Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters 250/3000 99-A

Do you remember the name of the shop north of White River Junction?

I was raised in that general area and am always looking for gun shops to visit when I go there to visit.

Knighthawk,

Unfortunately, rechambering to .250 Ackley Improved does NOT reduce "bolt thrust," despite P.O. Ackley's experiments. Both the .250 Savage and .30-30 were serious flawed, which one of the the chapters in my book GUN GACK II explains in depth--along with other misconceptions about case shape and bolt thrust.

Plus, I would NOT rechamber old classics like yours, not just because it would reduce the resale value (which it will) but because there's no real reason to, if what you want to do is kill deer. I say this as a long-time .250 and 99 nut, who at one time owned SIX Savage 99 .250-3000's, and have also owned a bunch of other .250's, including a Savage Model 20, along with a bunch of others, including some other brands of factory rifles and more than one custom rifle.

While there may be some small ballistic advantage in the .250 AI, it's more theoretical than real. In the past 35+ years, my wife and I have killed a bunch of big game from pronghorn to elk with the .250, along with the .257 Roberts, .257 Roberts Ackley Improved, .25-06 and .257 Weatherby Magnum. Our experience is that they all kill well--if the right bullet lands in the right place. One of the virtues of the .250 is the muzzle velocity makes a lot of bullets (including some under 100 grains) the "right" bullet.

Some more notes:

The Speer 100-grain Hot-Cor is the shortest 100-grain .25 caliber spitzer I've ever measured, which is why it tends to shoot so well in 1-14 twist rifles. It also penetrates more than adequately when loaded to 2800 fps or so.

However, not all old .250's have 1-14 twists. Among the 99's I've owned was a take-down that would NOT shoot the 100-grain Speer into anything less than about 3" at 100 yards. This was with iron sights, but a good aperture sight, and I can shoot irons better than that. Some people would blame it on the take-down, but I've had pretty good luck with a bunch of old take-down lever guns over the decades, and not just several 99's.

Eventually, after trying all sorts of stuff, I got smarter and measured the rifling twist, which turned out to be 1-15. Such variations aren't uncommon in older rifles, because they were all cut-rifled, often with adjustable sine-bar equipment where the twist could vary slightly. I tried 87-grain Hot-Cores and the rifle started shooting very well.

tough to beat 87 grain Hot-Cores and Re 15, that was my doe rifle for years.

260Rem,

It's south rather than north but when I was in VT this past summer I stopped in the Bennington Armory right on Main St in Bennington.
Lots of unique older rifles. They had 10 or so Winchester 52C's sitting on the rack for sale; at very reasonable prices.

If you like British cuisine you could slide down the street to the Lil British restaurant for some really good Fish & Chips, Bangers & Mash, etc.

[quote=elkjaeger]260Rem,

It's south rather than north but when I was in VT this past summer I stopped in the Bennington Armory right on Main St in Bennington.
Lots of unique older rifles. They had 10 or so Winchester 52C's sitting on the rack for sale; at very reasonable prices.

If you like British cuisine you could slide down the street to the Lil British restaurant for some really good Fish & Chips, Bangers & Mash, etc. [/quot

When I lived in Hanover, NH, from 1986 thru 1990, my Wife and I used to make a loop around southern VT on the Friday after Thanksgiving, back before that day was called Black Friday, from Hanover to Brattleboro to Bennington to Rutland to Hanover. I bought and traded a few Savage lever guns from Bennington Armory back then. Their website shows that they are going to have a new website and will be selling firearms directly, rather than through GB.

www.benningtonarmoryllc.com

I spent a lot of time in southern Vermont during the 70's, hitting the small town gun shops whenever I could.
Always stopped at Orvis too, back when it was a real hunting & fishing store

Mule Deer,
Thanks for the info on the AI. As I said I will be ringing out the standard 250 first and foremost. The 99 takedown is an old reblue so collector value is not there anyway. I always think on the 250 AI about this time of year when there's about 5 hours of day light and it's below "0" day in and day out. I don't think I'd ream these two fine looking rifles anyway, mainly mid winter, coffee drinking, thinking to kill time. Yeah the Remington 100 gr I was hoping would work in the 99, I'll look into the Spears right after I check the twist on that gun.. The takedown is real tight on the 99.
I've never had problems with takedowns shooting good after I got the word on tightening them up. Talking Winchesters now. Back in the 70's I ended up picking up 4 or 5 94's of various calibers, got a good deal on them because they had play in the takedown match up. Local smith here in Fairbanks and I keep locking and figuring different ways to tighten them up. Anyway we did not touch them till we knew a way that would put them back tight.
Well I hard the idea if anybody knew a good fix, it would be P.O. Ackley. It took me awhile to run him down long distance,but finely got his daughter who was the hearing aid for P.O. and our phone conversation. Kind of a cumbersome conversation, but, got some good info and passed it on to my smith buddy. P.O.'s fix required not to over think the repair. KISS, keep it simple stupid. We were certainly were over thinking the repair. They all shot well and the head space problem went away.
Those first takedowns got me addicted to Winchester levers, so I started collecting takedowns exclusively, except for half a dozen 1885's that found there way in the safe.
Anyway thanks for the info on bolt thrust, your probably right. Guess I will get more serious about picking up a 257 Roberts.

Sad to report the Web lists it as Closed. It was just off the town green in Danville. Farr's Antiques was the name. It was in the old feed and grain just off the RR line that used to head over to Hardwick. Gentleman that owned it always had a great selection of cool oder stuff. One of those "You never know what you may find, but your gonna find something" places.
Another one along those lines is Hussey's general store in Augusta ME. I have a great picture of the sign on the building that reads "Wedding Gowns" "Sporting Goods" "Guns and Ammo" This sign is right next to the Kerosean pump. Have seen some nice older items there also.

Bumping into 99's in Northern New England still happens often. Its one of my favorites to admire.

1st shoot, not very productive !
My little Savage works great, function was fine , but I had to drop it off at my smith. I ran out of adjustment room, (bottomed out ) with the leupold 2x7 compact. Not a big fan of using shims i took it to H&K gun smithing in forest grove Oregon. Kurt Mullen and i talked it over and he is gonna shave a bit off the leupold base to raise the front up. I told if he has to shim the front a little just don't tell me ! I did shoot 1 group with 100 grain Core locks, I had to aim at a dot on the bottom of the target and the group was more than a foot high at 100 yards.
It looked about 1.5 inches. Did not bother measuring , need to get it closer to zero, or its jut wasting powder and bullets.
Its a pretty cool little rifle. If i get it to shoot well enough, i might order some better wood and have it checkered.
I cleaned the marks off the barrel where the sling swivel was. I tried the 80 grain barnes in my slow twist 250, and the 1st 2 made one whole, though i was on to something great, But i was only getting about 2 inches.after that, But it did some serious damage the stump. Got splash back that ripped chunks out of the target, And the bullet penetrated 3 plus inches into a very solid stump. Would certainly go through any deer probably an elk to, but i will not test that theory...tj3006