Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Savage Collectors How to blow up a Savage 99

...in two easy steps.

My friend John called me a minute ago and sent me the photo of his beloved 99R in 300.





We went to the range today and he tried to feed a cartridge into the chamber and it didn't make it all the way in, about an 1/8" short, and it jammed up. This was on his fifth shot, all single loaded into the chamber straight from the ammo box. Same batch he'd been firing in this rifle and others for years with no length problems. Yes, handloads.

Since he didn't have any way to clear the chamber he moved on to other guns and figured he'd deal with it later. We fired another 30 or more rounds of the same ammo today in other 300's with no trouble.

When he got home he shoved a cleaning rod down the bore and tried to push it out. No go. When that didn't work he tapped the rod with a wooden mallet and the result is what you see here. The action was open. The cleaning rod wedged in the bore (he said it looked "noodled"/micro bends) and didn't allow the bullet to exit the muzzle. Everything blew out the open action and out the bottom. He has a piece of something in his hand and is shell shocked but otherwise unhurt.

Only thing we can figure is he compressed the primer cup from above with the tapping action of the mallet driving the bullet down in the case and she went ka-blewy. I've not had a cartridge stick in the chamber like that so I'm at a loss to explain why he had one fail to fully enter the chamber. Could he have gotten debris from the last shot fired in the chamber or throat? ? He must have really tried to horse it in to get it so tightly wedged.

Anyway, if you want to blow up a Savage in two easy steps, tightly wedge a cartridge in the chamber and then tap on the bullet with a cleaning rod and a mallet.

Which brings us to the question, how would you recommend a live round be cleared? Like I said, I've never had a round fail to enter, so it's not something I've ever thought about.