Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Savage Collectors Hello! New Model 99 owner, .250-3000

Gentlemen:

Your forum was suggested to me by a kind soul over on the doublegun site. I've hunted & fished all my life, but this is my first Model 99. I'm more of a bird hunter, really, (and my family's predilection was mostly for Winchesters) so I've mostly used my great-grandpappy' s 1886 (in .33WCF) on deer since I was just a boy in Northwestern Pennsylvania. I've read up a little about Arthur W. Savage and his designs of-late, of-course, but reading only gets you so-far in my experience. Actual conversations with the folks that know and then use these wonderful devices seems to take me much further.

I've just inherited this little number from a sadly, recently-deceased friend. The gun looks to be absolutely unused, and judging from what he paid for it (much-more than I would have anticipated, just a few years ago now) it's a pretty-nice example (he was beginning to accumulate a small collection of very-good American guns). It's being shipped to me as I write this. From his sparse notes on it, it's not the takedown version and not a carbine (it has the 24-inch barrel) but it does have the brass-shell counter and the loaded-chamber indicator. It's strikes me as being fairly light (6 1/2 lbs?) and still only has it's iron sights. Production was listed as being in 1956 (I believe he mentions an EG model in his notes?). I also received several boxes of ammunition (2 antique Remington/Peters boxes & one modern, all full) of the .250-3000 loading (w/100 grain pills, I believe). Still trying to decide just what to do with it. Maybe go chase a muley-doe this Fall with it(?), but... I'm worried that it might just be a little too-nice for that. I have lots of other guns for that job too.

Looking forward to seeing it again and going over it properly.

LM

Welcome! 99s are like Lay's chips - nobody has just 1 for very long.

Welcome aboard. This is the place - any pics or information on the rifle will get the conversation started.

Welcome!

Gentlemen, thank you all! Pictures will follow, hopefully shortly.

Welcome to the campfire, Lloyd!

I used to think that too, until this weekend when I was staying at my moms apartment while she was in the hospital. I had less than one 3 year old Pringles.

So it can happen.

LOL

Pringles is a Kellogg item. You got to get the real thing...and fresher.

Hope your mom is back home and in better health soon.

If it is a 1956 EG it should be factory D&T'd for a scope.

Welcome, more may follow you home!

I hope your mom is OK

From reviewing some more information online, I'm fairly sure this is an EG Model. The number of variants the 99 was available-in has been quite a surprise to me. Another surprise has also been how expensive these guns have become over the years. My memory of them (growing up in the "old country") was that they were commonly available and reasonably affordable. Not so-much anymore it seems. You seldom see this model out here in the wide-open west (& I've been out here for 37-years now). That might help to explain my general ignorance of this particular firearm. Reading up on them has been quite the interesting undertaking. I worked for several years at a nicer gunshop out here and have heard them being discussed, the .22 High-power chambered version comes to mind. Does the general population here still use them or just collect them?

Also, I had my choice of several calibers, but settled on the .250. As a younger man, I'd heard several folks discuss this particular caliber in somewhat hushed-tones, making it seem fairly-exotic to me then. Moreover, I've owned & used several .30 caliber rifles over the years (.30-30, .308, 30-06, .300 Weatherby, etc.) and thought this might be more interesting (& perhaps more pleasant?) to shoot. Now I'm wondering... with the current dearth of ammunition, I'm assuming that if I use it much at all, I'll need to be handloading for it. I haven't looked yet, but are components for the .250-3000 also hard to find at the moment?

Welcome Lloyd ou came to the right place.

Most members here have users and some have wall hangers, some or most have both. The 250 Sav tools and components are available, you need to look harder.

I am in Wyoming, near Pinedale. Not sure where Parker is. Yes I killed a multitude of critters with 99's. I have ones I hunt with and ones that I wouldn't dream of shooting. Like the engraved 1895 that was originally bought by Colorado gold miner Winfield Scott Stratton.
My second book on 99's will be out in November.
They are addicting.

