I briefly owned a 99EG in .300, after selling it deciding to look for a 99R, and now have something to shoot those bullets I bought on the first go-round.

The Savage wears a 580,000 S/N with wood and steel buttplate matching, but those items also have KG stamped in them with a 5 stamped into the forearm wood as well. The boss code looks to be 24B, weakly stamped where it rolls off on the right side. Sling swivel studs (it came with a sling attached, both wood and leather smelling of pipe smoke--or maybe Skoal, it came from West Virginia) look factory based on pictures I've seen of others, and while the rear sight is missing there is a 1-piece Redfield base with flip-up peep sight at the rear. Mounted in some Redfield rings is a Redfield widefield scope, 3x9 with a tv-screen shaped rear and round front lens set. Looks like something from an eastern deer camp and I love it! Pretty well oil soaked wood, the forearm is undergoing lacquer thinner treatment to get it to where the buttstock now resides, waiting for finish.

The question is, what is the proper rear tang sight for a rifle like this? Would a Lyman be proper or were they Redfields at the rifle's point in time, or....??

Kirk

The 99R's didn't have a factory peep sight. The 99RS came with a Redfield 70LH. But for shooting purposes, any peep sight that you like is fine. The 99R was factory d&t for scopes though, sounds like yours is set up and ready to go that way. Might want to shoot it with the scope before you pull everything off.

All of my dads rifles in the safe smell of Skoal and Jack Daniels, adds class sir

Boy, Kirk, your description tells a story! I'd leave it as is! I love that rifle without even seeing it.....

Never any doubt it will get shot as-is before doing anything. I scope everything I can to help cut down on shooting errors when working up reloads or checking out factory stuff. How many people do you know who bought a Buehler mount for their 4" Colt Diamondback to check out a variety of .22s? It's just about a disease.

Much as I'll buy ammo for a gun I don't even own yet, I plan on getting a tang sight either way and want to shop for what would be correct. My Marlin 1984 wears a Williams FP, the 9422 a Marbles tang sight, I know any of them would work on the 99. Outside of a letter, is there a way to determine if a 99 was originally an R vs. an RS?

I don't know about class, billy336, but I'll at least go for "atmosphere". My grandfather owned a 99 but I don't know which model--he gave it away to a business friend when he bought a .30-06--but I remember seeing it in the gun cabinet. His dip was variously Skoal or Copenhagen, up to his 90th birthday, but the drink was brandy or vodka. Somewhere in there he went wrong, I guess, but the vodka fits in with being Ukrainian. Refinishing the stock will kill that wintergreen smell, but the sling should retain enough for surreptitious sniffing when on stand. I think it fits the gun just fine.

Metal cleaned right up, the lever would drag a bit when opening and initiating bolt movement. There was a lot of buildup packed in at and below the bolt's frame cutout, but it scraped out with plastic tools. Much smoother now, like the prior EG. Also found that KG stamp on the side of the tang metal, was that a way to keep track of parts as they were being worked, or a worker's stamp?

All of my factory stuff is 150gr; Federal, Remington and Winchester current production plus some older Winchester Open Point Expanding rounds I picked up from an estate. For reloading I bought 125gr Sierra spitzers from the factory's outlet of seconds plus a friend just got into reloading and traded me into 500 Speer 150gr Grand Slams. Hoping the rifle likes them.

Even a letter won't show that for a 50's gun whether it was an R or an RS. Don't think it was recorded in the ledger anywhere. There were very, very few 50's RS's sold compared to R's.

What would be vintage would be any of the Redfield receiver sights or Lyman receiver sights. Don't think the tang sights were still being sold in the 50's (such as the Lyman 1A or 29 1/2 or Marbles Flexible). Since it was factory d&t, you could pick up a new Williams FP also.

And, yes, the KG stamp on the metal and stocks were to keep them together - everything was hand fit and wouldn't necessarily fit another rifle.

