Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Savage Collectors 1899-H 25-35TD

I recently picked up a nice 99-H take down in 25-35 circa 1913 Serial# 161XXX . I think it's a Featherweight - very light with 20 inch barrel. She's in very nice condition EXCEPT, a prior owner cut down the buttstock and installed a recoil pad. It appears the mods were done a very long time ago. I ordered a replacement stock from Boyd's but it won't fit - too deep in the tang areas.

Anyone have some suggestions on where I might locate a vintage buttstock for my rifle? I realize some fitting will be required.

Thanks, TexasShooter

Your best bet might be having your butt stock duplicated. Other than that jsut start scrounging. Its amazing what turns up with enough time and perseverance.

Thank you for your response S99VG. By "duplicated", do you mean find a stock maker that can build it from scratch? Should be someone in the Houston area that does that sort of thing. I'll check around.

No, a duplicator not a stock maker. Perhaps a matter of semantics, I know, but one merely cuts a rough duplication of your stock (or from a pattern) and the other builds you a stock from scratch to finish. Huge difference in cost. Typically a duplicated stock will need fitting to the gun plus final shaping/sanding/finishing- which can be done by oneself, depending on one's skill level.

Contact "ramrod340" here on the fire. He does good duplicating, his prices are reasonable, and he may even have a pattern to use and won't need your stock as a pattern.

By what do you mean the Boyd's stock is too deep in the tang area? Without a better description or pics I'm forced to think perhaps there's nothing wrong with it that a stock man couldn't take care of. Most all aftermarket stocks are left undone so as to allow for custom fitting to individual guns. Those that are advertised as "drop in fit" are usually to be suspected to guarantee frustration to one degree or another.

Thank you gnoahhh. I will contact ramrod340. I did find some duplicators out-of-state but, I am reluctant to send the existing stock away and risk losing it.

I spent a fair amount of time trying to fit the Boyd's stock and probably eliminated any chance of making it fit by relieving here and there with my Dremel tool. At the end of the day, it was way proud in the tang areas, top & bottom, and still not snug against the receiver. I am no craftsman. LOL

BTW, I just realized I listed the wrong chambering in my header. It is 25-35. Doh!!!

Dremel tools in the hands of the public are responsible for more professional's income than anything else.

I don't know? I've had a lot of work come my way from Harry and his Home Depot chain saw. Maybe a chainsaw can be considered a big Dremel, Joe.

Dremel tools, chainsaws....what's the difference????????

I know you asked about vintage stocks but wanted to offer that GUNSTOCKS INC. makes stocks in two different tang length applications. The stocks need final fitting as do the ones from Boyds. I have bought stocks from them in the past and am very pleased with the product.

Thanks shr99. I'll take a look.

Texas shooter

Walnut Grove is another reliable provider of pre-inlet stocks, in my experience.

If you want something that's close to fitting, I'd echo the suggestion to find somebody who will duplicate the original - with the recoil pad on it to get a bit of extra length. Then final fit it to the receiver, find yourself a buttplate you want, and have somebody cut the buttstock to fit the buttplate.

Course if you do that, the finish on the buttstock probably won't match the forearm. So get the forearm duplicated also.

But that's just me.

Good advice.

Thanks guys. I knew this was the place to go with my questions.

I haven't been on this site in a long time. I started having all kinds of functionality issues - couldn't stay logged in. I used to haunt this forum quite a bit and ended up buying a pretty fair number of vintage Savages, 99s as well as the Super Sporters, etc. Still love them!

Lately, I haven't experienced a lot of problems signing in and staying in. I may drop by more often. The Savage Collectors forum regulars are top notch folks!!

1) Good to have you back.
2) Adding an ad blocker will work wonders on logging in and staying connected.
3) I changed the 25-20 to 25-35 in the original posting for you.
4) The standard butt plate for your rifle is the thin hard rubber Trade Mark Indian style. Quality plastic reproductions are available from several places.

Thank you Rick!!!!

Russell

The difference being, self included, chainsaws are much simpler to handle and do way less damage.

Ha Ha Ha.... So true!!!!!!!!!!!

IMO a 25-35 H, if bubba hasn't had his hands on it other then the butt pad.. it's well worth a new set of hand fitted walnut stocks


plab

Working with a guy on exactly that as we speak. :-)

Got her back! Texas walnut. I am pleased with the stock maker's work.

Merry Christmas Y'all !!!!!!!!!

PS. Any suggestions on where I should look for a 99 in 375 Winchester?

That looks great! Nice work.

Thanks!! Fit and finish are amazing!!

Give the guy a plug and if you don't mind me asking, can you give us a price range for this type of work? Even a ballpark would be helpful.

Would you mind posting the price to do each part of the restock? Looks like the guy knows his trade. What wood did he start with?

Absolutely!!!! The stock maker is Robert Schuck - tel: 979.480.4326 He is a very nice guy and a real craftsman.

