Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Savage Collectors Rebore or restore 99F

In the random sampling I've seen of JES rebores (three rifles), the bores were pretty ruff. They shot on the poor side of factory accuracy, and cleaning them was constant, crucial, and tedious, but that was only an issue during load development. I bought all three used, not from JES, so maybe that's why they were less than stellar examples.

Before changing anything, you should invest in a fire lapping kit. IME, you can bring back barrels that look pretty bad to acceptable hunting accuracy. In a 99 308 that's 2" @100 which will kill any big game just fine (remember a 2" group is only 1" off your POA)

I had an Israel 98 in 308 that had a black hole bore.
Fired lapped the pizz out of it, so much that .311 bullets were needed. Slapped a cheap scout scope on it and the nasty old thing held 1.5" for 3 shots @100.
Bore looked far better than any of the current rebore sellers (now that LaBounty does not)

358s in a 99 hurt, 338 is a better balanced cartridge (see current Guns and Ammo)

Good shooting !

All that work to shrink the group 1/2 inch at the cost of not being able to use .308 any more? Seems strange to me.

If 358 bothers you, 338 will bother you equally as bad.

He already has another .308 barrel.

Sell it and use the money to buy an AR!!!!! 😀 Just kidding had JES rebore my 308 to 358 and loved it.

Once it's fouled, does POI stay put? And is the accuracy acceptable? If yes to both, I'd leave it alone. I leave all my bores fouled after sighting in. I clean them after deer season is over.

Dale

Before you replace the barrel or sell the rifle do this faster and less expensive adjustment.

Clean the barrel out vigorously with a compound and shoot it.

Recut its crown yourself. Use a grinding wheel with an angle to it.

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Basically yes - it would take 6 or 8 fouling shots, poi would gradually move down and left, then it would start grouping. Could actually get 3/4 to 1.5 in 100 yd groups depending on ammo. Problem is I got to where I didn't even dare to run a dry patch thru a wet barrel after a day out in the rain or wet snow for fear of shifting poi. I actually used it for 10 or 15 yrs, sighting in in Sep and not cleaning until Dec. One thing you can pretty much be sure of is getting wet during northern zone/western Adirondacks deer season. If I cleaned the barrel, poi shifted. If I took off the forend to wipe out water poi shifted. Cleaning seemed to get harder, pitting probably got worse. Just lost my trust in it.

I leave any rifle I'm hunting with fouled after final sighting-in. But the ones with good bores take minutes to clean, vs days for this 99F. I got to the stage that I'd have to scrub the bore with a copper solvent (think I was using Hoppes Bench Rest at the time), let it sit wet overnight, clean and scrub, sit overnight, repeat for several days to get the bore clean. Got real tired of that.

The thing is, IMO, that if one leaves copper solvents in the bore too long and too often, one may well be incurring unwanted damage from that. Unintended consequences in the form of microscopic etching of the steel which in turn promotes increased copper fouling- a catch-22 situation. I've heard this theorized by knowledgeable folks over the years and lean toward believing it. Not all of my shooting is with cast bullets, and when shooting jacketed stuff I never leave the copper solvent in the bore more than 5-10 minutes then run a series of dry patches, and repeat the cycle as necessary leaving the bore clean and oiled. Sweet's 7.62 Solvent and Barnes solvent are my two poisons of choice for that. Strong stuff, either one.

As for not cleaning a hunting rifle after sight-in for the duration of the hunt, that's my protocol too. Another trick I have been known to do is to clean normally and oil, then before hunting remove the oil and finally wet a patch with acetone or brake cleaner to leave a chemically clean dry bore. I found first shot impact to land right where it's supposed to. The downside to that is risking rust if conditions are damp. Other compatriots of mine scoff at both protocols and clean and oil and then go hunting. They maintain that risking slightly off bullet placement on a deer-size target at 50-100 yards is nothing compared the risk of a rusty bore. These are the same fellas who tell me I overthink this stuff too much. Perhaps they're right!

Finally, if I had a persnickety rifle like the OP's I probably wouldn't futz with it anymore and re-barrel it. I've sold guns for lots less reasons than that too. Life is too short. I certainly wouldn't have endured the gun's shenanigans for 15 years- he's a better man than I for that reason!

Maybe it only felt like 15 yrs. Don't remember actual dates. Think I bought the rifle somewhere in '89-'91, replaced it with the Kimber Montana around 2005. Been sitting in the safe since then.

I've always been a bit leary of using cleaning agents with amonia, which I think is in some copper removing products. On the issue of cleaning, a buddy of mine has been shooting firearms since he was a kid and has never felt compelled to clean all that much. One point in his favor is that it is smokeless and not black powder that we shoot these days.

While my 99E JES rebored bore is not as pretty as factory barrels, it shoots 1.5 MOA consistently after finding several loads that work.

Dyna Tek Bore Coat solved the issue of copper fouling.

I have a stainless 308 barrel (somewhere) that I bought intending to have JES rebore/rechamber to 338 Fed, but Mr. O told me that he had done a couple of 99s in 338 Fed and the owners were reporting high pressure signs with factory ammo, so he recommended against it. I have always thought that Mr. O turning down work spoke highly of him, as only honest people will turn away work/$$.

.308 shoots a 180 grn nice, I imagine you could shoot a 200grn if need be, how far off from a .358 would that be? Just a little bit heavier and a little bit slower? .358 is a .308 case necked up, right?

have been living in the west for 65 years and hunting for 55 of those years. have yet to bump into anything that the 308 can't kill.
i am not in love with the 308 but it is up to the job on anything that walks in the Americas. hype of the mags and super mags has just gotten ou of hand.
and yes i have killed all of the western game with the 308 or lesser cartridges.
that said i would go for a 358 or 338f just for something different.