Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Savage Collectors Savage 99 salt wood?

New to me 1954 99R. Was cleaning it up a bit and checking numbers. Gun has been shot very little. Buttstock wood screws were a little tight with light rust and butt plate had an area of rust under it in the middle. I cleaned it up with some brass wool. Main stock screw is really tight and has a little rust around it. Normal from sitting up? Any chance of salt wood on these like the Brownings? And any tips for getting it loose? No other external signs of rust and barrel under the forearm looks great.

First time I have ever heard "Salt wood" and Savage 99 in the same sentence.

My first Weatherby had salt wood. I bought it in 1968. When I took it to Weatherby about 10 years later they told me about the salt wood. Some of the German Weatherbys and Belgium Brownings had wood that had been salt cured by some fool somewhere in Europe. Guess he didn't know that salt and firearms don't mix well. This was a mid to late sixties problem and with European guns.
I have observed the above mentioned problem on some of my 99's. It's probably just that moisture got into places that don't get cleaned and oiled very often.

It’s pretty minor on this one just thought I’d see if that was even a thing before I worry any more about getting this buttstock off. Was surprised to see that patch of rust under the butt plate. Looks like it’s never been off the rifle.

It probably has never been off. My Weatherby developed rust almost everywhere the metal touched the wood.

Not going to worry about it then. Rifle is otherwise great, hope it shoots as good as it looks. My first .250-3000. Can’t wait to cook up some loads and see what it’ll do.

Lots of reasons for that issue in an old gun because of use or location. No salt wood in that time frame. Probably used hard and put up wet.

This. What's up with "salt wood" all of a sudden? Will it be the next new phantom bugabear of the internet gun forums? Stay tuned folks, the old wive's are just now ramping up their tales!

Action would be rusted big time. I saw a browning salt shotgun once. A horrible thing!

Okay great that’s what I was wondering, never seen one.

During my tenure in the Browning gunsmithing shop 1978-1982 I replaced carloads of salt wood. I don't believe the salt curing process had been developed at the time your Savage was produced.

Can someone post a couple pictures of "salt wood"? What exactly is it?

It's a curing process. I was going to copy and paste an article, but when I did a search there are so many I couldn't pick one. Just do a search for "Saltwood".

I'll post pics of my Weatherby's saltwood as soon as I get an elk. Wolf tracks all over the place today.

No elk, decided to take some pics anyway.
innocuous looking receiver contact area. The receiver is pitted. I would have to pull the new stock to show the pits. The barrel is pitted too.

Pretty wood. My Dad bought a Weatherby the year before and it had really plain wood but it wasn't salt wood.

When I took the rifle in to Weatherby's South Gate store in 1978 or '79 They told me what the problem was and offered to replace the stock. They wouldn't let me keep the old stock or pull the diamond inlay with my initials. I said no so they glass bedded it and reblued the rifle. It rusted again. I took it back to them, they were in Paso Robles by then. They charged me to reblue it this time and told me it couldn't be reblued again, the barrel was too thin. It has pits from the second episode. I had it restocked after that.

Weatherby also used the salt curing process but I believe after a while Browning bought exclusive rights. There are many more Browning firearms with salt wood than Weatherbys.

Maybe Weatherby figured it out sooner.