Welcome to the fire, you might get hooked on 99s. the 250 is a great cartridge , fast flat and light on recoil

norm99

250 ammo is usually available, but a bit pricey. Back around the first of the year I was doing a transfer on a rifle at my local shop. He had 3 boxes of Remington 100 grain on the shelf for $39. I bought them all. Just before covid broke out Midway had a sale on 250 for $17 a box, I got 11 of those. I just checked with Graf and Sons and they show the Remington's as out of stock and $50 a box, and Hornady at $42 a box, also out of stock.

One note, you mentioned 100 grain bullets. The 1:14 twist of the pre 1960 barrels are real picky about length. The Remington 100's are right on the bump line for what they will shoot. Of the 5 250's I've had, 3 shoot them well, one excellent. BUT, none of them will shoot the 100 Nosler, they are too long. They will key hole at 50 yards. The most available go to bullet is the 87 grain Speer Hot Core. I think several of the guys have found custom bullets that work well also.

Neither finding .250-3000 factory ammo or starting from scratch handloading for it is particularly appealing right now, and may not be as long as raw materials for ammunition continues to be devoted to high demand stuff - .223 and 9mm/10mm (not to mention the Gooberment hogging up more than their share).

There was a time, long ago in a galaxy far away, when the gov't maintained their own facilities for making their own ammo, soup-to-nuts. Now they bug the commercial makers for all of it, and demand 1st priority. Even their own facilities, what remain, are operated by commercial concerns.

First off, beg, borrow, or steal a box of current generation Remington 100 grain loads and see if it even works in your gun. If it does, make it your life's work, so to speak, to scour all possible sources to lay in an amount that makes you comfy. (For feeding exotic/obsolete calibers I've been known to dance around the internet a lot pestering people in classifieds. You'd be surprised what falls out of the bushes when you shake them.) If the Remington 100's work (and you have about a 60/40 chance it will), all well and good. If it doesn't and you need to rely on the old original recipe the gun/cartridge was built around (a short semi-spitzer 87 grain at 3000fps) then the only game in town is pretty much the 87 grain Speer, and good luck finding any of those bullets - start searching/begging now and don't let up. Lighter/shorter bullets work too, obviously, but you won't like how they behave on game, but fine for targets/varmints. Like Joe said, it's length of bullet that matters, not weight for these slow twist old guns.

I still can't figure out why the Big Ammo Guys quit making the old 87 grain load and only futz with 100's.

As much as devotees of the .250-3000 will deny it, the cartridge isn't exactly top tier in the pecking order and as such takes a pretty low number in the priority game. Such is the fickleness of the buying public and those who serve them. (Personally, since I'm well supplied with .250 stuff, I would much prefer to see them ramp up .32-40 brass production, and while they're at it re-kindle the .25-20 Stevens Single Shot. )

Thanks folks! You have been the wealth of knowledge I'd hoped you would be. My friend was late to the game of guns, but he got into these 99s in a really big way, accumulating several in a fairly short time-frame before his untimely passing. I was forced to choose somewhat-quickly from his assortment (I'd seen most of them several years before, & in theory my name was on one of them) but was drawn to this one because of it's unmolested condition (many of his other examples were scoped & not as handsome to my eye) and, of-course, the caliber. I'm usually a sucker for the older stuff (I'm a big fan of British shotguns) so I'm surprised that I ended up with this relatively-modern (& seemingly very common) unit. Oh well, really hot to get my hands on it now.

Sounds like I need to get a copy of Mr. Royal's book. Has anybody here loaded with the Nosler 85 grain ballistic tip? I see at least one custom ammunition reloader online mentioning them. Probably great as a varmint load but not so much for deer-sized stuff(?). Also, powders are hard to come-up with these days as well. Is there a regular favorite amongst the cognoscenti here?

One way to find out re: those Noslers. May have to knock the plastic tip off to get down to required length, who knows? Powders: any of the medium burners work well - RL-15, 4895, 4064. My personal favorite these days is CFE-223.