Savage Model 99 Lever Action Rifle.

This week for Firearm Friday we are showing you what Ron calls “the best lever action ever made” a Savage Model 99.

The Savage Model 99, Model 1899, and their predecessor the model 1895 are a series of hammerless lever action rifles created by the Savage Arms Company in Utica, New York.

The Model 99 family featured a unique rotary magazine, and later added some detachable magazine models. The rifle was extremely popular with big game hunters and sporting shooters alike.

The Model 99 and Model 1899 were preceded by the Model 1895, which was the first hammerless lever-action rifle. The 1895, as well as the later Model 1899 and early Model 99, used a five-shot rotary magazine to hold the cartridges. The rotating magazine uses a spring-loaded spool with grooves to hold the cartridges. The Savage 1899 took advantage of the spool to include a counter to indicate how many rounds are left in the magazine. The Model 99 continued using this system for many years, except for later models which had a detachable magazine.

The rotating magazine design allowed the rifle to be one of the first lever-action rifles to use spitzer bullets commercially introduced in the decade after its development. Previous lever-action rifles used tubular magazines, which placed cartridges of ammunition end to end. The pointed tips of a spitzer bullet would touch the primer of the cartridge in front of it, possibly causing an accidental discharge.

Another novel safety feature was a cocking indicator. On the Model 1895 this was a hole on top of the bolt through which a safe or cocked indicator could be seen. On early Model 1899's this changed to a tab on top of the bolt which raised up when the rifle was cocked and could be visually seen or easily felt by touch.

The Model 1899 had a number of special grades available which came with sets of special order features, such as the Leader Grade, Rival Grade, Excelsior Grade, Monarch Grade.

The earliest predecessor of the Model 1895 was the Model 1892, and it was one of the contending rifle models offered to the U.S. Army when they were looking to replace the Springfield Model 1873 trapdoor rifle. The Krag–Jørgensen was chosen over the Savage and other models. The Model 1892 was never put into production.

The Model 1895 musket won a contract for arming the Mexican Army in 1897, but again had to cancel - this time due to lack of a factory to produce the rifles. Later refinements to the Model 1895 design led to the Model 1899, whose name was changed to the Model 99 with the introduction of the 300 Savage cartridge in 1921. In 1899, Savage offered to convert any existing Model 1895 rifle or carbine to Model 1899 configuration for a $5 fee.

We have a few model 99’s on display in the museum, the one pictured has the internal magazine and is chambered in 300 Savage, from time to time you might stumble upon a gem in the secondhand gun room.