diff --git a/wrapper/xgboost.py b/wrapper/xgboost.py
index 8ef82b2c7..48fa02b76 100644
--- a/wrapper/xgboost.py
+++ b/wrapper/xgboost.py
@@ -15,6 +15,7 @@ import re
 import ctypes
 import platform
 import collections
+from io import BytesIO
 
 import numpy as np
 import scipy.sparse
@@ -70,6 +71,8 @@ def load_xglib():
     lib.XGBoosterPredict.restype = ctypes.POINTER(ctypes.c_float)
     lib.XGBoosterEvalOneIter.restype = ctypes.c_char_p
     lib.XGBoosterDumpModel.restype = ctypes.POINTER(ctypes.c_char_p)
+    lib.XGBoosterGetModelRaw.restype = ctypes.POINTER(ctypes.c_char)
+    lib.XGBoosterLoadModelFromBuffer.restype = ctypes.c_void_p
 
     return lib
 
@@ -467,10 +470,19 @@ class Booster(object):
 
         Parameters
         ----------
-        fname : string
-            Output file name.
+        fname : string or file handle
+            Output file name or handle. If a handle is given must be a BytesIO
+            object or a file opened for writing in binary format.
         """
-        xglib.XGBoosterSaveModel(self.handle, c_str(fname))
+        if isinstance(fname, string_types):  # assume file name
+            xglib.XGBoosterSaveModel(self.handle, c_str(fname))
+        else:
+            length = ctypes.c_ulong()
+            cptr = xglib.XGBoosterGetModelRaw(self.handle,
+                                              ctypes.byref(length))
+            address = ctypes.addressof(cptr.contents)
+            buf = (ctypes.c_char * length.value).from_address(address)
+            fname.write(buf)
 
     def load_model(self, fname):
         """
@@ -478,10 +490,16 @@ class Booster(object):
 
         Parameters
         ----------
-        fname : string
-            Input file name.
+        fname : string of file handle
+            Input file name or file handle object.
         """
-        xglib.XGBoosterLoadModel(self.handle, c_str(fname))
+        if isinstance(fname, string_types):  # assume file name
+            xglib.XGBoosterLoadModel(self.handle, c_str(fname))
+        else:
+            buf = fname.getbuffer()
+            length = ctypes.c_ulong(buf.nbytes)
+            ptr = ctypes.byref(ctypes.c_void_p.from_buffer(buf))
+            xglib.XGBoosterLoadModelFromBuffer(self.handle, ptr, length)
 
     def dump_model(self, fo, fmap='', with_stats=False):
         """
@@ -839,6 +857,23 @@ class XGBModel(XGBModelBase):
 
         self._Booster = Booster()
 
+    def __getstate__(self):
+        # can't pickle ctypes pointers so put _Booster in a BytesIO obj
+
+        this = self.__dict__.copy()  # don't modify in place
+
+        tmp = BytesIO()
+        this["_Booster"].save_model(tmp)
+        tmp.seek(0)
+        this["_Booster"] = tmp
+
+        return this
+
+    def __setstate__(self, state):
+        booster = state["_Booster"]
+        state["_Booster"] = Booster(model_file=booster)
+        self.__dict__.update(state)
+
     def get_xgb_params(self):
         xgb_params = self.get_params()