When it first came out at the tail end of the 19th century, the Savage Arms Model 99 was one of the most cutting-edge lever-action rifles ever made. Even today, it's easy to appreciate the design elements of this unique lever-action, of which more than 1 million were made. Watch our "American Rifleman Television" I Have This Old Gun segment above to hear the history of Arthur Savage's rifle.
"Arthur Savage was a really interesting guy. He had done a lot of things in his life. And it was clear that he had a mind for mechanics and a penchant for business," American Rifleman Executive Editor Evan Brune said. "So, in 1889, he patents a rotary magazine lever-action rifle. And he enters it into the 1892 Army trials. Ultimately, his design does not win out, but Arthur Savage doesn't give up there. He decides that there's a market for this new design of his, and he's gonna find it."
Initial commercial models were termed the Savage Model 95, but a few years later, Savage designed a round-counting mechanism that could be viewed through a window on the left side of the receiver, alerting shooters to how many remaining rounds were inside the rotary magazine. Rifles with this updated feature were sold as the Model 99, and many Model 95s were retrofitted with this mechanism.
"The interesting thing about the gun, at the time it came out, except for the Winchester Model 95, it was the only lever-action that you could safely use a spitzer type bullet in, because it had that rotary top-loaded magazine," American Rifleman Field Editor Garry James said. "So it also allowed for a considerable amount of versatility to make the gun a lot easier to be rechambered for a number of different rounds."
Ultimately, the Savage Model 99 was sold in many configurations and ended up being chambered for more than 20 different cartridges in its heyday, including the unique .250-3000 Savage. Some of the top sporting retailers of the early 20th century sold the Model 99 in many highly upgraded forms.
"You know, the receiver of that gun is a nice canvas for firearms engravers to work their magic," NRA Museums Director Phil Schreier said. "A model that we have in the museum was retailed by Abercrombie & Fitch and comes in a beautiful case, you know, velvet case takedown model. It was an amazing rifle. It was the first hammerless lever-action ever designed. And I believe it's serial number one million that we have in the collection here that Savage gave us from the factory."
Despite having an incredibly strong action and being a highly versatile model for many hunters and sport shooters, Savage ceased production of the Model 99 in 1997, with more than 1 million rifles made.
"The ultimate problem with Savage Model 99, even though it was popular was like so many other legacy designs that were discontinued throughout the 20th century, the manufacturing costs just became too prohibitive," Brune said. "So unfortunately while we don't see new production Savage Model 99s, enthusiasts of it can content themselves with the fact that there are plenty of them out there and they are as strong as they've ever been."
To watch complete segments of past episodes of American Rifleman TV, go to americanrifleman.org/artv. For all-new episodes of ARTV, tune in Wednesday nights to Outdoor Channel 8:30 p.m. and 11:30 p.m. EST.
