Hello Fellow Gun lovers! I managed to find a nice Savage 99 in 30-30 Winchester at a local gun show. The rifle appears to be in very good condition for being around 78 years old!


I added a nice Machined Leupold scope base, so I dont have to drill and tap the reciever for the Weaver bases.
The bore seems almost new!


Hope you like the pictures:
















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This rifle has a hinged butt plate that appears to give some storage room (for a cleaning rod maybe)? I have never seen a savage 99 option like this.

I will have to wait till I get back home from work in a couple of weeks to post more pictures of the removed butt plate and fore stock, to confirm if they match the action's serial number.
Who could help me obtain more history on this rifle?

I would love to learn more about my 99's history! This will be a fun gun to shoot jacketed and cast bullets!

Where did you get that scope mount? Looks kinda familiar

Welcome to the Campfire Darcy. Always good to see another Canadian.

Nice find that 30-30. If you are really interested you can get your rifle lettered- the information is posted in a thread above marked Misc Info.

I'm curious, how'd you come upon the idea for that scope mount? [Lightfoot has faster feet and fingers]

LOL! Thank you for the greetings!

I managed to get the mount at another vendors display at the show. He sure seemed knowledgeable about the 99's! It was simply good fortune, twice, in one day!

I "believe" He mentioned Lightfoots name. I am soooo bad with names! LOL!

The mount is a Very well made/finished product I have to say!

I got a chance to shoot a couple groups the other day. It took me 3 rounds to get the rifle Vectored on paper at 25, then Printed this 3 shot group at 100 yards:



I managed to shoot a 1", and 1.25" group with the other load tests. Looks very promising!

I applied a nice coat of boiled linseed oil to the stocks, and hand rubbed it in. I Got the stock good and warm from the friction and the oil nicely absorbed into the wood. The grain just popped out! They are such a nicely figured rifle!

This is the old girl with an Bushnell 3-9x40 Scopechief from the mid eighties. I will eventually get a 2-7 range scope after load development.

welcome to the fire Darcy,glad its working for you nice groop.

the trap door is not original to the gun but aftermarket ,ser no is wrong on butt and plate ,and the butt plate has been trimmed down a little to fit the butt stock , I had checked that all out when i first saw the gun fri night and sat morning .

big thing is you got a great shooter , good scope setup and a great attitude. enjoy the gun and when you want to buy another call me

norm

Thankyou Norm! I will definitely keep your number handy! Thanks for the insight and information!

I can hardly wait to try some more test loads! I have a bunch of loads waiting for me to get home! Lots to look forward too!

Checkered 99EG's in 30-30 aren't common. Should be a great hunting rifle, definitely a great choice of scope mount.

Welcome to the Campfire!

Welcome to Savage-land!

...and another one swallows the hook.

Dave

Very cool. Congrats on the find.

Someone put a lot of work into modifying that buttplate.

I'm guessing this is the same one you were asking me about huh Norm? How many trapdoor 99's are out there.

I'd suggest keeping some hundred dollar bills rolled up in that buttplate for the chance to buy your next 99.

I would like to talk more about that buttplate. What do we really know about them? I have one on a high end special order gun. Wondering if anyone has ever seen one called out on a letter. Workmanship on the one I have is excellent. I believe there is a work order number but no specific reference to the buttplate. I will try to look up the letter today to confirm.

Does anyone know the twist rate of the savage 99EG 30-30 barrels?
I am guessing around 1:12".

In the 1899's it was 1:10".



Not sure they ever would have changed it, but maybe best to check your rifle.

[video:youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=cdoCNZBlRGQ[/video]

This is very interesting! Someone must have invested some hard earned money back then! Options like this seem frivilous for that time period. I feel lucky to have the chance to continue using a well cared for piece of firearm history!

one of the machinist here will tell you how it can be cut so precise,[plasma, lazer??] ,it was nicely done and as you can see fits snug, spring is inletted into the stock with a metal sleeve touching a tab on the top inside of the door, guy selling it said there was a few rounds of ammo inside.

norm

WOW!

