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This is not an expose' toward any cash register transaction whereupon either party didn't look at the money.

It's about a gun that I should have known about but did not. The VERY FIRST commercial bolt-action gun made and sold in the U.S.A.
I did not know anything about it until I owned one.

I also learned it became the "darling" of the real-life prototype for Indiana Jones: A world-famous scientist and world traveler that believed strongly in firearms toward his pursuits.

If you are, or were, a kid at any time in your life, you might have looked at a children's book called, "All about Dinosaurs". Kids are looking at it right now.

Roy Chapman Andrews wrote that. He wrote lots of children's books about his passions.
He also wrote the very first study of Whales. In 1910, nobody knew anything about whales except how to kill them. Andrews signed on for "working tours" on whaling ships. He learned to run the gun. He killed whales, but he told the world where Whales live, where Whales breed, and where and how they raise their children. His book is undisputed and foundational to this day.

He's the guy that found the very first fosslized Dinosaur eggs in the Gobi Desert (Mongolia). Three expeditions till the politics got real stupid in the '30s.

He took a gun with him. A very light rifle in a high-performance cartridge. He shot game to feed his expedition, but he carried that gun primarily for defense.

He wrote endorsements to the manufacturer of the firearm, and such full-page endorsements were published in National Geographic (a constant consumer of his written exploits). If Roy Chapman Andrews trusted a Savage Model 1920 in .250-3000 Savage caliber to feed and defend his explorations, well, then, that might be the gun for the rest of America.

It is in all practicality a miniaturized Springfield. An argument could be made that it is designed after the famous custom Sedgley Springfields of the day. Teddy Roosevelt fell in love with a Springfield sporter in Africa.
The Savage Model 1920 even accepts a stripper clip, with the obligatory slot in the top of the receiver.


I hunted with the gun this year. Certainly not Roy's, but certainly having belonged to a contemporary of his. This gun came from a ranch in Eastern Oregon, where this gun was the "truck gun" for the owner of the ranch. It probably spent over 65 years (of it's 100 year life) in the truck. It shows on the barrel, pitting evident at the "swivel point" on a window rack. But not any evidence of hard use at all. Ranch owner took care of this gun.


PA210292.JPG

Where Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth: This could be the Gobi Desert in 1920 or Eastern Montana in 2020. Dinosaur bones predominate in both locales. The Savage 1920 thrives, survives, and provides.



PA110220.JPG

A hundred year-old rifle pales in comparison to the Pronghorn's survival from the Pleistocene.
Both still operate in their element. PA200288.JPG
 
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Savage Sporter?

NO SIR! (glad it came from somebody from a mama who knew how to name a boy).
I knew about the Sporters.

This is BEFORE, man!

Rumor has it that Savage lost money on every one of these they made. I believe it. Barrels came off the 99 line, but beyond that cost savings, they were paying lots of money to build these actions.

It's just such the cutest little thing.
 
It's cool, that's for sure. Reminded me of the Savage Super Sporter I sold when looking ahead to times that might have been difficult.

Nice to hear your story. I filled my deer tag with a less impressive animal this year using a Winchester I carried in my youth, but never was able to "put to work".
It's only a few years older than your Savage.

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It's cool, that's for sure. Reminded me of the Savage Super Sporter I sold when looking ahead to times that might have been difficult.

Nice to hear your story. I filled my deer tag with a less impressive animal this year using a Winchester I carried in my youth, but never was able to "put to work".
It's only a few years older than your Savage.

View attachment 787697

I'm really near to the point now if I can't kill it with an "out of the ordinary" weapon, or guide someone toward their success, I am less enthusiastic.

But I also have to reconcile all that nobility with my recent fascination with .257 Weatherby.
 
He swept the floors for free (no wages) at the New York Museum of Natural HIstory. He became the Director and was there for 31 years. Detractors use his propensity to take off on journeys as criticism. It falls flat when you listen to his own statements as to why he took the job in the first place. The boy cruised. He describes excruciating fund-raising to get his next ticket out. He schmoozed with the biggest to get the go-ahead.
 
They made these only in two calibers: The .250 and the .300 Savage. In 1926 they beefed up the wood at the tang as a result of some of the .300's exhibiting some weakness there. Not manifested in any .250's. (This gun being first year production, 1920, it is REALLY a slim-trim stock.)
 
Makes sense.
.250 came out in 1915.
.300, 1920.
So those were (essentially) new cartridges at that time.
I'm betting Savage was pushing them as hard as they could back then.
Neat fact about the stock.
If I ever come across one, I'll have to look for that.
Thanks. :s0155:

Dean
 
Gun Show manners dictate that if I have rested my hand on the gun and am in effort toward gaining attention from the "Table Holder", I will have first chance to make an offer on any Model 1920 .300 Savage that you and I might see at the same time.
 
Gun Show manners dictate that if I have rested my hand on the gun and am in effort toward gaining attention from the "Table Holder", I will have first chance to make an offer on any Model 1920 .300 Savage that you and I might see at the same time.
So if you ever see another guy racing through a gun show as quickly as he possibly can, that's probably me looking for that rifle. ;)
 
Although a seemingly devoted husband, he makes no qualms about relating exquisite details regarding the operations and meticulous business that was the brothels in Shang Hai, Hong Kong and elsewhere. These centers of commerce also served as centers of information and logistics arrangements.

He later laments the demise of that perfectly run commerce. Brought on by the same entities that were making it politically impossible for him to mount another expedition into the Gobi. His greatest expressed value of it all was toward networking: the Madams knew EVERYBODY. Andrews made sure he was favored people when it came to the best of the Madams. (I'm not really sure Indiana Jones was THAT "adventurous".)

If Andrews needed a driver, a translator, a cook, or anything else, or needed civil paperwork smoothed over, the very best resource was a brothel operator.

True facts. He never glossed over anything.
 
Roy Chapman Andrews wrote a lot of books, and it seems many of them are available free or very cheap ( .99) on Kindle. Being fascinated by China of the 1920's, I will be reading a lot of these, I expect. ( Already downloaded "Across Mongolian Plains") Thanks for the info, @Spitpatch !
 

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