Savage 340A 30-30

I’ve had Savage 340 series rifles in 22Hornet, 222, 225 and 30/30. I think 223 too but don’t remember for sure. These rifles were also store branded.
Like 788 Remingtons they were a good value for the money.
1st 30/30 was bought in Texas when I was in Army. Guys had figured out
how to make cheap loads for 30/30 Savage. Take apart 7.62 NATO and use the bullet and powder, only had to buy primers. Somebody had worked out cut off 7.62 case for powder measure. Worked on Jack Rabbits.

good score

Oh, these are great little guns, and will shoot very accurately, especially with the addition of a Williams FP340 peep sight.
I have an early 340, and it has been a blast to shoot with 10 grains of Unique and 150 grain cast lead bullet.

While they are a great little rifle, they are probably not any stronger than the lever actions guns, due to the open bridge receiver. Yes, the short magazine makes a spitzer style bullet a waste of time.

I did carry mine for a while as a truck gun, and with a 115 grain soft point, loaded up to the top, it made a decent varmint rig.

You all have reminded me that I need to get this thing back out and play with it some again.

SmithNut said:

I have a Savage 340 (chambered in 30-30), bought it at a pawn shop for $150 around 20 years ago, fun little carbine....

Earlier this year I was at a different local pawn shop and spotted another, asked to look at it and was surprised to see that it was the Stevens version - also in 30-30 - for $299 ---- I had to have it...

Interestingly both were made before 1968, so they are both sans serial numbers....

With all the hubbub about exotic rifle rounds over the years, I have been more than satisfied by what the 30-30 Winchester cartridge is and can do.....

I'm keeping my eyes out for extra magazines, only have a couple extras at this time.

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I have the Savage 325 in 30.30 WCF and found mags at Numrich. Aftermarket but they work fine.

I like the high end stuff as much as the next person, but there's something about the ugly Savage that I'm liking more and more. Carrying a Savage in the field and an H&R on the hip - the new gun cool.

My first centerfire rifle was a Savage 340 22 Hornet I got for a song back in the late 70's. The Hornet was considered obsolete back then. Ammo was expensive and hard to find.
It was extremely accurate. Sadly, I sold it off. The good thing was it got me into reloading.

I clicked on this thread with the hopes that someone was selling an affordable 340.

DWalt said:

Do you mean you reloaded .30-30 Win brass using powder and bullets from 7.62 cartridges for use in the Savage 340 rifle? The .30-30 Savage is a different cartridge.

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No, I loaded 30/30 Win for the Sav 340 rifle, with a Lee Loader.
You are thinking of a 303 Savage which was chambered in Savage 99 rifles. Which you can form from 30/30 brass in a press. The load data is similar and if you stay in middle of chart you will have no trouble. In fact I have loaded 303 Savage with pulled 7.62 NATO bullets. You just have to watch for AOL in Savage spool magazine. Don’t get 303 Savage mixed up with 303 British, they are completely different cartridges.

This has nothing to do with the rifle, other than I was using my Savage 340 in 222 Remington at the time -

About '72 or so I was laying in a neighbor's cow pasture waiting for a woodchuck to pop up. A fairly secluded spot in the middle of about 200 acres. After an hour or so a vehicle drove up and unaware of my presence, parked about 50 ft behind. Hmmm ....

Doors open. From the undercarriage view they run to the rear of the car. Sets of legs from the knee down wrap around each other.
Dungarees hit the ground followed by skivvies, shirt and a bra.

Then the woodchuck decides to make its appearance.

I'm aware that to make my presence known by firing a shot invites a certain amount of "what kind of weirdos populate these towns" from the teenage couple. But, I have been waiting a darn long time for the shot so ... Boom!!!

I stood up to the sound of slamming car doors and a '72 Super Sport hauling @ss. I've often supposed there's a couple of 70 something types talking about their own personal "Deliverance" experience when they were young and in love.

I still have the Savage 340 - wonder if they're still together.

I have two of these. One is complete, the other is a project gun that needs some stock fitting.

