Home Forums Lever Action Central Lever Actions - General My first Savage 99

Been on a lever action kick as of late and wanted to try a Savage 99 as I never owned one before. This one was made in the 50's and is a 300 Savage. Should be perfect for timber hunting whitetails on our Tennessee property:
http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/ViewItem.aspx?Item=457531776

I know, everyone will most likely said I paid to much but money is time and time is money and life is to damn short to wait.

You did fine. You'll love that rifle.

Nice 99, I think you did just fine on that one. You are going to really enjoy the Savage.

Word of warning though, It probably won't be your last one, Those things are VERY addictive.

I just hope the local whitetail population learns to fear it:)

Any do's or don'ts' as far as reloading goes? I remember my brother owned a .308 back in the 60's and he was having case head separations.

Going to be blunt...

If the forearm numbers match the buttstock/buttplate numbers, you did just peachy for a very nice factory drilled and tapped 99EG. They aren't that common. Though from the shine I think somebody added a coat or three of tung oil or some such.

And whether it's correct or not, I'll bet when you're tired of it in 5 or 10 years that you won't have too much trouble selling it for $600 or more at a local gun show.

Very classy hunting rifle right there.

Always appreciate your wisdom Calhoun. Any idea of the year it was built?

Can't read the serial number fully. Look on the front of the lever above the serial number for an oval stamp with 1 or 2 numbers followed by a letter. A letter H is 1956, I is 1957, J is 1958, K is 1959. If you can't read the stamp, tell me the first 3 digits of the serial number and I can give you a year.

Not bad, but as a lefty that safety will take some getting used to. I've had better luck with the tang-safety models though the rifles aren't as desirable and don't give you too many cartridge options.

Yeah, but you get some good ones, like 284!

I was tracking two post 1960 Savage 99's on Gun broker which sold IMO for ridiculous prices. One was a post 1960 99 Deluxe model in .308 sold for $953.00 and the other std model 99 with a tang safety with a cut stock sold in the mid $650 range. The price of being a lefty.

You can buy the old one's on the fire for far less $$$.

Doc

I'll do that once the rifle arrives.
Thank you

Looks like a good one to me. Some of the photo's make the lever look dark...almost blued, but some show a faint case coloring. Looks really clean and straight.

What is your favorite bullet weight out of the 300 Savage for deer?

The one that the gun likes the most.

I'm a Partition fan, so I'd be thrilled with a 150gr Partition. But my main EG just loves heavy bullets, so taken probably 20 deer with it and 180gr Partitions. Helps that I'm not shooting a long ways, all shots for me will be under 200 yards on my land. I've got others that like the 150gr's better though, so.. go with the gun.

If you're talking timber hunting, any bullet is going to be great.

180gr Partition & a 1945 99EG in 300:

Thanks, was just trying to pick up some pointers if most of these rifles preferred the 150's or 165's. Have a couple thousand of 180 gr Partitions but thought they might be to heavy for this rifle.
For all intents and purposes 99.9% of my shots will be no longer than 60 yards as our land is heavily timbered.

I shoot 130gr Barnes TTSX's in all my 300 Savages.

The 180's aren't a speed demon, you'll probably only hit 2300fps or so.

But they work like the freaking energizer bunny. And every one has been a pass through, never recovered a bullet on 20'ish deer.

Steelie's 130gr TTSX would be fine, but I think it's long for weight build keeps it from getting much more velocity than a factory 150gr. It'd still be deadly and nicer for longer shooting. Keep meaning to pick up some 125gr BT's and see how they work out of a couple 300's seeing they can hit 3000fps.

Partition data:
http://www.nosler.com/nosler-load-data/300-savage/

Another victim of a 180gr Partition:

Your hunting area sounds a lot like mine and most of my shots have been 75 yards or less.

The .300 Savage cartridge is a deer killing beast and I think it would work fine for deer with any decent cup & core bullet and up.

My favorite .300 really likes the Sierra 150 grain RN bullets. I tried them just for the heck of it and was kind of surprised the rifle was so accurate with them.

Works out great for me since I've got 3 boxes of them and they kill deer decisively at the short range I hunt. I'm loading them with 4064 powder iirc.

I've got a beat up ol' 99R that doesn't care much for 150 grainers but it loves 180 grain bullets. I was given a box of Nosler 165 gr. BT's I'm going to try in it and see how that goes.

I was just on Cabela's web sight and they have Hornady Interlock bullets on sale so I picked up a couple of boxes to try out in the .300.
Who knows, They could possibly be the new favorite.

I am losing faith with Hornadys. Last month shot a small whitetail buck at about 40 yards away. It was facing me and knew I had spotted it, so it was a front chest shot or nothing. Took the shot and the deer was DRT. Was shooting my 338 RCM and 225 grain Interlocks and they just basically came apart and the biggest piece was about 40 grains. Farthest any piece penetrated was about 18 inches.
Yes, the deer died but I was pretty disappointed in the performance of the bullet.