Spencer_Murphy
Member
- Joined
- Sep 18, 2022
- Messages
- 1
New to the forum and figured here would be the best place to find some answers to my question. Recently a local farmer I have done work for since 2014 has passed. He told his son to let me choose one of two Savage 99 lever action rifles from his collection that I was interested in and had offered to buy. One is a 1906 Savage 99 Carbine, I guess you could say. It is chambered in .38-55 Winchester, has a 22" Barrel and has lost 90% of its metal finish to a point of I guess a patina finish now. The second rifle is a 1902 Savage 99 Rifle, it is chambered in .32-40 Winchester has a 26" barrel and retains almost all of its metal finish except on the moving parts of the action and lever. Both rifles also have typical wear on their wooden stocks for 100-year-old firearms. That being said I can only choose one because the other is going to be sold at an estate auction and both have been appraised too at least $2800. I have no experience with either of these calibers, I never even heard of them until last weekend. Oldest metallic cartridge calibers I deal with in my collection is .577 Snider and .45 Government. I looked up these calibers in the Savage 99 Rifle and found very little information on the internet. .38-55 is the only caliber that I can find information on being chambered in the Savage 99 and as for .32-40 I'm coming up dry. I also assume (correct me if I'm wrong) that both .38-55 Winchester and .32-40 Winchester are obsolete cartridges. I also assume getting reloading supplies for each of these calibers will also be a mission, but I reload for .577 Snider so it shouldn't be too hard to source supplies for American calibers. That being said if anyone could put in their two cents and shed some light on this for me that would be great. Mostly I would like to use the rifle I choose to be a deer rifle and also something I can hit the coyotes with here on the farm. I live in Maryland, so deer aren't too big. Lastly, if anyone has experience with either of these cartridges in terms of performance, handloading or just general knowledge like which one is easier to obtain please feel free to share that information. My thanks to everyone who replies and shares some information.