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Old December 4, 2012, 11:47 PM   #1
highpower3006
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Savage 720

I just picked this Savage 720 today. I believe it to be one of those bought by the government in WWII to use to train new recruits in aerial gunnery. The barrel is 26" long and appears to have a open choke.

There is some freckling in the bluing, but the wood is very nice with some nice grain visible in the right light.

I tried to find out some more info on these but either there isn't much out there or my google-fu isn't very good. I have posted it on another forum hoping to see if there is someone out there has more information on it. For instance, what does the four asterisks on the barrel stand for?

Even not knowing much about it I figure it is worth the $250 I paid for it.




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Old December 5, 2012, 08:55 AM   #2
PetahW
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The asterisk stamps on the bbl are the choke designation - one star = Full Choke, two=Mod, three=IC, four=no choke.

You appear to have a $900 + (BBGV, in that condition) Military (long barrel version) Riot/Trench Gun there.

The 720 Military was similar to the Remington Model 11, and was made by Savage/Stevens in very limited quantities in the 69,000-90,000 SN range.

Your gun appears to be gennie, since the front sight's ramp mounted & is Ordnance Dept stamped.



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Last edited by PetahW; December 5, 2012 at 09:00 AM.
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Old December 5, 2012, 10:12 AM   #3
highpower3006
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Thanks for the info. The serial number is 87800, so it falls into the right serial number range.
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Old December 5, 2012, 01:08 PM   #4
Tom Doniphon
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Actually, three asterisks on these guns indicates cylinder bore. All of the US marked short barreled riot 720 shotguns have three asterisk (cyl bore) marked barrels. Most, if not all, of the long barrled guns have barrels marked with four asterisks.
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Old December 5, 2012, 09:07 PM   #5
PetahW
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It sure helps to ID a long barreled gun's barrel, that's been shortened in an attempt to pass it off as a Riot Gun worth twice as much.


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