Hey Rory, where did you get that information? I never seen confirmation one way or the other from JTC on whether RS where actually recorded post war. Also, never heard that RS did not sell well in the 50s? It certainly seems likely as there was not much difference in my opinion... you were getting a tang sight but no rear sight for the extra $$$... on a gun that was drilled for a scope... seems odd that too many would pay for the RS but never seen anything that actually showed the sales amounts.

Thanks

If it 'twas mine and I wanted a receiver sight I'd go with the Lyman 57SA. As Rory said, the factory letter from John won't tell you much during that era. The Lyman 57SA is as good as any and better than most if you like irons. In my experience the discontinued Winchester 150 grain Silvertips are simply explosive and well worth buying when you can find them. Not the most accurate as the average for all my rifles is about 2" at a hundred but that's well under minute of deer. Good to know that it smells right too.

Drew, the letters I've seen from the 50's usually state something like "with the information you've provided it's a model X". I may be wrong on that, but I think there was a lot less info written down. And as to RS's versus R's - just going off of what I've seen and the same logic as you state. Why pay more for a tang sight when the scopes were becoming so popular? There's a LOT of R's out there that have never had a scope mounted, but very few that are set up like an RS - and even fewer that look like they were set up that way originally.

I got ya... I specifically asked JTC in a letter request if the post war records showed any RSs being sold specifically and he did not respond. Not sure if he was just to busy to bother or if he just did not want to have to way that the post war records do not indicate model?? He has answered other simple questions usually on a post it note attached to the letter. I do recall him also saying in a letter for a post war that he is referencing the "sales logs" or something like that and implied it was very simple information.

As a point of clarity, I don't generally ask for much information like this, and when I do, its very generic information as I understand that JTC sees the records as a proprietary source of income.

again, some very good info discussed here.

Here's a shot of the metal after the de-crud, the "KG" stamp is below the bolt stop and reads sort of northwest to southeast with a mark in between reflecting glare. The flip-up peep is visible as well.

I still haven't fired the 99, but was curious to see how the counter rolled and stuffed in 5 rounds. The numbers showed up for 1 and for 0, but at 2, 3, and 4 they were outside of the window. The spring doesn't feel particularly strong, but it does seem to push the rounds right up against the bottom of the bolt. To check each position, I'd partially cycle a round then remove it, press the cartridges down for the bolt to clear and close it on an empty chamber. Seems the spring's strong enough, with no hitches, but the numbers don't show.

The rotor has some crud on it, I wiped the numbers as they rolled up with a q-tip, but have not removed the rotor itself for a full cleaning. Looks like it might take a dozen hands to re-install.

Kirk

The cartridge counter window is a "cool feature", but I can't say that I've ever looked at it except once when actually hunting. And I'd have been fine even that one time..

Gun's looking good.

There's been a couple of November mornings when I've used it to count misses.

Rod

Yeah, the only time my EG's ever missed. Was in a bad mood and didn't take along extra shells (hey, the gun had taken 21 deer with 21 shots over the last 6 years!), but starting with 6 loaded ended up with one left in the chamber and 2 deer in the truck after 2 misses and 1 bad shot. About the time I was down to 2 I did flip the gun to look at the cartridge counter window to make sure it said 1 rather than 0.

Hard to imagine that 99 missing!!

It's probably a whole other thread, but what bullets are you guys shooting at deer in your .300Sav 99's? I think I'd most like to try out the Federals, I've never shot a deer with any of their rounds.

I've put this rifle up for sale in the classifieds. A good rifle, shoots well (for me) but the safe has gotten crowded!

I'd go for a Lyman 57, or a Redfield 70 or 80. All are period correct for your rifle. Williams makes a good sight, it just doesn't get the same respect as the others. Don't forget, with a factory drilled rifle, a scope would be the period correct sight. Get a good Weaver or Lyman 4-power. Or a Unertl Hawk if you want something a little more exotic.