Last year, when my father passed away, I inherited his 1898 Springfield. He had purchased it from a friend back in the 1980s. That friend of my father's eventually became my own father-in-law in 1998. He and I still go motorcycle riding to this day.
My father-in-law doesn't recall when he acquired the rifle, but he recalls sporterizing it in the late 1970s. He remembers buying it during a gun show in the early 1970s in Alaska, but doesn't know how it got up there.
Both my father and father-in-law used the rifle for hunting moose in Alaska, to great effect, and my father took it with him to Texas when he retired (he used it to kill a few razorbacks in the 15 years he was there). The armorer I took it to has given it a thorough look, and declares it safe and fully functional, with headspace around +0.014" - 0.018". He had to replace the bypass lever spring, but other than that, all the rifle needed was a good cleaning.
The only other information I've been able to glean about the rifle is that it's serial # 247385, which I believe means that it was a carbine manufactured in 1899. Any other help in this area would be much appreciated.
On a similar note, I also inherited my father's Savage 242, Series 6 .410 Over/Under shotgun. I have great memories of this gun, as it and my Chipmunk .22 were constant companions as I roamed the woods of central Alaska in my youth. Top barrel usually had #4 or #6 shot, and the bottom always had a slug. Lots of squirrel, snowshoe hare, ptarmigan, lynx, and snow fox were taken by me with these two arms.
