Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Savage Collectors My grandfathers 99

Guys,
I recently received my "Callahan Letter" for my grandfathers 99. It was manufactured in 1912, and it burned up in my parents house fire in 1985. Lucky I was that I was able to send it to Savage in 1986, and they refurbished it.

After reading the Callahan Letter, it stated that the gun came with a "20" lightweight rapid taper barrel". Unfortunately, Savage fitted it with a 24" barrel when they did the re-furb in 1986, because that is all they had, and it has little taper to it. The gun that was once a sweet little lightweight gun, is now rather heavy in comparison.

This letter has given me a desire to put the gun back like it was.

My point is, does anybody have a "20" lightweight rapid taper barrel" in .303 for sale?

One more note to add difficulty here. I remember them telling me that the gun was a take-down, but the barrel that they needed to put on it to send it back to me, was not a TD barrel. The forearm is set up for solid-frame. How would they do that? Did they simply force similar threads that were not TD threads into the old receiver?

Thoughts, input and possibly somebody to sell me a barrel are much appreciated.

Bob

Interesting story and situation.
I think it is amazing that Savage would even attempt to refurbish an early TD rifle in 1986. But since they did, I'd be inclined to leave it alone. Savage likely did some tweaking of the barrel and forearm to make it fit and safe for use.
It may be possible to reverse the process, but, you'd need a barrel that fits (may not index properly), a compatible TD forearm, a skilled person to pull it together, but it will never be Gramp's original rifle anyway.
Sounds like Grampa's rifle was a 1899H TD. The letter would have stated that I think. ??
If you really want a rifle like Gramp's, go buy one. They are out there.
In the end, it is your rifle to do with as you please. Just don't screw it up.
Good luck.

Geeze, that's a hard one. Since Savage rebuilt it, I think I'd leave it as is, it is all Savage. Does the letter state that it was rebuilt? That would mean you would have to leave it as is. If you are taking count, I vote to leave it as is, Joe.

I wasn't aware Savage offered this service.

See letter below for repairs Savage offered.

Wow, fires can be tough on guns. Did it need to be reblued?

It was a nasty looking piece of burnt metal, with charred wood bits on it. Burned up completely. My Callahan Letter shows the early work only with mfg in 1912 and my grandfathers work done again in 1930. Callahan said that when I had the gun re-made in 1986, at that time they only kept records for 3 years, after which time they were destroyed.

This gun was originally an 1899 H Featherweight.

I have purchased the identical gun that this gun in question used to be, and it is beautiful. Your advice to leave it as is may be best, as it is beautiful now, just a completely different gun. They even put the last 75th Anniv butt-stock on it, as they called me and asked me if I wanted this. They felt it was a special deal and it was supposedly the last one that they had. At the time I thought it was cool, but now after learning things here, I realize it is now a bit of a Frankenstein.

This was all handled through the "Service Dept" at the time.

Looks great though, and works great, just a bit heavy compared to the nice "sporter" that it once was.

Thanks for your input.

It might be a Frankenstein, but it's not a Bubbastein, it's still all Savage.

It's a Savage customized 99.. I'd have to go with leaving it as is. By the time you got done putting it back to "original", the only original piece would be the action. I'd display the older one you have and this one side by side with a writeup on the history.

call it a survivor. keep all the documents you have and leave it as it is. that is the gun's real history.nothing worse then a fake IMO

plab

Good advice from all of you.
Thanks so much for your input.

My grandfather was an amazing man, all from the old school.
He called them like he saw them, and loved his .303 Savage.
He passed in 1980, and I miss him still.

Bob

Do they still offer this type of work?

I seriously doubt the Savage Arms of today would even touch a Savage 99.

Nope.

1899 Guy, I never heard of that, but the weird thing is, I was just bidding on an older 99 T/D and that is what the seller was saying may have happened because it will not break down. It is drilled and tapped, so I just figured somebody ran a scope base screw too deep. I doubt it is a case like yours because it still has a T/D forearm. It may be really screwed up and silver soldered or welded on to correct a loose barrel. I took a chance and it is on the way. Guess I will find out.

I bet they had a barrel for yours laying around with no threads on yet. The pitch is not the same on the square threads and "V" threads. There is not really enough material on either one to change it by threading over the top of one. Another of those mysteries we will probably never know about.

Is it possible to force a solid-frame barrel into a receiver with the slightly-different, non-interrupted, TD threads, and have it lock up tight, solid, functional? Is this likely what they did? It would explain them saying that it would no longer be a TD. Also, they returned it with a solid frame forearm, so it does not even look TD.

Yes, you can put a solid frame barrel onto a takedown receiver, and vice-versa.

Calhoun, will this make it a very tight fit and something that I should not un-do, or are the threads the same?
Thanks for your input.
Bob

Threads are the same, but it's a tight solid frame fit and isn't going to simply unscrew. It'll be like removing a solid frame barrel.

Threads exactly the same. If it doesn't come undone via hand pressure (ie: if you need to apply heavy clamping and leverage to move it), I would leave well enough alone and go forth with it and have fun. One of my 1899H's barrel is so tight in the receiver that I shrugged my shoulders and just treat it as a solid frame.