[Laufer]

A guy I plinked with told me that the '18' inside a circle can be tracked somehow to a production date on their website.

Just checked it and saw nothing about dates of manufacture. This rifle was probably built in the 40s or early 50s, bought by my grandfather at that time.

The encircled 18 is below and behind the rear sight, on the left side.

[Steve S]

You need to go to 24hourcampfire - Forums powered by UBB.threads™ and scroll down to the Savage Collectors forum--Mad Dog and a bunch of other guys will help you out within an hour or so. They have answers to questions you haven't thought of yet. They concentrate on Savage 99's, but know all the others too

Also depending on your gun, you can scroll thru the Savage web site and get the address of John Calahan, Old Quarry Road, Westfield, MA, the Savage Historian (independent and doesn't work for Savage) who can research your gun and send you an notarized letter about it's history--he's done a Savage and a Stevens for me

Steve

[Fatstrat]

In the late 1960's, the ownership of the Savage Arms Co. changed hands. The new owners "reportedly" dumped all prior records in effort to limit liability for guns made prior to their takeover. Therefore MFG dates of individual guns, particularly rimfires, is almost impossible to obtain. There have been (as far as I know) 2 separate attempts to gather as much vintage Savage info as possible and publish a "collectors book". I own one one of the books. It is woefully incomplete and saying it is "moderately" useful is being kind. Mostly a collection of old Savage ads w/very little tech info, and no serial number, inspectors stamp info.
I sincerely doubt the "Savage Historian" has much more info. If he did, he could make a lot of money by publishing it. Which he apparently has not.
As far I know, on nearly any Savage model except the Model 99, the best you can do is ballpark dates of MFG runs (start to end) on other models.

[big shrek]

Quote:       Originally Posted by Fatstrat

In the late 1960's, the ownership of the Savage Arms Co. changed hands. The new owners "reportedly" dumped all prior records in effort to limit liability for guns made prior to their takeover. Therefore MFG dates of individual guns, particularly rimfires, is almost impossible to obtain. There have been (as far as I know) 2 separate attempts to gather as much vintage Savage info as possible and publish a "collectors book". I own one one of the books. It is woefully incomplete and saying it is "moderately" useful is being kind. Mostly a collection of old Savage ads w/very little tech info, and no serial number, inspectors stamp info. I sincerely doubt the "Savage Historian" has much more info. If he did, he could make a lot of money by publishing it. Which he apparently has not. As far I know, on nearly any Savage model except the Model 99, the best you can do is ballpark dates of MFG runs (start to end) on other models.

Marlin, Springfield, and I think at least two other companies made Savage brand rifles over the years. It's murder trying to research 'em.

[Laufer]

Thanks very much for your help, whether I have luck or not.

Until'07, I had seldom used a gun, and this was the only gun I owned.
Despite have some Enfields, SKS etc it is still fun to shoot it and take it twice a week to the river.

The .22's tiny bead sight makes it easy to hit many small objects out to 50-80 yards or so, and combined with its light weight and extremely good economics, is hard to beat overall.
It's much easier to see exactly where the small bullets impact, compared to these other blasters.

No more cheap Remington ammo, as it's the only brand which causes gas blowbacks, and these are very frequent.

[Steve S]

Good luck on the gun!

And, you're on the right track on the Rem ammo issue--NOBODY likes it that has tried anything else

Any forum you go to about ammo will have the same comment--Duds, duds and more duds--followed closely by burning dirty.

Too bad, because in some guns, some of it is fairly accurate too.

Try CCI Std. Vel. if you want something that burns very clean--a little pricey at $25 to $35 per brick depending, but exceptionally accurate, no duds ever and burns clean. CCI Minimag is good too for hi-spd stuff.

Guys on the High Standard and Rem. forums I frequent both swear by it, as do I.

[Laufer]

Thanks gentlemen.

If there were just a few gas blowbacks instead of many, I would not have switched to red box Winchester and black/gray Federal, for the same price.