New 99 Savage

@Bobhunter: I see you live in northwest missouri. I lived in central missouri during the early to mid 60's and every year a local gas station raffled off a savage 99. You got one raffle ticket for every 10 gallons of gas. Those days are gone forever.
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hammie, yes I live in Northwest Missouri.
I sure would have liked to been close to that local station that was doing the raffle, that's where I would have purchased my gas.
I believe you are correct about those days being gone.

In those days only the rich owned a savage 99. The rest of us poor people used 30-30's or an occasional .35 Remington.
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I purchased my first 99 (a used one) in the 70's, having a wife and two kids at the time I was a long way from being a rich man, I still am.:D
As a matter of fact the deer I killed with the 99 helped a lot with the grocery bill.

When I was a kid I always wondered what the poor folks ate, Dad always told me beans and cornbread, I told Dad "hmm the same thing we eat".:)

Best Regards
Bob Hunter
www.huntercustoms.com
 
James, I kind of disagree. I think many rifles become un-popular because new technology moves them from cutting edge to not so new and shiny anymore. Sales drop. Model is discontinued. Then when a generation passes, people see them not as a technological marvel, but as a piece of nostalgia.
 
savage 99 made in 1903 in 303 savage. a fine rifle. eastbank.
 

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Uhm... Eastbank?

You have a pretty valuable rifle there...

I wouldn't be putting it down on asphalt without something between it and the hard ground.

That appears to be a Savage special order with factory engraving and other special order features, including high end wood.

You could be looking at a gun that's worth upwards $5,000.
 
I suspect they quit making them for a reason. Either slow sales or too expensive to produce and sell. I doubt they will be coming back.
 
I'd love to have one. There's a worn one (308 win, w/ the brass counter) in my safe that I'm holding for a friend as his boy has mixed with drugs and he doesn't want it stolen and then sold. I drool over it now and then.
 
I think people naysaying the possibility of classics returning are thinking about the firearms market as it was 30 years ago. Mostly hunters who owned less than 5 guns and didnt consider "collecting." I think the market has now changed to be dominated by "collectors" or hoarders. How has the new "A5" from browning fared? The new model is just as wrecked as the savage described above. The problem with the savage 99 specifically is the rifle prices aren't really that high yet. I bet they wouldn't be much above the new prices from before if adjusted for inflation. I am always looking for one with a bit of cosmetic damage myself.
 
For some reason a Savage 99 just feels right!

My brother & I both shot our first deer with a Savage 99 in .250-3000. IIRC, our dad had bought it off a work buddy for $75. It was a take-down model that for some reason was "pinned" to be a non-take down. Years later that gun was stolen from my brother's house. That seems to be 50 years ago now.

I was at a gun show 2 weeks ago & there was a fairly nice 99 .250-3000, TD for $1,200. It sure felt nice just to hold that gun again. Too bad I'm not a rich man, that little piece of nostalgia would have come home with me!

...bug :)
 
"I think people naysaying the possibility of classics returning are thinking about the firearms market as it was 30 years ago."

I'm actually thinking about the firearms market is it is right now.

Winchester's and Browning's "bring backs" have done well because they're Winchesters. Same with Uberti and the other Italian makers who have brought back the 1873, 1886, etc.

The Savage 99, while well loved, well respected, and well used, doesn't have the same sort of quasi-mythical status as most Winchester lever actions. The 99 also doesn't have an entire sporting genre built up around it and supporting it (Cowboy Action Shooting).

Today's market is also absolutely flooded with high quality, relatively inexpensive hunting rifles from Remington, Winchester, Browning, and Savage.

While I have no way of knowing what their price point would be for the 99, if Savage were to reintroduce it, it would appeal to a far narrower consumer market and I simply can't see that it would be as cheap, or cheaper, to produce than a bolt action, but I could see it being considerably more expensive than a bolt action, as in a LOT more expensive.

I'm sorry, there's just no way that I can noodle this that I can come up with a winning sales strategy for a reintroduced Model 99.
 
I'm pretty sure No.1's and BLR's are not the bulk of Ruger or Brownings rifle sales but they wouldn't still be making them if there were no market for them. I see a "New 99" as appealing to a similar shooter as the two rifles mentioned above. Still a forged receiver but made with much more efficient methods. Sold as a classic without the ballistic compromise's might just work. 260, 7mm-08, 308, 358, 243, 223 in addition to maybe limited runs of 250 and 300 Savage chambering's would cover a whole lot of uses and variations.
 
I"m not saying that there's no market for them.

I am saying that the market is small, and getting smaller, to the point where it's likely very tenuous if it's profitable to bring the gun back.

Savage Arms hasn't been successful by being stupid. If they were able to identify a market that would allow them to produce and sell the rifle profitably, I have no doubt that they would do so.
 
There's all kinds of opinions and reasons upper management makes their decisions. I'm sure when Ford wanted to go retro with there 2005 Mustang all were not in agreement with the decision then. Maybe another reason for no new 99 would be the expectation of a newer shooter to think his expensive pretty new 99 should shoot right with his Dad's old cheap 110? Probably not gonna happen.
 
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It's difficult to forecast how many units Savage could sell within current market to make a profit. Seems like cheap bolt actions with plastic stocks are the current big sellers.

I'm a big fan of leverguns, too.

Jack
 
I would be interested in one in 223, if it's built with a 24 inch barrel, the nice slim lines with the brass counter and fore-end of the old 99's.

I also would not mind having one in 22-250 and 243.

I love shooting the two I own, I shot them both today.
At 100 yards supported even with my old eyes both rifles were grouping 1.75 inch, this is with iron sights.

Best Regards
Bob Hunter
www.huntercustoms.com
 
A sports car appeals to a FAR wider demographic.

Then there's also the concept of advancing technology employed in the sports car... limited slip dif., new engine management for power and economy, etc.

About the only thing that's really come out since wWWII has been improved steels and polymer stocks. Last thing I want on a 99 is a polymer stock.

As with most things, if Savage tries to bring back the 99 and fails, that's absolute no skin off our backs. But it's potentially millions of dollars off of Savage's corporate back.
 
make it synthethic stock, lightweight barrel fluted.

and chamber it in 358win and I would love it for my more mobile type hunts
 
As a percentage of total gun sales I agree the Savage 99 market is decreasing. I think the number of guns sold in that market probably is not decreasing. The AR fad and CCW fad has just been dropped on top of normal sales the last few years, it hasn't damaged the other sales beyond limiting supply. People are buying absurdly large numbers of guns right now and I think almost any niche product has a chance. The 99 is a compromise without compromising. The same moder rounds used in an AR and such without the same restrictions AND still a little nestalgia. A savage 99 could very well be about the most firepower one could shoulder in a number of states.
 
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