Saw my first Savage on the 18th of this month! Went to Wenatchee and saw Mom, then headed towards home but stopped in at Sis's for the night. The BIL took me up to Mattawa, WA to see the local machinist/gunsmith/gunbuilder.
He told me about a pistol that had a 300 dollar price tag on it in a pawn shop and pulled out a Savage!!! He made a new cylinder for it but kept the origional. The origional cylinder had a cracked and blown out chamer, and the forcing cone area had a small blow out as well. Still, worth more than 300 in my estimation. Not shootable (?), but not really relic either.
Mr E. J. is in his seventies but has built many, many guns from spanish matchlocks and conquistador armor to go with it, but a ferguson rifle and many in between. He has also built, from scratch, many C&B revolvers from .5- 1.00 bores! He was in the process of building a Remington- Hepburn when I was there, also from scratch. He has many more in the works, from almost done, to almost ready to start on. The guy is a national treasure and a true craftsman. IMO. He also makes his own creedmore sights.
He found a museum in Montana to house some of his works but I'll be darned if I can remember the name of the town. Starts with a "P", guess I better look it up.
