Savage Model 1895

About the Savage Model 1895

The Savage Model 1895 is a hammerless lever-action rifle designed by Arthur Savage and produced by the Savage Repeating Arms Company of Utica, New York. It was the first commercially successful hammerless lever-action rifle and fed from an eight-round rotary spool magazine rather than a tubular magazine, allowing the safe use of pointed spitzer bullets. Chambered in the new .303 Savage cartridge, it featured a downward-tilting breechblock and a cartridge counter visible on the side of the receiver. About 5,000 were built before the design was refined into the hugely successful Savage Model 1899.

Arthur Savage developed the rifle's action from his earlier magazine-rifle patents intended for a military trials gun derived from lessons of the British Martini-Henry. Rejected for military service, the design was commercialized as the sporting Model 1895 and became the foundation of the Savage Arms company.

Savage Model 1895 specifications

The Model 1895 was the direct forerunner of the Savage Model 1899 (later Model 99). Many examples were manufactured under contract by the Marlin Firearms Company and carry Marlin proofmarks.