Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Savage Collectors New Guy-New 1950 R Questions

Hello, first off I want to tell you guys that this has been an incredibly helpful forum to read through. I have read many posts trying to learn as much as i could about the 99 after I discovered them. Also, Mr. Royal, thank you for writing your book, together with the Murray book it has been a great resource. After learning as I much as I could from the books, the forum, looking at examples, I purchased a 1950 R in 300 Savage.

Rifle looks great, functioned fine at the range today, EXCEPT that at 50 yards, I was shooting WAY too high (8-10 inches). A 50 yard range is the only rifle range I have easy access to. Ammunition was 150 Grain Federal factory ammunition. Sights are the factory semi buckhorn and raised ramp with brass colored bead. My question is, am I doing anything wrong, or is there something that I need to do to the rifle to correct this problem? I was placing the front bead inside the lower notch in the rear sight and then placing the bullseye right on top of the front bead, I guess what you could call point of aim sighting(?). The rear sight is on the second notch from the back of the ramp. The internal magazine, feeding, and extraction worked perfectly. Trigger pull was not nearly as bad as I had thought it might have been from reading on the interwebs.

I am pretty new to vintage centerfire rifles, and the 99. I would love to hear from the wealth of knowledge regarding these rifles present here. I'm having trouble uploading pictures right now, it says all of mine are too big, so no pics as of yet. I would love to hear from the forum about the sighting. Thanks in advance!

Pictures are at this link to my photobucket album: http://s36.photobucket.com/user/1950OP/slideshow/

Welcome to the forum. That's a very nice looking R. As for sighting, you'll need to either lower the rear sight, install a taller front sight, or install a scope.

Looks like a nice post war R. Should shoot very well.

Raising the rear sight notch raises the point of impact. I would try it at 100 before doing anything else. Welcome to the forum.

If you are shooting that high at 50, my guess is that you will be shooting even higher at 100

At least that has been my experience with flat shooing modern calibers and iron sights.

38-40 or 32-20 might be a different story...

Thanks for the replies. From everything I have looked at, the consensus to fix my problem is either raising the front or lowering the rear. Lowering the rear seems like the easier of the two, however, I am hesitant to start removing metal. Other potential solutions I have thought of other than the scope are changing the rear sight entirely to a flip down style from numrich, and trying that. I want to eventually install a Marble peep on the tang, but I would like for the rifle to be at least usable with the stock irons if possible. Any suggestions are welcome and I appreciate the replies.

You might try removing the elevator completely and seeing how much the strike point lowers..

That sounds like a good experiment thanks!

I've also heard that Federal loads are on the hot side for the .300.

Good ol' Remington corelokts in the green box might do a lot better.

The Federal loads I was shooting were 1502630 fps. I can try the core-lokts next time. What would be some good suggestions for a folding leaf rear? I would prefer current production. The one that comes up when I google "Savage 99 folding rear sight" is the one from numrich.SAVAGE 60 99 110 170 Folding Leaf Rear Sight https://www.amazon.com/dp/B008D56Q8Y/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_ibHpzb1J5Q0MN. I am REALLY green with this type of thing so I am learning as I go.

That sight is actually a Lyman manufactured sight. You might check Brownells catalog for it because IIRC it comes in several different heights. You should find a formula in their catalog or on their website that will tell you what sight height you need once you plug in the needed measurements.

The most affordable rear folding leaf is the Lyman 16. It comes in 3 different heights - A, B & C. For some odd reason the B is the lowest but C is highest. I'm guessing the 16A would be the best choice.

Thanks for telling me about the Lyman 16 that looks like what I need. Lightfoot, can you explain why the 16 "A" would be the best choice for my situation?

It' the middle one in height and overlaps the B and C heights. Just a guess, as I said though.

Savage factory installed both A and C heights on the 99s but have never seen a B.

Ok that makes sense. So, drive out the stock semi buckhorn from left to right, and drive the Lyman in, and then see where I hit at the range is what I think I will do. Any tips or advice for this little project would be appreciated.

Great looking rifle. There is a pic of me with my 1950 vintage 99R and a caribou I killed with it. Page 58, Figure 5-2, in my book. It is really accurate with a scope. David

If you can see that sight to shoot with, you're a better man than I am Gunga Din! I like folding sights on my rifles but only for last-ditch emergency use and because they look better than an empty hole.

Mr. Royal that's a good looking R in your book. I would just like to get the iron sights usable. Then I would like to mount a Marble Tang peep sight on it. I love the look of a flip up tang sight on the 99 and not only do they have a cool vintage look about them too, they are practical from what I have read. I would prefer to stick with irons on this one. Hopefully my '94 won't be out shooting this 99 for long, I love the feel and the heft of the 99, makes the 94 seem dinky by comparison. Now if I can just hit the target with the 99! But, that's the way it goes with the old stuff sometimes.

1950, why not scope it?

I am just not a fan of scopes, and just do not like the way they look on old lever guns. If I have to, I will, but I am one of those weird people that loves shooting with iron sights.