Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Savage Collectors Small base dies in .308

I'm going to start building loads for my 99F in .308 sometime in the next couple weeks.
I've got Redding FL and neck plus an RCBS small base die.

Has anyone found that smallbase are required in their 99 or just do em up right as if it was a bolt gun?

I'll likely be starting with Winchester brass and about 80 once fired cases from a Ruger 77 bolt gun.

I'm going to start out with 150 grain Sierra's and nice mild loads.

Haven't found that you need to do anything different on a 99 than on a bolt gun. I full length resize everything now, but in the past I've just neck sized and didn't have a problem.

I haven't had experience with this but I have been told that if you only neck size for the 99 you may have problems if it is shot out of different rifles. It apparently isn't a problem if you only are using the rounds in the same rifle that they were originally fired from. I'm sure if this is the case someone else will comment.

Blair

That's great.
I'll trim the cases a little under spec and FL size with the Redding.
I was hoping I didnt have to go the small base route with it.

Proper feeding of a new "baby" always gets me pumped!

Blair, not mixing neck sized rounds is absolutely true of any rifle. I stop neck sizing when I get multiple guns in the same caliber, too much of a pain to keep them separate. And the $30 gunsmith bill to extract a case put into the wrong bolt action gun reinforced that.

Good luck Popgun, I think you're going to like that 99F! Well, except for shooting it off of the bench maybe.

Cant wait to start. I'm likely going to build 4 batches of 10 and start out at 50 yards with open sights.

Minute of angle be damned!
I bought that 99F to have FUN!