Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Savage Collectors Bore guide for 99

Good Day,
What, if any, do you use to clean your Savage 99 rifles?
Thanks
Smiley

I use the Otis system, if I were still using a rod, I'd just be careful.

I cut the head off a 25-20 WCF case and slip it over the rod. The long neck reaches into the bore a ways to protect the crown area. I use a cut 223 case for the 250-3000

A simple coned bore guide that fits into the muzzle, with a small diameter hole through it just big enough to allow the cleaning rod to pass through. Universal in nature: one size fits all (if the tip of the cone is small enough for small bores, and it can be). I make my own, but they're available otherwise. (Hint: configure it for use with a small diameter rod, ie,.22 caliber. It'll work just fine for bigger calibers also.)

In my small pile of Savage lever guns, only one is a non-takedown (.300 T) and the above works splendidly. Yet another reason to stick with takedowns: ease of cleaning from the breech end.

Primary source of bore wear in any gun isn't from bullets, it's from ham-handed cleaning rod use.

Another vote for Otis.

Two or three passes with a Hoppe’s BoreSnake here. Don’t obsess about barrels and have never used foamers, scrubbers or the like.
No one has ever called me on a barrel.

If you ever tore off a Boresnake halfway down a barrel you would curse the man who ever invented it. I witnessed two such incidents and threw away the couple I owned.

I refuse to use a pull-through system of any kind. Bloody slow and PIA when giving a bore a deep cleaning, not to mention the increased chance of bore wear at the muzzle. What loony/shooter doesn't wish to give his fusil a good deep cleaning now and then, especially when/if accuracy falls off? Some of my rifles can go hundreds of shots before that happens, others need a deep cleaning after only a couple dozen shots. Add to that the requirements for prepping a barrel for cast bullet shooting that has seen a lifetime of copper fouling and the casual user soon learns to up his game!

I carry a small Otis setup in my hunting kit, for emergency use away from home, but that's it.

Spend some time measuring/reviewing muzzle wear on M1 Garands which face the same challenge as the 99. Beautiful pristine bores with ME's of 2,3,4 can only be explained by sloppy unprotected cleaning rod use, and/or the pull-through cleaning systems employed by the GI's they were issued to. Those guns more than anything else were what opened my eyes about cleaning-from-the-muzzle protocols.

when I clean with a rod, I use a brass cone that came with some cleaning kit I bought a long time ago. Honestly I only use it because you are "supposed" to. I'm under the opinion unless you're using a steel cleaning rod, brushes, etc. they probably aren't needed. Aluminum, brass, bronze, etc. shouldn't scratch the steel bores or crown. Am I wrong about the reasons they should be use when cleaning down the muzzle? But as I said, I generally use them anyway when I clean with rods.

Unless deep cleaning a bore, I use a bore snake. I can't see any way one would break unless it was already frayed before you use it. My wife likes to shoot and she generally ends up picking like 5 guns to shoot and I'm the one who gets to clean them at the end of the day. The bore snakes speed things up considerably, especially if I add up clean 5 or 6 rifles 3 or 4 times a week.

Counter intuitivey, when two disparate substances are rubbed together it's the harder one that'll show wear first. An old know it all gunsmith I knew who had a formal education in metallurgy said that the ideal cleaning rod would be heat treated so glass hard that a file wouldn't touch it, that it would be so hard and slick no abrasive schmeck would adhere to it.

You fellas are under-thinking the boresnake.

No doubt you've tried them and they're pretty tight, yeah? Well, use one size smaller than the bore. Use the 27/28 for a 30 caliber rifle. Alot less stress and still cleans fine.

You're welcome.

Ok, but I'll stick with the cleaning rod.

What. The town drunk from Maybary?!

Man, that is counter intuitive!

gnoahhh

You went technical on me, what's schmeck? Is it related to schmuck? Is one better or worse than the other?






Slow day here.

Schmeck = the effluvia generated by a schmuck, ie: dissolved dirt from the bore impregnating a rod and becoming a source for abrasiveness.

Ok, ok, we're splitting hairs here. Just clean the darned bores any way you like best, as long as you clean 'em!!