Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Savage Collectors 99 Takedown Accuracy issues

I have a late 20's 99 Takedown in 300 Savage that I bought with most bluing worn, cracked stock and chipped forearm. It was also tapped and drilled by someone without the proper spacing between the mounts. The front two scope mount holes are spot on with the rear holes being off to the back and to the right a bit.

I used a Williams quick Convertible scope mount with lines up with the upper tang hole with some tweaking to the scope mount. It is mounted solid and the rings have been properly lapped. Scope is a Nikon 1x4.

I bought a NOS takedown barrel for it which headspaces perfect as does the original barrel which does not have sharp lands and is worn at the muzzle.

The old barrel will shoot a random 6 inch group sometimes a couple of shots will be within an inch of each other at 100 yards. The new barrel I shot in today shoots all over the place in about a 8" group.

Both barrels lock up tight with zero slop.

Ammo used was Remington with 150 grain bullets.

My goal with the new barrel was to get this down to around 3" at 100 yards.

Next step is to install the lyman tang sight I have and see what that does.

In the meantime, anything I am missing or any tricks to these takedowns to improve accuracy? Not think handloading is going to improve this situation.

If it was a solid frame, the first suggestion is to remove the forearm and see how it shoots. The forearm can put pressure on the barrel and will impact accuracy. I've never tried it with a takedown and don't know if that's an advisable action or not?

I'd sure try another scope.

Good ol' green box ammo usually does pretty well in the 99 but I'd try something else as well.

No reason you can't remove the forearm on a takedown to shoot it. Be worth a try. As is trying a different scope.

I've had a couple of bad shooters, but 6"-8" groups are among the worst I've ever seen. You shouldn't get that from 2 different barrels.. unless your luck is really bad.

I'd be suspicious of the scope mounting. Get your tang sight or a receiver sight mounted and try it without the scope.

I wouldn't try it without the forend in place. Remember, the forend is key to keeping the barrel locked in place. Unless the barrel is tight as sin in the receiver (and as such not by definition a takedown any longer) it'll vibrate around and give erratic results, IMO.

My first thought was a hinky scope setup.

No offense directed at the OP, but in instances like this, why do we automatically assume every shooter has the ability/techniques to wring the utmost accuracy out of a rifle? There are guys out there who can't hit a bull in the ass with a scoop shovel even when shooting a superbly accurate rifle- and broadcast pleas for help with their rifle. We start guessing at all manner of mechanical faults when 7 times out of 10 it's the shooter. Again, no aspersions toward the OP- I don't know him from Adam. It's just an observation I've made over years of watching this stuff on the internet.

Once that bolt is forward and locked in place, that barrel had better not be relying on the forearm to keep the barrel in place and the chamber sealed.

With the bolt open, yeah, the barrel "might" vibrate around a bit. With the bolt closed, the gun should be the same as a solid frame as far as safety.

I agree - should be - but I have reservations in trying it.

I have strong reservations regarding that too. Try it on your own gun. With the forend removed, see if you can wiggle the barrel back and forth. It doesn't take much- just a few thousandths of rotation- to make for looseness such that will play hob with accuracy via unwanted vibrations upon discharge. I wouldn't trust the fit of the bolt guide into the recess at the top of the barrel, or the extractor in its barrel mortise to provide firm lockup. That only comes from the key in the forend iron and the takedown latch firmly seated in its lug. (And all too often that isn't up to snuff anyway.)

That beauty with the dead elk that shows up in all my posts shot 8" groups when I got it. A very old gunsmith (in the 1990's) chased the barrel threads and put it back together as a solid frame. It now shoots 1 to 1 1/2" groups. You may try this if nothing else works unless you have a burning desire to keep it as a takedown. David

For older 99 shooters, accuracy loss on take-downs was a known thing going back decades. When you have your front and rear sight mounted on the barrel accuracy was not much of a problem. Problems started to show up when the sighting systems were taken off the barrel on take-downs and mounted on the receiver as with a scope. This enhanced a bit of looseness between the barrel and receiver that showed up as accuracy loss. It was a common thing when scopes got popular for owners to send their takedowns back to the factory to be converted to solid frame. JTC

Boy those pre-mil guns sure seem to have a lot of problems.

Thanks, JTC. That explains some oddballs I've seen over the years. Do you know what exactly they did to turn it into a solid frame? I presume a bad soldering job like I've seen a couple times wasn't factory.

Several of my TD's don't come apart especially the pre-1920 guns with the interrupted threads. Roy, we know you're joking we all love our pre-mil guns. But nothing's perfect not even Donald Trump. David