Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Savage Collectors poor range day

I loaded an 1899 SRC and some 99's in the pickup and went out to the range yesterday. The temperature readout in the pickup said it was -13. Maybe that was a clue I should have waited for another day. I built a fire in the range house stove first. Then brought in the rifles and shooting paraphernalia. I tried the 99DL with the 24" barrel, 300 Savage first. It misfired, so I partially opened the bolt to recock and tried again. That time it fired. Factory ammo with copper primers. When I tried the second bullet it wouldn't fire even after 4 or 5 attempts. Put it back in the case and fired the offended round in the EG. The forearm fell off the EG. Don't need no stinking forearm, I was resting the receiver on the lead sled anyway. Got it sighted in at 15 and then 50 yards. Next I broke out the 1960 99E in 300 Savage. I'd mounted the Bausch & Lomb Balvar 8A scope the day before. I didn't notice that the windage adjustment was turned all the way to the left. It shot way right and the windage screw wouldn't move in either direction. Put it back in the case. The SRC and the 18 1/2" barrel 308 99F were already zeroed for 100 yards. I had put a new forearm on the F. The first shot was pretty high, each succeeding shot went several inches higher than the last shot. Probably 4 total. I pulled the forearm off and zeroed the rifle. The SRC shot a 2 7/8" group with some unknown 165 gr. round nose bullets and 29 gr. 4064, Then shot a 1 916" group with Sierra 150 gr. flat nose 30-30 bullets and 29.5 gr. 4064. I've shot better groups with this carbine with this last load. Then I tried the EG, it threw bullets all over the target. Then the F. I don't know where it was shooting but not on the paper. The stove brought the temp in the building up some but my water bottle which was near the opening I was shooting through was starting to freeze. The guns came from a room that was about 45 degrees and I had the heater on in the pickup. It had warmed up to about 14 by the time I left. I'm assuming the DL had some pre-existing problem. I haven't had a pre-mil bolt apart yet but am going to tackle it. Could the erratic groups of the other rifles be from the cold?
pics
99DL 300 w. Vari-X 2-7 scope, 99E 300 w. B&L Valvar 8A and 99F 308 Leupold 2 1/2 compact

The SRC 30-30, Weaver KV and 1948 vintage EG 300 w. Kollmorgen 2 1/2 scope and windage adjustable Stith mount

SRC's 1 9/16" group

SRC's 2 7/8" group

either group would do in an elk at 100 yards.
David

Forgot to mention it was a clear day, no wind and the ground was covered in snow.

I'll take a poor range day over a day at work hands down. Some days at the range I feel I'm the problem more than my shootin irons. Funny how on an off day I usually know to write it off as an off day. Doo-Doo happens. I'm one of those weird bastages that love cold when I shoot. Barrels don't heat up as fast, and cool much quicker. Don't need 2 hours to shoot a box of test ammo. In my humble opinion, it seems like Savage 99s groupings start to open up sooner than my bolt actions when they get Warmmerrer.

I sort of went out there to get business problems off my mind. It worked until I started home. Oh well! A bad day at the range is better than a good day at work. I also discovered a couple of problems that needed fixing.

I don't know about cold weather causing erratic groups but it damn sure can cause any old oil, filth or gunk in the firing pin mechanism and even the bolt to gum up and cause misfires or hang fires. My bet is there is nothing wrong with that ammo.

When it gets that cold oil is your enemy, graphite is your friend.

I shot the DL first and it shouldn't have had a chance to get colder than 30 or 40 degrees. I hope that's the problem. May work on it later today.

I wasn't blaming the ammo at all since it has copper primers. If they had been stainless steel I would have suspected they were the problem.

Oh well, maybe you got all the bad stuff out in one fell swoop. Like the Kollmogen/Stith on the bottom EG. I almost bought one off eBay last year but zoned out on the closing date.

All our shooting statistics have value in our ongoing quest to better understand the great 99, Thanks for sharing! Good for You David in keeping your patience intact and searching deeper for the answers, but for the rest of us..., this is how rifles become tomatoe stakes! Thank god you'll have to wait months for the ground to thaw...maybe things will look better in the spring!

Some days you eat the bear, some days the bear eats you.

My last range day, this past Saturday, was a balmy 20º or so. I froze my nuts off and got nothing constructive done. If it were -13º I wouldn't even get out of bed let alone go shooting or hunting.

I did get my main objective accomplished before getting out of there- fireforming a handful of brass for my latest .310 Martini Cadet. I was so cold I didn't even shoot it at a target, I just banged them down range. (Now all I need to do in future is to de/re-cap, dip 4 grains Unique in, and thumb seat a cast bullet- they're special heeled bullets with a .310 diameter shank and a major diameter of .323, rather like a .22LR bullet. No dies necessary, a handful of brass can last the life of the rifle, and reloading multiple times during an outdoor shooting session is part of the fun.) Gotta keep 'em separated from the doctored .32-20 brass I use to feed another Cadet.

Pulled the bolt out of the DL, hosed it down with brake cleaner and lubed it with dry graphite lock lube. It was too late to go to the range so I popped a few primed brass. They went poof so it may be fixed. We're getting hit with that big storm for the next few days so probably won't take it to the range until next week. I discovered that the screw on the left side of the B&L mount unlocks the windage adjustment. I think I got it boresighted before the battery finished dying in the bore sighter. Not sure, it was pretty dim before the battery croaked. I'll tinker with the others in the next few days.

Like to hear if the DL can make things go BANG! again. Give us a report.

Will probably take it out today. It hasn't started snowing yet. It's a balmy (for here) 11 degrees right now so will probably warm up into the low 20's by 10 or 11.

The DL does shoot now but the B&L mount started coming loose. May have tightened the thumb screw too tight. Pic of B&L pulling the screws out of the rear mount.

Took it off and replaced it with a Refield 3x9 TV screen scope.
The Leupold Vari-X 2 2x7 on the 99E wouldn't adjust. Replaced it with a Weaver KV. Will get back to the range some day.

That's all you can do.

Send the Leupold back. They will fix or replace.

Gotta do that.