the sides of the receiver will be rounded instead of pointed like the model 1899's and 99's. The forearm is very slender and rises to the receiver very sharply.Underneath the barrel you'll most likely find a J or JM signifying that it was made by John Marlin who built the first 5000 rifles for John Savage.
Now the hard part. Well try to get through the early 1899s without you confusing to much. I'll have to explain the transitional rifles here as well. The early Savage rifles were never given a lettered model designation, they were put into this system to try to put an understanding in what you have later on in production. If you ever get a chance to go through a vintage 1900 Savage catalog you'll notice there are no model designations but are discerned by barrel lengths and wood differences.
The 1899A, the most common of all the 1899s, its 26 round barrel was accented buy a crescent butt plate (special order stocks were also available but for sanity's sake well go with the average) and pointed pads on the side of the stock, these pointed pads were common on all the 1899s and 99s except for some of the later model H's. They were the basic package, nothing fancy or different from normal guns of the day. The common sight was a Rocky Mountain front sight which mostly all the 1899s were wearing back then, the rear sight on the 1899A was a Rocky Mountain sporting rear, some were just a notch and others had a sliding notch with a small set screw beside it.
The 1899B and 1899C, these two rifle were the same as the 1899A only the barrel configurations were changed. Both had the 26 barrel as the A but the 1899B had an octagon barrel (full length) and the 1899C had a half octagon and half round barrel. Believe it or not, from my data, the 1899C's were more commonly found than the 1899Bs.
1899D's, if your lucky enough to own one Im sure you know what you have. The D was Savages military type musket. The model 1895 was also made in this configuration and about the only 1899D's you may find are the Montreal Home Guard that Savage made a total of 827 and shipped them to Quebec during WWII. Most will be in the 1914-1915 area of manufacture and will have a serial number in 162XXX-173XXX range. The giveaway on most of these are the full length stocks, the forearms also wrapped around the tops of the barrel and went about of the way down the barrel. They featured flip up military style rear sights and wore a carbine butt stock with its rack number stamped on top of the butt plate.
The 1899F should not be confused with the 99F. The early 1899Fs were completely different from its later namesakes. First off the 1899F was a carbine, fitted with a carbine stock and a 20 standard weight barrel. The giveaway on these is the saddle ring on the right hand side of the receiver. Sometimes these days though a person will have one and not even know it because the ring and saddle were lost during its life and all that will be left is two holes where the staple was originally peened into the receiver.
The 1899H, also a carbine model with a 20 barrel but the barrel was light weight and the butt stock was normally a shotgun type butt. Some had hard rubber plates and some wore the regular steel plate. This was a model that you would usually find in a take down configuration and most of the 22 H.P.s people find these days are in this model of 1899. Although a number of them were made in 303 and 30-30 without the TD feature. Now here's where we get into the transition rifles. This is going to confuse a few people about what they've got. The 1899H and the early model 99F are almost identical, the only thing we can go by on what model it is will be the serial number, even though the two rifles overlap each other. Most of the 1899Hs will have a serial number under 200,000 except for a bunch of the 22H.P.s which went up into the 220,000s, thus puzzling us if we have an early 99F under 220,000. Also, both of the models may have been stamped with Savage 1899 on the top of the barrel. Dating your rifle will make a big difference here, if its older than 1921 your more than likely holding an early model 99F, under that would be the 1899H. Same goes for the model 1899A in T/D and the early model 99B, both identical guns but dating them or lettering the gun will be the key point in discovering what model you have. Some of the early 1899Hs came with a rear sight called the 21B, it will have a small disk on the front of the sight and is a dead giveaway that you have an 1899H, the 1899Fs also used this rear sight but the saddle ring means its an 1899F.
Off we go now into the model 99s. The early 99 models are very hard to find except for the 99F's and 99G's. The early model 99B's, C's, D's and E's are a very rare find.
Well start with the model 99B, although the earlier 99Bs are twins to the 1899A T/D's they later were made with a 24 barrel, crescent butt plate and a ramped front sight. This made it very much easier to tell a 99B from the 1899A T/D. All 99Bs were a T/D model and were only offered in 303 Savage, 30-30 and 300 Savage.
Next is the 99C, It was only produced for 4 or 5 years and its model identifiers will be a serial number between 238,000 and 290,000. It will have a 22 barrel and looks something like an 1899A Saddle gun. These rifles were the last of the Savage rifles made with standard weight barrels. The 303 Savage and 30-30 were the only two chamberings for this rifle with a 22 barrel, the 300 Savage was available but had a 24 barrel. It was a solid frame rifle and the T/D feature was not offered. Shotgun style butt.
The 99D is just like the model 99C only it was made in a T/D model only. Both the 99C and the D had a dovetailed front sight that fit right into the barrel, this will make a difference when we get into the early 99Es.
The 99E (don't get these rifles confused with the post 50s Cs and Es, two totally different models) came with a light weight barrel and were solid frames. Serial range was from 238,000-344,000. It came with a better offering of calibers than the last two models. The E was supplied in 22 H.P., 30-30, and 303 Savage with a 20 barrel. The 250-3000 was also available in a 22 barrel and the 300 Savage with a 24 barrel. Around 1926 the 20 barrels were dropped and the 22 replaced them. Furnished with a shotgun type butt stock. The big difference between the 99E and the previous two rifles was that the 99E had a ramp front sight instead of it being dovetailed into the barrel.
I should make mention that all of these pre-WWII models all wore Schnabel type forearms, whether they were solid frames or take downs.
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