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Savage Arms Corporation, Utica, New York, USA. Savage Arms was founded in 1894 by Arthur W Savage in Utica, New York. Within 20 years they were producing rifles, handguns, and ammunition. Savage merged with the Driggs-Seabury Ordnance Company during World War I and produced Lewis machine guns. In 1920 Savage bought Stevens Arms. In 1939, Savage introduced the Model 24, a rare U.S. double rifle, which is actually an over-under rifle/shotgun combination that sold over a million copies. During World War II, Savage turned again to military production, making heavy munitions. The company was run by a variety of owners from the 1960s to the 1980s. Savage eventually ran into financial trouble in 1988 and filed for bankruptcy protection. A turn-around began in 1995 with the company returning to private ownership, led by Ronald Coburn, previously of Smith & Wesson. The mechanism of this pistol is based on the designs of William Condit and Major Elbert H Searle, and in 1905 they patented their pistol. By the end of 1905 the designs have been sold to the Savage Arms Company. The pistol is a semi-automatic with a ten shot detachable box magazine, utilized what he referred to as a hesitation or delayed blowback system to lock the breech. The Searle design consisted of a separate breechblock containing a spring-loaded striker with a prominent cocking lever (not a hammer). The cocking lever was inserted into the rear of the pistols slide, held in place with a tongue and groove system. The barrel has two lugs at the chamber, the top lug mates with a groove in the slide and the other at the bottom fits into a slot in the frame. At the instant of firing the breechblock and slide are locked together, but as the slide starts rearwards the helical groove in the slide rotates the barrel to the right. This rotation unhooks the barrel from the frame and the breechblock can recoil fully. The groves in the barrel rotate to the right to slow the disengaging of the breechblock. This part of the mechanism functions similar to the Steyr Hahn of 1912. The manual safety lever locks the sear. The Savage was probably the first pistol with a staggered column magazine. Unlike the Savage models 1907 and 1917 the model 1915 hammerless used the same lock-work with a cover over the cocking lever, a grip safety that disables the trigger and a catch to lock the slide open. The lock-up, light slide, and excellent grip shape made a comfortable shooter. The Savage is an interesting pistol from the US with old school, original designing before everybody started copying the successful Browning designs, for every new pistol. The 1915 was dropped after two years, making it scarcer than the other two models. It is classified as a relic in the USA. (Ref. ‘Pistols and revolvers’ by F Myatt p177, ‘Price guide for collector handguns’ by R H Balderson, ‘Pistols of the world’ by Hogg and Weeks p207)

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