I've had 69040 for quite som etime, it has been "parker rifled" (relined by A. G. Parker) in the 1930's and shoots beautifully 

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but when I saw 74760 on a German auction site, I could not resist. The casehardening and bluing seemed original and very good. The gun was "cheap" (less than $300) and it had "alternative" sights which I wanted badly...

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I believe that the sights alone are worth more than the gun is (they are to me anyway, as I have great hope they will be better on the range than the original 414 ones...)

there is a catch though... the casehardened exemple has had "homemade" scope rings installed, and the wood cut out to make space, so "collector" value has disappeared. I'll have to deinstall those horrible rings and hope the barrel bluing has not been irremediably damaged 

but yes, I thought the deal was a bargain at €288 (which I loosely translated into $300).

there are plenty of good deals to be had in Germany yet  (and even moreso when you compare the prices with those in France)

Thanks for the additional pictures.

*  I kinda like those "homemade" dovetails.  I'd leave 'em on the rifle.  Maybe try to find a scope that will fit 'em.

*  The case hardening pattern is correct original for a Savage-era gun.  Very rare to see one so well preserved in the homeland.  

*  That price is indeed a heck of a steal!  

* Nobody seems to have liked the factory receiver sight very much.  Yet I  seem to remember reading that an American team took stock 414s to Europe in the '30s and won some major tournament, so they can't have been too awful bad!

You see various claims and years being repeated about the 414 and the Olympics. The fact seems to be that in the 1912 summer Olympics an American, Frederick Hird, took a Gold in the first appearance of the 50 meter rifle, prone event held on Thursday, July 4. The American team, of which he was a member, received Bronze medals for the 25 meter team small-bore rifle match held on Friday, July 5, and the 50 m team small-bore rifle match held on Wednesday, July 3. At 25 meters, the American team scored 881 to Sweden's 925 and Britain's 917 and at 50 meters the American team scored 744 to Britain's 762 and Sweden's 748. 4 nations competed at 25 meters and 6 at 50 meters. In the 25 meter singles match (any position, disappearing targets, up for 3 seconds down for 5), Sweden came in 1st, 2nd, and 3rd. High US was Hird in 8th place of 36 entrants. The 50 meter team match was prone but this was reported "In Olympic Shooting, Crossman described the results of this match as follows, “The Americans had not trained especially for the 50-meter prone team match, but they had some hopes of winning with their Stevens M414 single-shot, falling-block rifles. They soon found the sights inadequate. The rules specified the prone position for this match, with no artificial support. The officials ruled that the ground was obviously not artificial and that the shooters therefore could rest their rifles on the ground. Strangely, only the Swedish team seemed to know about this, and they took full advantage of the knowledge, resting both the left hand and forearm and the butt of the rifle on the firing line. The English raised quite a fuss about this, but lost and went on to win by shooting ability, 762 to the Swedes’ 748, with the United States four points behind, for a third out of the six teams." Interesting that the matches were held in Stockholm, Sweden;-) The only two of these matches to survive in the next Olympics (1920 - 1916 was, of course, cancelled) were the 50 meter individual and team ones which were now "standing" and the US cleaned house. No mention of their rifles but it appears that all the members of the rifle team were military. With some more research I found this link to a report by a Dutch competitor: (You need to Login or Register to view media files and links);
It is quite interesting and mentions Winchesters.

Didn't anyone ever make a better replacement receiver sight specifically for the 414?

Also, if the bright parts of the earlier 414 really are nickel plated (rather than nicely polished "white"), and if the plating is factory rather than an English "improvement". that's a very rare rifle.
                                                                                                               
Bill Lawrence

That's a nice sight; but it doesn't fit into the original cut-out or use the original mounting screw.  In other words, what I'm looking for is a "drop-in" replacement for the factory sight.

Bill Lawrence

To my knowledge they were never nickel plated. Blued or case hardened depending on date of manufacture.