As others have stated, these may be marked Savage, Stevens, or Springfield. The letter code is not a quality grading, just model year revisions.

Neither of mine have serial numbers, both have the butterknife bolt handle. One is tapped for a side-saddle scope mount, the other is tapped for the receiver sight. I had found reproduction receiver sights but I put this project aside and forgot about it.
I thought I had found a bargain deal on a third rifle a few years ago. The seller listed a "Stevens 840". After a few pictures I told him he had an 84D in 22lr. I still bought it.

i have had several in various calibers. back in the 80s i had one in a 22 hornet. it had XXX fancy walnut that was out of this world gorgeous! it had grain that looked like swirls of smoke. i bought it from a pawn shop, one day the extractor broke, i took it into a local gun shop to get the part, when i walked in the front door a salesman from the other end of the shop pointed and said, i sold that gun new! it was so unique he remembered it at a glance. he told me when he pulled it from the box, they were all stunned at the wood! and being the shrewd smart man i am, i sold it! man i wish i had it back,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

I have owned a half dozen or so of them and could not sell them fast enough. Not my cup of tea. Can't say I even ever shot the ones I ended up with. Just trade material for me. Several years ago, I ended up with one in 22 Hornet. I finally sold it for $200 at the last day of the gun show. I sold the 3 extra magazines that came with the rifle for nearly the same as the rifle itself. That being said they do seem to work and
seem to be reliable for the most part.

The one I still have has a Fair to Good grained Black Walnut stock. Most of the Savage models have very thick/heavy wood. Mine was reworked into a slim and limber stalking rifle with a Schnabel forend. When stalking and shooting offhand I get 2"+/- at 125 yards. It is an absolute joy to hunt with!

Ivan

Just to be certain, I believe the nomenclature goes like this:
Savage 340 & 342, Stevens 325 & 322, Springfield 840. The letter codes are are model revisions, not trim levels or year codes.
Savage/Stevens also made guns marked with department store brand names like Wards Western Field. Were any of these guns marked with"house brands"?

Would love to find one in 22 Hornet for nostalgia's sake

My very first truly accurate woodchuck rifle in 1962 was a used Stevens/Savage 340 open iron sights, 22 Hornet, butter-knife bolt handle plain wood stock. My buddies and I were paid $.25 per tail for woodchucks dispatched on several dairy farmers cow pastures.

The chuck holes/dens could break a cows leg and the farmers were glad not to have to take time out of their chores to sit and wait out the whistlepigs.

I had been using a 22LR but it wasn't enough omph, and couldn't reach out as well as that Hornet.

Sold the rifle along with some others when Uncle Sam came calling and now all these years later I still keep searching. There are some for sale every now and then but not the open sighted butter knife ones in 22 Hornet.

Since I did recently acquire a Smith Model 53 in 22 Remington Jet, I'm now searching for an H&R Topper also chambered in 22 Remington Jet.........they seem to be even more scarce than the butter knife Stevens....but....I love the thrill of the firearms hunt as much as the old days actually hunting game/varmints.

OP did swell knocking that one down at that price today.

As mentioned in other posts Welcome to LeeRoy's Ramblings has a wealth of info on the rifles and the various grades. In addition there is Savage Shooters - Home where the "barrel nut" lovers congregate...good info there too.

PS: on the post where the woodchuck hunter "interrupted" a couple of teenagers.......the question inquiring minds just have to know: Did you get the chuck????

I think the Savage rifles in Hornet, 23-340-219 all shot better than the other American rifles that were much fancier and more expensive. Same thing in 25/20-32/20 & 30/30. They didn’t get the PR because they were ugly and cheap.

An update to my post#20..
With a some more searching, I found that the Fed Gov't under the Fed Firearms Act 1938, ammended that law in July 1958,
Required all centerfire long guns and all Handguns regardless of caliber mfg'rd in the USA to be ser#'d.

Cal .22rf long guns and any shotgun were excluded from the ser# demand though mfg'rs could (and did) ser# them if they wanted to do so.

