Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Savage Collectors Neck Sizing on a 99

I would like to find out if anyone neck sizes their brass for use on a 99 & if it is safe to do so? I read somewhere that you should only full length resize for lever actions. I am trying to extend case life for my 22HP, 250 & 300 as brass is in very short supply (& expensive) here in South Africa.

So long as it chambers, and of course ultimately extracts, no problem.

If you are loading for just one rifle it is best to resize to match that chamber. I go for just a slight bump on the shoulder instead of doing a full length resize. The rounds will chamber nicely and you don't overwork the brass.

I regularly neck size the 22HP but have found it dosen't help a lot with full power loads. The HP just seems to be hard on brass no matter what. But the ability to make cases from 25-35 or 30-30 brass takes some of the sting out. Suspect those two aren't as easy and cheap to come by in your area as they are here. As far as the 250 and 300 your rifle and loads will dictate how many if any neck size only loads you can get before needing to set the shoulder back. I use a partial full length re-size on those two by adjusting my full length die to just set the shoulder back about .002 and get reasonable case life.

Neck sizing and lever action issues has to do with tube fed lever actions like the Winchester or Marlin. Never had any trouble with the Savage 99's, though I don't do it much any more.

I full-length resize all my .300 Savage brass for my 1953 Model 99 (EG). I've reloaded most of my .300 Savage brass (except my hunting loads brass) as much as either 8 times or 9 times so far and haven't had a case failure yet.

Most of these cases have had maximum or close to maximum loads put through them. This required case trimming after each and every firing, but... I've had no case failures yet.


Strength & Honor...

Ron T.

I neck size 250 brass for my 99, it extracts very easily due to the nice tapered case. I haven't tried neck size on the 300, but like RonT, I'm getting no brass flow/case lengthening after four reloads.

A very good question, and having loaded for the .250 since 1972, I did experiment with "neck sizing only" (quotations, because I've never owned a neck sizer for the cartridge, just backed the FL die out, which is not true neck sizing).

Extraction (as JeffG refers to, and I agree with) has never been a problem. The sticky wicket is in the chambering itself:

We like the levers (99's particularly), because they are fast to reload for the next shot. We like them because they're "slick".

With "neck-sized brass" (or more accurately, partially sized brass), the lever simply will not close as "slick and fast" as it will on a case that has been full-length sized. It requires concious effort. Concious effort to chamber a round is not why we like the 99. Concious effort is the taskmaster that bolt gun guys slave under.

Yes, partially sizing brass will extend brass life in the 99, that among all we like about it, has a tendency to allow some "springiness" in the lockup which can result (especially with repeated high-end loads)in the dreaded "bright ring of death" just ahead of the case web. The trade-off for extended case life is relinquishing our beloved "slick, fast, no concious effort" to chamber the next round.

I loaned my .250 to a buddy whose gun had failed him on a hunt. I did not counsel him about my partially sized brass. Though familiar with 99's, after shooting at a deer, he (subconciously, with no effort) flicked the lever, and flicking was not sufficient to close the bolt. He waved me over, believing he had a weapon malfunction for the second time during this hunt. I showed him that he merely needed to add just a bit of gripping effort to complete the cycle, and he had no trouble after that.

If you are trimming every time, that brass is coming from somewhere, like the head area. Look at the information in your loading book about head separation. I tried it once, and don't want ever to do so again -- no damage, except to my pride.

A lot of Savage 99.s have large chambers. To get the best case life I fire form, then size the case to the chamber.

Rounds for targets and plinking I'll neck size only, hunting rounds I use new unfired brass and reload with same recipe. It sucks to have the gun not fire when your aiming at game 'cause the lever ain't all the way up. I keep 50 rounds loaded for each caliber, .22HP, .250-3000, .303, and .300 Savage for target shooting and 20 for each in new brass for hunting. Once the hunting round is fired, off to the target brass bin it goes.

Hi, not really a reloading expert. So can i shoot a few boxes of core-lokts, fire-forming the cases, then use a lee case trimmer and trim to length, or am i missing a critical step?

You will still need to run the cases through the resizing die. Case length trimming and resizing are 2 separate and distinct operations. I resize and then trim. You don't have to trim every time and should only do it when the case gets too long.

If you are loading for just one rifle then keep the resizing to just a small setback of the shoulder and you should have a great fit.

G'luck!

I use the Lee collet neck sizing die for .250 cases I run through my 110LWE. For the 99, which has a larger chamber, partial sizing with a full-length die is better--just enough so that it will chamber in the 110 if I grab the wrong box.

Most of the early chambers are pretty liberal, probably due to the cases being rimmed. I would not neck size the .243, .308, 7mm-08 or any of the higher pressure rounds just because of quick reloading issues. Some brass that was loaded fairly hot won't even lock up with out a fight.

I have to use a small base sizing die with my .308 or they won't chamber.