Robert lives near Weimer, Texas I specifically requested that the new stock be made from Texas Walnut. Robert found a fellow that had some Texas Walnut and used my original stock as a guide. Turnaround was surprisingly quick - around three months. He charged me $725 for the new stock finished and fitted (including a butt plate) and refinishing the forearm to match the stock.

Here are a couple more pics.

ditto on Gunstocks inc.

That rifle sure looks good.

Lee

Thanks!

Nice!

Sweet rifle, now go shoot a Buck with it!

Beauty!

Thanks everyone. I'm taking it to the range today. :-)

Really nice!

As the Alka Seltzer man used to say, "That's a spicy meatball." Seriously nice work and ditto on the Super Sporters!

I took her to the range yesterday and discovered some problems. :-(

The bolt will not fully retract. It needs to go back another 1/16th of an inch or so cycle a round. It cycled fine before the new stock was installed.

Is it feasible that the stock maker didn't leave enough room inside the stock for the bolt to fully travel rearward or is the timing of this problem coincidence?

Also, I getting split brass. That too is a new problem. I suppose that could be associated with improper indexing of the barrel. (It's a takedown model). The stock maker does beautiful work but he may not be familiar with the savage 99.

Your thoughts?

Entirely possible for wood to interfere with rearward bolt travel.

Brass split where? Pics?

gnoahhh, the brass split on two of five rounds fired. Split occurs at the shoulder. The ammo is old S&B 117 gr. SPs provided by the guy that sold me the rifle.

Thank you for your guidance!!!

As Mr. gnoahhh said. You may need to do a little more relieving inside the stock in the areas where the bolt and lever move during cocking. My hunch is that your problem is in there and that it's probably not a lot of wood causing the problem.

Yup, that's my guess too. I'm reluctant to pull that new stock off. I may have to drive it back to the stock maker. That way, if anything cracks he can fix it.

I've pulled stocks on my other 99s plenty of times without incident but, after paying $725 for this stock, I think I need to let the stock maker get it right.

Thanks for your input! It is highly valued.

I just talked to my stock maker. I'm taking it back to him tomorrow to see if we can't get the bolt travel issue solved. I needed to hear from you on this forum to confirm my suspicions. My buddies aren't familiar with 99s and they thought I was nuts for thinking the stock could impede bolt travel. LOL

I think I’d let the stock maker remove it too. I’ve removed 99 stocks the right and wrong ways. Don’t ask me what I know about the latter.

Lol..... I'll put my screw-ups against all comers. :-) I need to be kept away from all hand tools.

Probably the wisest course of action. But, on the other hand if the wood is that tight so as to preclude easy removal I would fear future cracks forming.

Another thing to consider with a minimally inletted (tight) stock is what happens if (when) the wood swells and binds against internal parts such as bolts and causes such problems further down the road? I would take an old factory stock along to show him how roomy things need to be in there. The folks at Savage had good reasons for doing things the way they did. I made the same mistake once by leaving as much wood in the head of the stock to give it every chance to resist splitting, and was hoist by my own petard.

As for the split necks in your fired brass, I don't think they're caused by the gun. It sure looks like you got your hands on some brittle brass- whether it's old or not. That and/or insufficiently annealed at the factory. S&B brass, you say? Not altogether surprised.

Thanks gnoahhh! I pulled the forearm and confirmed the barrel is properly in place. Yes, it is old S&B ammo the previous owner sent me. I have two boxes that appear to be really old and two that appear newer. The ones that split are from the oldest batch. Do you think there is any risk to damaging the firearm using them for plinking?

I have some factory Hornady ammo and some loaded by Reeds Ammunition. Plus I have new quality brass, dies and bullets for reloading. I just hate to toss the ammo if it's suitable for plinking. If it presents any risk, I will gladly dispose of it.

Your call, but if I had a decent stock of good components I wouldn't mess with the S&B's.

Rifle looks great! If I needed a stock I'd definitely call him to have some work done. I'm over in Round Rock (hopefully relocating to LLano in the next year) so Weimar's not even that far.

MRitchie, welcome to 24hourcampfire! I grew up in Colorado County, Texas so Weimer is part of my old "stomping grounds". Also, I have a home in Fredericksburg, Texas. I spend about half of my time there and the other half in Houston. When you get to Llano, we'll be neighbors. LOL

gnoahh, thanks for your advice and counsel!

I took my Savage 99 back to the stock maker this morning. Problem solved. After watching him work identifying the areas needing relief and incrementally reducing them, I realized that if I had tried to do it myself, it would have been one of the stupidest things I've ever done. And I've done a lot of stupid things.

In his defense, he did not have any 25-35 ammo to use for testing function when he made the stock. I brought some along on this trip. :-)

just as an add on to this thread ,beautiful work on that stock and a nice grain in the wood.a good part of your cost was probably the Texas Walnut.

for a lot of you guys in the northern States my stock maker does the same kind of work,i have given him 6 different recievers so he can produce stocks from 1895 to 1960 without having the original stock sent ,with the serial number and model ,perch belly or strait stock plus checkering. remember the canuck dollar is your friend.

norm

Norm, we can't send a receiver up there can we? I hope to have a project ready for wood this year, Joe.