(The GCA68 removed the exclusion from ser#'s for the .22rf Longguns and all shotguns. That made 'all firearms mfg'd in the USA required to be ser#'d'..
...Though 2 classes of the 4 already had been so since July of 1958)


So,,I can only assume that the Savage 340 (and Model 219) ,,possibly others? that are about that are unser#'d are pre July 1958 production.
That the IRS/Treasury did come down on Marlin for their unser#'d 5000+ C/Fire Levermatics was because it was in 1963.

https://archives.federalregister.gov/issue_slice/1958/1/18/339-347.pdf#page=5

Regulations implementing the Federal Firearms Act of 1938 required all firearms manufactured after July 1, 1958, to be identified with the name of the manufacturer or importer, a serial number, caliber, and model.

Internal Revenue Service, Department of the Treasury, 23 FR 343 (Jan. 18, 1958). The only exception from marking the serial number and model requirements was for shotguns and .22 caliber rifles not subject to the NFA.

As Listed in the Federal Register Jan/1958
SUBPART D— CONDUCT OF BUSINESS
§ 177.50 Identification of firearms.
Each licensed manufacturer and importer of a firearm produced on and
after July 1, 1958, shall identify it by
stamping (impressing), or otherwise conspicuously placing or causing to be
stamped (impressed) or placed thereon,
in a manner not susceptible of being
readily obliterated or altered, the name
of the manufacturer or importer, and the
serial number, caliber, and model of the
firearm. However, where imported firearms are identified by the foreign manufacturer in a manner prescribed in the
foregoing sentence, additional stamping
will not be required if the information
prescribed by this section appears. However, individual serial numbers and
model designation will not be required
on any shotgun or .22 caliber rifle unless
such shotgun or rifle also is subject to
the provisions of the National Firearms
Act.

I knew that there had been a later amendment to the 1934 act requiring serial numbering of CF rifles but I have never researched the details. I imagine most CF rifles had already been numbered prior to 1958, as all my old CF rifles made long before 1958 (Win, Rem, and Savage) are serial numbered.

cmansguns said:

My very first truly accurate woodchuck rifle in 1962 was a used Stevens/Savage 340 open iron sights, 22 Hornet, butter-knife bolt handle plain wood stock. My buddies and I were paid $.25 per tail for woodchucks dispatched on several dairy farmers cow pastures.

The chuck holes/dens could break a cows leg and the farmers were glad not to have to take time out of their chores to sit and wait out the whistlepigs.

I had been using a 22LR but it wasn't enough omph, and couldn't reach out as well as that Hornet.

Sold the rifle along with some others when Uncle Sam came calling and now all these years later I still keep searching. There are some for sale every now and then but not the open sighted butter knife ones in 22 Hornet.

Since I did recently acquire a Smith Model 53 in 22 Remington Jet, I'm now searching for an H&R Topper also chambered in 22 Remington Jet.........they seem to be even more scarce than the butter knife Stevens....but....I love the thrill of the firearms hunt as much as the old days actually hunting game/varmints.

OP did swell knocking that one down at that price today.

As mentioned in other posts Welcome to LeeRoy's Ramblings has a wealth of info on the rifles and the various grades. In addition there is Savage Shooters - Home where the "barrel nut" lovers congregate...good info there too.

PS: on the post where the woodchuck hunter "interrupted" a couple of teenagers.......the question inquiring minds just have to know: Did you get the chuck????

Click to expand...

Absolutely. Report of the shot followed by a second of nothing and then - thwap, as the bullet hit home.

I still use the same load in my other 222s. 19.8 of IMR 4198 under a 52 grain Sierra BTHP.

dsf said:

Absolutely. Report of the shot followed by a second of nothing and then - thwap, as the bullet hit home.

I still use the same load in my other 222s. 19.8 of IMR 4198 under a 52 grain Sierra BTHP.

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Back in the distant days when the .222 was the king of the heap among bench rest shooters, IMR 4198 was the preferred propellant for most shooters. I remember a saying to the effect that if you couldn't get your rifle to group well enough using IMR 4198, then you need another rifle.

Even today, my best performing .223 loads at 100 yards use 50-52 grain bullets with 21.5 grains of IMR 4198.