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.

Randy, Interlocks or factory SST?

Kirk, Interlocks, #3320. Might add no bones were hit and starting velocity was only about 2,500 fps

Ouch, I was figuring you'd nailed ribs/sternum or something. That's not good, though the deer did die.

I hope that was a bad batch or something. I've always heard good things about Interlocks until now but have never tried them.

Same here, always heard good stuff about Interlocks. And my thoughts were with the lower velocity of the 338 RCM compared to the 338 WM the expansion would be adequate and I would get complete pass throughs.
Bullet literally exploded and didn't hit any trees on the way to the deer. Velocity was low enough the only meat loss was in a few ribs where some fragments hit.

Next trip with this rifle she will be stuffed with 225 grain Partitions:)

Now back to deciding which size Partition to use in the 99:)

What? Are you slinging 150's at 3000fps?

What does length have to do with velocity?

Your eyes are playing tricks with you Steelhead. He stated 3,000 fps with 125's

Dang that girl is clean!

Short neck, short case, long bullet pushes into the case reducing the space for powder. So smaller powder selection that will hit max pressure without serious powder compression. Same problem the 180gr Partition has.

You've measured 3000fps on a chrony using a TTSX with sane loads? What's the specifics, wouldn't of thought it would break 2900. Makes it interesting since most loads for even shorter 130gr lead bullets top out just over 3000fps in the books.

Sweet Jesus, how can so many people that have no reading comprehension find one site.

I'm pushing 130's at 3k, Rory said he doubted they would go much faster than 150's because of length (still head scratching that one).

I then asked if he is pushing 150's at 3K to prove a point.

Savvy?

No, I'm just guessing, like you are.

Do you have any 130's? How is their length compared to 150's? How is pressure in TTSX's compared to other bullets?

44.5 grs of H4895

It's a real art form:)
Hked un fonics dednit seem 2 wrk fr me.

This thread has some good load information.

.300 Savage loads

I have three Savage 99's, a .22 Savage HiPower, a .300 Savage, and a .250-3000. Until two weeks ago I had never shot the .250, althought I have had it for several years. Both the other rifles have accounted for deer.

When I went to sight in the .250, I discovered that it had a very long, creepy trigger pull. I was able to handle this on the bench rest and shot some creditable groups, but yesterday, in the field, I missed what should have been a fairly easy shot at a deer because of the trigger.

Can anyone recommend someone in my area (West Tennessee) who can correct the trigger problem?

i've been hunting a 99eg in 300sav for alot of years i love the gun. it shares time with my marlin 444 which is another slayer but i'm a pick the rifle on the way out the door guy.

Okay.. going off on tangent here.

I don't have any 130's, at least not Barnes. Their specs for it shows the 130's to be 1.173" long, Nosler Partition 150gr bullets are 1.1" long. So it's a bit more than 1/16" longer than the 150gr Partition.

I don't own a Barnes manual and I can't find any load data for the 130gr TTSX online for 300 Savage. So I don't know what they are publishing in their manual.. but looking at the slightly shorter 130gr XBT for the 300 Savage that they do have data for online, it maxes out at 2945 on 44gr of H4895. So at 44.5 you may be over loading the cartridge(?), but if it's velocity is similar to the XBT then you should only be getting 2975'ish according to the book. And I've never seen a 99 that matched published velocities, so I'd guess 2900-2925 fps in reality just off the cuff.

So.. by the "book" data I can find, you are breaking 2900fps but shy of 3000fps. In reality, you might be getting 2850 to 2900, chrony is the only way to tell. The 150's can be pushed to just about 2800, though I won't do it in my 99's. 2700 for sure. So 100fps-150fps difference.

BUT...

The Partition will expand best at 1800fps and above (according to Nosler), and a 150gr fired at 2700fps will drop to that speed at 430 yards. At 400 yards the 150gr Partion drops 34".

The TTSX's will expand best at 2000fps and above (according to Barnes), and a 130gr Barnes TTSX fired at 2950fps will drop to that speed at 375 yards. At 400 yards the Barnes 130gr TTSX drops 29".

So according to the manufacturers guidelines... the 150gr Partition is actually a better long range bullet than the 130gr TTSX.

So with a 6% or so better velocity but a shorter kill zone (according to mfr's recommendations), I stick with my take that the 130gr Barnes is at best a marginally better round than the 150gr Partition.

Either one is gonna kill extremely well at the ranges that 95% of deer are shot at. Is 150fps a huge difference in a bullet velocity? That's up to the shooter to decide. I don't think so because I've never been hung up on the 3000 number (outside of the 250-3000 cartridge).

But the best part of handloading is going with the load YOU like. I like Partitions. I can't see a thing wrong with Scott using the 130gr TTSX. Both are going to work really well out past 350 yards.

Okay, thread hijack over.

Shall I make Steelie and Calhoun throw their hands up in despair by touting cast bullets at 2000fps in the .300?

Look into "Reduced H4895 Loads" using H4895.

I enjoy Scott's posts, often make me dig and learn something. I'm not always convinced by it (think there might be a velocity versus energy debate in the hunting world?), but it's usually interesting.

Serial # is 727049. Any idea what year it was built?
It does look like someone applied a couple of coats of Truoil but other than that the condition is really nice.

That serial number makes it a definite 1954 rifle.