Field & Stream, 1899
SAVAGE ARMS Co. , Utica, N. Y.
A MODERN WEAPON FOR BIG GAME MANY Reports are coming in of splendid work done with the Savage .303 rifle in shooting moose, grizzly bear and deer of all kinds. It would be impossible to publish one tenth of the hunting experiences that the Savage Arms Company receive in their daily mail.
The wonderful demand for this practically new arm has resulted in the equipping of one of the finest plants in existence with the most advanced type of machinery, especially adapted for manufacturing high grade mod ern smokeless powder rifles. The fame of the Savage arm has penetrated the most distant countries of the globe, orders having been received from out of the way towns in Siberia, Java, Finland and Japan. The greatest criticism has been the fear that so small a caliber as the .303 would not be sufficiently large for moose , grizzly bear and big game generally, but this natural supposition has come only from those who have never used or seen the effect of the small expanding high velocity bullets on flesh and bone. It is safe to say that within a few years the large caliber black powder rifles will be settling in their places in the museums.
Arthur W. Savage, the inventor of the Savage rifle, was the first known person to shoot big game with the modern smokeless powder small caliber cartridge. Twenty samples were secured of the first French smokeless powder cartridges manufactured by that Government, and a chamber in a special rifle was made to take them . This was in 1889. At that time he proved to his own satisfaction that the new departure in calibers was superior to anything ever known, but it was long afterwards before American sportsmen awoke to the knowledge and merits of small caliber smokeless powder ' rifles.
Taking the world at large to- day the modern sporting rifle is but very little known and it will probably be twenty or thirty years be fore native hunters of such countries as Central Africa and South America are armed with them. It is probably just as well that such is the case , for did every hunter know of the advantages of smokeless powder and small calibers, the orders would be so over whelming that it would be impossible to meet ' the demand.
All criticism on the Savage rifle brought to the notice of the company for the past two years has been carefully table ted and the result of this foresight is the improved 1899 model. Detailed information of the construction of this highly perfected arm will be sent on application and cannot fail to prove of value to all who are interested in the development of the modern rifle.
The company takes this opportunity afforded by the courtesy of FIELD AND STREAM to thank the public for the very kind, fair and considerate treatment afforded the " Savage" since its introduction. In choosing a rifle for hunting it is always of vital importance that the arm decided upon be reliable and in every way suitable , so in purchasing a new rifle different from anything else ever before known it takes the strong courage of conviction combined with good judgment to off - set the warnings and advice of timid friends to whom the “ old reliable" is always the best, whether it be stone.ax or flint- lock . To those, —now numbering many thousands, -- who had the courage to invest in Savage rifles when they were a new and untried arm , we particularly wish to convey our gratitude .
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