Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting A Savage 99 Thread

The Pump Rifle thread has gone to 53 pages. The Deer Rifle thread has a surprising number of folks touting their Savage 99's. This is a rifle that's been out of production for 20 years. It's well worth a thread of its own. I don't see any other rifle out there with such a following. My question is WHY? More to the point: How can such a popular rifle be out of production for so long?

I'd never really even thought of a Savage 99 until I came here to the 'Campfire in early 2002. It just never showed up on my radar. I'd come of age as deer hunter in Ohio, so shotguns were always my thing. Even 20 years into deer hunting, and I really did not have mature tastes in rifles. I had 2 centerfire deer guns, a Remington 742 and a Winchester 760, both in 30-06. I used them when I hunted Kentucky. They were quite adequate. In 2002, I bought a Marlin 336 in 30-30 and had really high hopes for it. After one season, I came away disappointed. Since I'd been a slug gun hunter and knew what a 30-06 could do, the 30-30 just wasn't enough. I was looking for something more.



Gradually, the Campfire's influence began to work its way into my head. Everyone seemed gaga over the Savage 99. I started looking into it. It seemed like a good gun. The 300 Savage looked like it was about midway between a 30-30 and a 30-06. That sounded about right. I asked my buddy, Big Bob about it. He was a retired gun editor. Bob said it was a great gun, but warned me away from the 300 Savage. He felt it was too likely that now that Savage had dropped the 99 from production the 300 Savage was going to be orphaned. He suggested buying one in 308 WIN.

That's what I got. In the summer of 2003, I got a Savage 99 in 308 WIN, and began working up a load that was far enough off-MAX that it would resemble a hot 300 Savage. 150 grainers did not work at all well in the rifle, so I tried 165 grain and hit paydirt. I also had trouble with the brass. I had bought a lot of military brass. I was having trouble with sticky ejections after the first reload. Somebody on the 'Fire from Canada suggested using consumer brass. I've been shooting from the same bunch of once-fired Federals ever since.

I bagged my biggest-ever buck that year. I bagged an even bigger one in 2007. To date, my Savage 99 has scored several big bucks, including the camp's #1 and #4 bucks. I hunt with it religiously on The Opener, and usually hunt with it whenever I'm in a stand. I hunt with it until I get a buck, and then retire it for the season. My longest shot has been just inside 150 yards. Most of the shot with this rifle have been within 30. Still, after all this time, I can't really tell you why I like it so much. There is just something about how it feeds and how the bolt closes that just makes it seem right.