It wouldn't be that hard, just laborious. It would involve milling the oval hole and filing the hinge cutout and then cutting the door out of a sacrificial butt plate with the same striation pattern. The real work comes in when engineering and fabbing the hinge and spring system.

But the real problem would be milling the lip into which the door lands when closed, due to the curvature of the surface. I suppose a better machinist than me (LBK?) could see a simple solution to that problem. (It is what deterred me from making a hinged butt trap in a Niedner-style plate after a buddy gifted me a beautiful cast lid for the project.)

Looking at the less than perfect pic of this butt trap, the workmanship of the hinge system doesn't look like Savage factory quality (especially since it wasn't a production item and would have been done in the tool/experimental shop), but the lid/opening itself looks very well executed.

"But the real problem would be milling the lip into which the door lands when closed..."

It looks to just close against the wood stock...no lip. Or did I misunderstand the statement?

Its hard to work this two weeks away from family AND access to my hobbies!

I am forced to just think about all the things I enjoy about home life for two weeks at a time. Then I am at home for one week to spend my time with the wife, kids and responsibilities. Most times a week is just too short!

I have been excited about this new addition to my gun obsession! I spend lots of my free time wanting/waiting to enjoy loading, shooting and just carrying/hunting with the 99! Lol! Work gets in the way sometimes! Hah!

I am looking over the Accurate Moulds website trying to figure which cast bullet mould style/styles to try for this 99EG. These are what I am looking at so far, let me know what you guys think.

I will try to get a chamber cast completed to aid with the fine detailed measurements.

I will try to list them in order of what I feel would best suit the 99EG.









And last but not least:

Hmm. Looking at it again you may be right, Rick. I thought I saw a lip at first. That would simplify things.

Personally I would go with the 190 grain design. I shoot a 190 flat nose that pops out of an old custom Saeco mold that is very similar to this one. But that's my personal preference- a really heavy .30 cast bullet for hunting. They are real thumpers in the deer woods.

If just casual target shooting is all it would be used for, then either of the two lighter bullets look good too. Get one of them and save a little lead in the process. With a 40 grain difference between the smallest and largest, when you cast four of the little ones the fifth one is free, so to speak.

Seems I recall some military rifles with a similar kind of hinged buttplate as standard. I have now seen at least 3 of these hinged style buttplates on Savage guns. Two of them were on what appear to be special order guns. My gun is a solid forearm Model G in 22HP sn 330337. I sent Rick a text of the letter, hopefully he will post it.

I was thinking the heavy bullet as well. I normally shoot the 311299,314299's allot in the 308 Winchester and 30-06, but a nose riding design wont work in this situation. A nice 190 flat nosed bullet at 1850-2000fps would do just fine in the deer woods!

I think the larger nose profile would center the bullet better in the throat and increase the probability of proper bore alignment. My only concern with this blunt profile is wether or not the magazine would effectively feed the cartridge into battery smoothly and dependably.

Ledcor or Suncor?

Welcome to the world of Northern AB! I at least have a bit of a better schedule with 2 weeks on 2 weeks off, but not nearly the OT / money as a 2 and 1, but hey at my age money is nice, but time is running short and is at a premium! So I want my time!

Blair

Conoco

Absolutely! We cannot buy time no matter how much money we make!

I would love the 2-2 schedual!

I remember my grandfather telling me: "The one thing money can't buy is time."

I had no idea what he was talking about when I was 15.

But I get in now....

Thankyou Calhoun for the twist rate info!

No problem. Real thanks goes to Fug1899 for sharing that page from Charles Newton's book with me.

be curious as to the barrel length on that 30-30.

I have a copy of the original factory ledgers for one gun that had a trap door buttplate. Though it was not nearly this late.

Drew,
Would love to know the serial number or range on that factory ledger sheet. PM would be appreciated.
John