Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Savage Collectors A model 99 in 35 Rem

Savage made the model 170 pump in both 30-30 and 35 Rem so they had barrels. Which caliber rotary magazine could have possibly worked if you tried to put one of these 35 Rem barrels on a 99? What other modifications may be needed? Just thinking out loud. Tom

.300 Savage?

Why would you start with a barrel from another model? I used to do it a lot (Usually bolt guns) because I had cheap take-offs laying around, but it is definitely more labor intense and usually more difficult. The 99' takedown models really need a lot of extra machining. The Marlin was a weaker design than the 99' Savage and you can bet if Marlin could have, they would have offered their rifles in .358 Winchester. I suppose if you wanted something different it would be fairly easy to do an older model 99' over to .35 Remington. I never really looked into it, but it might be a good project for a Takedown with a spare barrel. Some of those rotors are really forgiving when it comes to different calibers. I have a .303/7-30 Waters Takedown setup that feeds either barrel flawlessly. I had a .303/.250 Savage that also fed perfectly with either barrel. By God, you almost have me talked into it!

300 Sav or 308 should work fine if you just want something different

While I hate to applaud manufacturers other than Savage I've got to point out that Marlin chambered their rifles for the .356 Win which was essentially the .358 Win with a rim. Marlins are commonly rebored and rechambered for .358 Win and work just fine. The Marlin is without a doubt the second strongest action in the lever world with the Savage M99 being the strongest. While the Savage may be a rear locking action and might give reloaders problems with cases stretching I defy you to tell me that given a catastrophic event the bolt will drive back through as much steel as the M99 Savage has behind the bolt. OK, down off the soap box.

Marlins are not "Commonly rebored to .358 Winchester". Years back I heard this rumor for years and it started with a magazine article. The Gunsmith that did it worked up special loads with cast bullets after he reworked the rifle. Basically, by the time he was done, he had a wildcat. Marlin's official stance is "Don't do it". Over the years I have heard a lot about this conversion, but I never saw one. There really are not enough competent Gunsmiths willing to risk it. There is no way Savage could compete with Marlin when it came to the .35 Remington, so they had to go where Marlin could not. Savage was lucky and was able to introduce higher pressure rounds with almost no manufactoring changes.

I believe Marlin also chambered a few 336s in .250-3000 many
years ago.

What's next, cats and dogs living together?!

Back in the 70's (I believe), Jim Carmichael tested a 336 in 250-3000.
There a picture floating around with him, the rifle and an antelope.
These prototypes featued a spiraled magazine tube a la Remington 14/141.
Believe the chambering gave unacceptable exraction problems (rather than pressure worries) and it went away. I think one of these rifles went through one of the major auction houses recently.

Here's an old thread that discusses the 336 in .250-3000 336

Here's a picture, not a very good one. They used a spiral magazine like Remington did on 14's & 141's, if you look close at the magazine you can see the spiral just in front of the forearm - Marlin 336

added - Spiral Magazine info -
The spiral magazine was not a new idea; Winchester held a patent by William Mason that described three variations. This idea was probably not originally inspired because of pointed bullets but because early primers could be very sensitive � I had read an article many years ago describing the first test by the Army for a repeater in 45-70 and they had a couple magazines blow up from primers being set off, I believe one was in a Marlin 1881. Here is Mason�s design from 1883 and you can see that the cartridges shown look like 45-70�s - US patent 285284, this patent would have expired in 1900 and as far as I know was never used by Winchester.

Remington�s patent by J. D. Pederson was from 1912 but because of the earlier Mason patent I do not think it would have enforceable if someone wanted to use something similar � US patent 1043354

The Steven�s 425 used a straight magazine with the same cartridges as originally used in the Remington 14�s and I have never found any reference to any going off in the magazine but many of them were stamped �SOFT POINT ONLY� which at least shows they were aware of the possibility.

My point was can a 35 Rem barrel off a Sav model 170 be fitted onto say a 300 Sav 99 without having to change the cartridge rotor. What else needs to be done besides head space?

But a Marlin 336 can be chambered in 356 Winchester from the factory, why can't it handle 358 Win?

The 170's were bases on a shotgun action & shared many of the parts with them - I do not think these barrels would even come close to fitting - I think they may even have been the same diameter as a 12 Gauge barrel at the receiver.

Didnt mean to wander off track TomA. It would probably be
easier and cheaper to buy a 35 caliber blank and chamber and
thread it to a 99 reciever. One of the gunheads here has a
35 built on a 99, I believe it was a rebored 99 barrel that he
used. I always thought that a 99T in 35 REM would be awesome!

Have no idea if the barrel threads are the same, but if they are: probably will have headspace issues to deal with / back of the barrel needs extractor cut and guide cut (I don't know what is already cut in the barrel) / barrel under the forearm needs dovetail cut and dovetailed nut installed.

There are differences in OAL between the .356 and .358 Winchester that could cause issues. Might be safe, might not. Marlin rep says don't do it. Marlin struggled to constantly go bigger and heavier, but still never went to the popular .358 Winchester. That should tell you something. I have owned one or two 336's and compared to a 94' Winchester they are wonderful. I just would not feel comfortable with the conversion. A lot of guys converted 03' Springfields to magnums. I would not have one in the shop due to the PROVEN bad reputation they had. If you want to convert to .358 go for it. It is not so much what happens when you fire a gun, it is what happens when you fire a gun that has some kind of unforeseen problem and how it handles the result.

In some of my records a savage 99 s/n 525309 with a 24" barrel was factory built in 35 REM, it doesn't say if its a EG or an R model, It does say it was one of 740 savage R+D rifles sold from the factory in 1988 to Peter Dowd a central Mass. gun dealer. Don

I ain't discussing OAL, that has nothing to do with it. You could load the 358 with blunt bullets, the fact here is that the 356 and 358 operate at the same pressures.

So I will ask again, if a Marlin 336 can come from the factory chambered for a 35 caliber cartridge (356) that operates at 52K CUP, why is a 358 at 52K CUP a problem?

I forgot to mention that they share the same case length too.

A Marlin 336 (ER) came from the factory with a .356. That model is done. Maybe it is exactly the same as an older 336, I don't know. I am not stopping you, go ahead and rework an old one to .358 Win. I am just saying that Marlin says it is not a good idea. I don't think so either. If you have some kind of overload with the 336 I don't think it will handle it too well. If that guy Carmichel had extraction problems rebarreling a 336 to a .250 Savage, that should tell you there are pressure limits on the functioning of the gun. You tell me why marlin never tried it.

I don't know if was the same rifle, but J.R. LaRue had a Savage 99 EG in 35 Rem at his shop in Newington/Portsmouth, NH, that he had purchased from Peter Dowd (Village Gun Shop) when Savage sold the R&D collection. I "heard" that this rifle had been sold to a collector from California, whose last name might be "Brown".