Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Savage Collectors scope mount help

Picked this up today. What kind of scope mounts is it? What should I know about them? Anyone have directions for them? Thanks.

It's a Stith Mount. I can email copies of instructions. Drop me a PM with info.

I was hoping thats what it was, but don't see any marks on it. Anything I should know? Looks to have been on there a long time. My first thought is to take it off and clean it, but maybe I should just leave it alone. Old Weaver seems clear. PM sent

If everything looks good then I'd leave it alone. As I understand Stiths, you have an early version of the "No Gunsmith(ing) Mount." They were designed to use existing screw holes and dovetails. The later version had an aluminum rear base that was adjustable for windage. It looks like you got yourself a very nice late 40s/early 50s EG in, what I suspect, is chambered in 300. Ya can't falt the EG.

Its a 250-3000, main reason I bought it

You'll like it. Shot a 250-3000 EG with 7/8" Lyman Alaskan in Stith and was amazed how well it was shooting at 100 yards.

Nice rifle

Can it be 40's or 50's ? It has a round window counter.

Though not "state of the art" by today's standards, the Lyman Akaskan is an amazing scope. Maybe it's because I am old, but I enjoy hunting and shooting the "old" stuff. I have 4 Alaskans, all mounted. They will fog in the rain, but I think I found a secret. At first when it rained I tended to tuck the butt up in my arm pit. When I went to shoot, naturally I couldn't see through it. I found that if I carried the rifle at port arms, away from my body so it would not collect body heat, it remained shootable. YMMV.

Round cartridge counter window went out about 1909 at about serial number 90,000. 250-3000 wasn't introduced until 1914 about serial number 146500 or so. Another "never say never", a factory conversion or a Bubba? We need more info. This would also be another receiver heat treating question that was covered in another current post. David

David - here's the problem I see in dating that receiver. The round cartridge counter does look like an item that was characteristic of older receivers but the milling feature you see in the first photo on the left side of the front bridge directly below the scope's elevation turret is V-shaped at the back. I'm no expert, but in my experiences that milling feature is distinctly U-shaped in all pre-war 99s and distinctly V-shaped in all post war 99s. I don't know if this denotes a change or an expediency in Savage's production techniques for the 99 but I have observed these difference in pre and post WWII guns. I also don't know what's up with the OP's receiver, but I do see those two features as being in contradiction to each other in the chronology of Savage's production of the 99.

Regardless, it is a damn nice looking 99!

I think the cartridge counter window might be fooling y'all due to shadows in the picture.

I think you might be right.

The gun looks great as it is, I wouldn’t take anything off. All it needs is a good wipe down and cleaning of the bore. Ymmv

we are not old, just look that way

I used an Alaskan for a while and agree that it was/is a fairly decent scope. Another "period" scope that one shouldn't overlook is the Unertl hunting scope. A 4x Hawk is a mighty fine scope. It was as good as you could get back in the day and not very much more $ than a comparable Weaver 4x and is a much better scope. Unertl led the pack in target scope quality, and said quality was transferred to their hunting scopes too.

Just remember that top of the line optics from 50-70 years ago just aren't as good as your entry level scopes of today.

I've often wondered about the Unertl 3-power (off hand I can't recollect what bird they named that one for). Does the rear objective unscrew from the scope body on the older Unertls like it does on Weavers? Also, I've always thought that the Lyman scopes were a cut above the Weavers in quality. Maybe somewhere between Weaver and Unertl. And the rear objective on my Lyman 2.5 power All American does come all the way off the tube so it can be used with a Stith mount.

Yes, the ocular lens/eyepiece unscrews.

2 3/4x- Falcon
4x- Hawk
6x- Condor
10x- Vulture

I have a 4x Hawk I was going to mount on my 1953-vintage M70 '06, but I went with a Leupold 3-9x instead. Sometimes one simply has to bow to practicality. The Unertl will get a ride on something sooner or later. Perhaps I should drill and tap my 99T for it.

Oh what the hell, just go ahead a drill out that old 99T! I'd also slap on a Redfield 102 while you are at it. Just kidding, but seriously the thought of that would make untold numbers of 99 guys crap at just the mere thought of drilling a T as the model seems to have ascended into cult status. I have to admit drilling a T would make me crap too! Rear ocular - one of these days I'll have to learn the proper names of scope parts. I've never owned any of the Unertl scopes but always found them class acts.

Actually, the first Unertl Hawk I owned, back in the late 80's, was mounted on a M1920 .250-3000. I didn't mind the scope as much as I minded the el-cheapo sheet metal Weaver side mount somebody had anchored it with. It was my first brush with a non-target Unertl and I came away rather impressed. But not impressed enough to hang onto that rig for dear life. It too went the way of the wind at some point.