Maybe. But where there is one, there is usually more than one. I can't see Savage just throwing old stock out. That makes no sense either. There are plenty oddball 99's out there. It makes for a sound argument, but I still doubt there was an exact stop point. The whole thing is weird, including the OP's letter from Savage, which started all this.
I like 99's and occasionally pick up a beater to mess around with, but am hardly a collector. I will tell you a true story. Before the internet came along, you had to deal with SAAMI on the phone if there was something not in their book. Sometimes they had the information, but it was not printed in the book. I wanted a copy of a chamber drawing for a .22 HiPower to make a reamer. The guy on the other end said "I never heard of that". Then he said "Hello?", because I was speechless and he thought I had hung up. Just because he never heard of it did not make it less real.
