I believe the first left-handed bolt action was produced by Mathieu Arms Co. located in Oakland, California in about 1950. Yes, this was a custom made action but previously everything else had been a conversion. Eventually, the Mathieu action was used by Weatherby for their left-handed rifles until the Mark V was introduced in 1958.
Then, in 1963 both the Savage 110CL and the Remington 700BDL went into production as left-handed versions of existing bolt action rifles. Hope this helps!
Steve Mace
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After today, its all historical
[This message has been edited by Steven Mace (edited July 17, 2000).]