Through the years

[The Infamous Jim B.]

Thought it would be interesting to do a walk down memory lane of most of the Savage firearms I've owned since purchasing my first one in the fall of 2001 - a 10ML-II muzzleloader. It's a bit strange to look back on now and seeing just how many I've owned over the years compared to how few I own today. There's likely a few missing that I never got included in my random group photos - at this point I don't even remember to be honest.

Fall 2004

Fall 2006

Fall 2014

Winter 2024

In the last year or so I've also added a Revel Deluxe 22WMR and a very rare, one-year only (2004) Stevens 411 Upland Sporter 12ga SxS (made by Baikal in Russia). Strangely haven't taken a single photo of the Revel Deluxe yet, but here's the Stevens 411 SxS that I rescued from the back of Fred's safe. It was supposed to be offered in 12 and 20ga, as well as .410-bore, but no 20's or 410's were ever produced. Very few of the 12ga's were imported as Savage cancelled their contract mid-year after Remington swept in and contracted with Baikal to produce several models to make up their new Spartan line of budget firearms that launched in 2005. Other than this one I've only ever seen two others in the wild - one was in a review by GunBlast in 2004 and the other came up for sale in a Rock Island auction back in 2018.

It looks a little plain next to my Grulla Armas 216 28ga/.410 SxS set (in case) and my Browning BSS Sporter 20ga SxS (top), but that's ok. Still need to find a 16ga SxS to finish my collection though.

Of all the Savage's I've bought and sold over the years the only one I really regret selling and truly miss was the 110 PEL, but when someone comes along and offers you 3x what you paid for it it's hard to say no.

 

[ONE-TEN]

Quite a collection o er the years.

The 110 PEL huh? Even with a model 12VLP & 12LRPV? Or do you still own those?

 

[The Infamous Jim B.]

Nope, they've gone by the wayside.

The LH Model 12 VLP was a single-shot and the gun I built when I did the factory tour in November of 2005 or 06. Had gotten a RH version in for review the previous year and that thing shot lights out - 1/4" groups regularly at 100 yards with factory Hornady ammo in both bullet weights. So that's what I decided to build at the factory, but turned out the barrel on mine wasn't a hummer like the one on the review gun I got. Best I ever got out of it with handloads was a little over 1/2" groups at 100yds. Ended up parting the rifle out. IIRC Hammer bought the action, and no memory of who ended up with the barrel and stock. the bolt body with my signature etched on it now calls my .250 Savage Ackley rifle home.

The 12 LRPV was kind of a proof of concept rifle I'd talked Savage into sending me. Fred, myself and a few others were pressuring Savage pretty hard to offer a fast twist .22-250 option on their Model 12 varmint rifles but they were a bit leery about doing so. So I talked them into sending me one with a standard 1-9" twist .223 barrel but chambered in standard .22-250 so I could do the quantitative testing to prove it would handle even the lightest factory loaded bullets at the time but also allow the ability to shoot some of the heavier high BC bullets in handloads. Long story short, the next year the BVSS, VLP and LRPV could be had with a 1-9" twist 22-250 barrel.

The LRPV I ended up selling to Fred a few years later as I had my .22-250 Ackley rifle and he had a customer looking for one to base a build off of. Gave me some money to burn playing with something else so it was a win-win.

As for the 110 PEL, less than 470 total 110 PE/PEL's were made between 1966 and 1969, and probably less than 10% of those were left-hand PEL's. The early ones were engraved in Germany and had serial numbers that date to 1962 like the one I had, later ones were engraved in Japan and the engraving wasn't quite as detailed. According to what Bob Greenleaf had told me, only the first batch or two were engraved in Germany. The one I had is the only lefty I've ever seen, but over the years I've probably seen 3 or 4 right-hand one's come up on GunBroker or Guns International. Most were chambered in .30-06 Spfld or 7mm Rem Mag, though IIRC they could also be had in .243 and .308 though I've never seen a short-action one. I'd have to dust off the old catalogs to verify cartridge offerings for certain.