A Horror Story.......

[Garnett]

I talked with a gentleman yesterday who has been collecting the M219/220 guns for years.  As a teen he helped survey lots in the state of Connecticut.  In the basement was a box of .22 caliber barrels for the Savage single shots.  They used the barrels to mark the corners of the lots surveyed by driving them down into the ground.  He said he had thought at the time:  "No wonder the barrels are not any good, as they are bored off center!"

[Mike Armstrong]

Well, that's just plain horrible.   On another Savage collector's site they refer to badly maintained Savage 99s as "tomato stakes," but then they go on and on about how to restore them to shootable condition.

I wonder if there is a 'smith left in the US that could offset the bore on a rimfire barrel so it could be used in a switch-barrel centerfire rifle like the 219? 

Thompson-Center, before it was absorbed by Smith and Wesson (really by a conglomerate who also owns S&W) used to offer a rimfire barrel for their larger break-action"Encore" centerfire rifle.  I never had one of those so don't know how they accomplished it, but I suspect an off-center chamber.  They don't offer it any more. Their smaller break-action rifle, the "Contender,"  uses a movable firing pin to accomplish the same thing.  It works fine, as long as you remember to flip the switch when you change from the .22 barrel to a centerfire and vice-versa.  Almost lost a nice pig that way.  Fortunately (for me, not the piggie) pigs don't see or hear very well....

[Garnett]

This did not occur to me at the time of this original writing, but the Model 53 Smith & Wesson "Jet" revolver has a selector on the hammer to convert from rim fire to center fire.  Jet inserts come with the pistol that hold the .22 rim fire cartridges.  A truly fine pistol, but not popular and discontinued long ago. 

[Exchipy]

In the mid-‘70s, a competitor on the U.S. Secret Service Pistol Team used a S&W Model 53 frame as the basis for his .38SPL PPC revolver by substituting a K-38 cylinder and a heavy .357” target barrel.  He had to always be monitoring the firing pin position to avoid getting a click instead of a bang.  The guy was a real character, too, with that peculiar revolver, his USMC Campaign Hat and ever-present, chewed-up cigar.

Not Savage-related.  But, you started it.

[Garnett]

It amazes me what people can do to guns, good and bad.