Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Savage Collectors How to blow up a Savage 99

Are you saying the hot drill bit ignited the powder? Only other explanation would be the rotary movement of the bit somehow interacting with the gunpowder in such a way to ignite it. Don't know exactly how gunpowder works. Who wants to experiment with a hammer and drill? LOL

This is how I interpret it too.

The most likely debris to me would be the blue tip off the bullet. I know Hornady had this problem for awhile, I don't know if Barnes did or not.

Since he was single loading, would it be possible that the extractor didn’t get over the rim so that the bolt pushed the cartridge into the chamber at an angle and jammed things up?

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What he says about the compressed powder pushing the bullet back out is what I believe my problem was, just took longer to develop. And only seems to have been in one case. Maybe a thinner neck put less tension on bullet, I don't know. But I do know it's the first time I had this problem in over 40 years of reloading.

When you do get around to loading for your brush gun again, give TAC or Reloder 7 a whirl, they both fit into the case pretty well and leave room. I'm currently using IMR 4320, I understand it is discontinued so when my supply is gone, that's probably the route I will take.

Dale

I have been reading this thread for what seems to be DAYS. I just keep shaking my head wondering 2 things. The first thing is what the hell does this have to do with Savage "collecting". This being the least of concern. The other thing is, I as well, have been reloading for well OVER 40 years. I use an RCBS Rockchucker press and all of my components are also RCBS with the exception of a set of Lee dies for 38-55 and a set of Redding dies for 7mm-08, 22 Sav HP, 444 Marlin and 45-70.

I full length size EVERYTHING. I also chamfer EVERY case mouth. I ONLY load flat base bullets. I never load hot loads for any caliber. During the bullet seating process, I can tell INSTANTLY if I missed a chamfer or if the neck is not reduced properly. I can just feel it.

When I am on the bench, only one load at a time goes into the gun. If I try chambering a round and I feel ANY resistance, I STOP and set the round aside. The only way I can see this incident happening is that force was applied in an effort to fire this round. The extractor engaged the rim and enough force could not be applied from the lever to get it out of the chamber.

That being said, I would NEVER hammer on a live round from any direction, NOR would I I use a sharp tool to dig at a live primer that is the source of ignition to a cartridge loaded with powder and a stuck round in a chamber.

I understand how frustration sets in, and thoughts run wild, but this is a perfect example ( with a happy ending) of how NOT to do things.

I am certain everyone that handles a gun has had at least one accidental discharge, but this was for the most part, not an accident.

Again, I am sorry if I offended anyone.

If we talked about nothing but pure "collecting" (and define "collecting" by-the-by)), there would be nothing but the sound of crickets chirping here for days/weeks on end. We've discussed all aspects of 99's ad nauseum and need to branch out a bit to keep the camaraderie going. This forum long ago morphed into more than just discussion about a narrow field of gunnery.

Why limit yourself to only flat based jacketed bullets? There's a whole world of choices out there. I for one choose the bullet that best meets the occasion, be it flat based cup-and-core, boat tail, monolithic, or cast lead. Narrow devotion to a singular approach is anathema to me. My gear is a bewildering assortment of equipment from many manufacturers- selection thereof based on what is best for the task at hand. The common thread at my bench is a devotion to anal retentive routine when loading, no matter the components and tools being used.

Sure, we've all had close calls of some sort. The thing is did we learn from them? Tossing around ideas, spitballing possible causes/solutions, getting to the bottom of an issue, etc. is one way how we humans learn to avoid having similar issues. No man is an island.

Everyone has a different outlook. Mine simply has a freewheeling aspect, with a healthy dose of open-mindedness mixed in, mixed with a sense of humor about the human condition.

John's not here to be offended. Hopefully you read the part about it weren't the Fireball blowin up Savages, or am I guilty by association?

The reloading really isn't the story, and I'm not sure what RCBS and flat based bullets have to do with anything. Chamfering case mouths is standard protocol. I don't know why John tried to horse the cartridge into the chamber. I promise you he won't be doing it again. Nor will he be tap tap tapping on a stuck round with a cleaning rod and a mallet.

I just posted it as an FYI, for which several members were thankful, while you apartently are just bewildered. I too have been loading for 40 YEARS, without incident. Again, it's not about the reloading, it's the tap tap tap ke-blewy that I find perplexing. In total agreement about NOT drilling into a live primer!

I thought it was a good discussion and a good thread.

Nuff said.

Me too! And I'm not saying any more.

Any chance a primed .308 case may have been accidently picked up by mistake and loaded and this was reason case got stuck going into chamber? A .308 case is .144" longer than a .300 Savage case, close to estimated .125"( 1/8"). Not sure how much leverage is needed to get a .308 case stuck in a .300 Savage chamber, I've seen some pretty determined people when it comes to goofing things up. A lever gun may actually provide more leverage to get a .308 struck in a .300 chamber than about any other type firearm.Same case head, you may not even notice it while seating bullet.

Was there enough of the case head found to identify cartridge designation one way or the other or are we not allowed to discuss this anymore? Still kind of curious one way or the other.

It gives me the willies (not the Jeep) .



Its ok . We'll provide them with a safe space and a therapy dog . And if that's not enough , we'll get them some Thorazine .

Waaalllllll-I typed in a comment several days ago, had it all done, went to review for my normal gaffs, but somehow deleted the whole thing. Thought I'm not going to sit and redo now. My comment was one that happened to me and have heard of others doing also. When I first started loading for 250 Savage in a Ruger 77 bolt gun, the bullets I was using were some with a channel lure. Have read you can if wanted put a slight crimp on them to hold the bullet still during recoil. After I got the lot of 50 rounds loaded, wiped, and boxed, it was several days before I had a chance to shoot em. The first dozen or so went smooth and were pretty accurate at 50 and 100 yds. I finally ran across one that wouldn't let the bolt close all the way, maybe a 1/4" of the rear of the brass showing. Ejected it, set aside, shot some more, ran across another one that wouldn't chamber, ejected it, and continued to shoot the remaining rounds. I found five that all failed to insert fully-all but the last approx 1/4". The powder charge was a middle of the road from Hornady's newest book.

Checking them real close and using a micrometer, I discovered that the mouth of the brass where I had crimped them was bulged slightly, not enough to really wave a red flag at your eyeballs but there. When I first started seating the bullets and then went back to crimp, I recalled that the first handful I thought maybe had to much crimp had been applied and backed off the die. I later pulled the bullets and resized the brass, trimmed, put powder back in and reseated bullets in a later load session. Those five shot fine.

Said all this to say this, is it possible that the mouth of the cartridge in question bulged a bit during the seating of the bullets. Wonder if the bullet was crimped during seating and was bulged? Possible that the cartridge in question had a overall length a bit longer than the rest and the bullet when seating bulged the upper neck area a bit when the bullet was seated. Wonder if when resizing , the neck expander didn't do its job and the case neck just didn't get expanded to its proper diameter and was a tad under, making a tighter fit for the bullet, putting a bulge on it which caused it to jam once the upper end of the round reached the upper end in the chamber? Who knows, Murphy's Laws are always possible with everything. The five 250 Savage rounds that I messed up on all extracted with no problem, but one was stuck in the chamber a bit more and required a little more 'Ooomph' to bring the bolt back. Could this had happened to the round that got stuck, a slightly bulged upper neck area caused the round to really stick? Just my thoughts. Who knows why it detonated????? Glad no serious injury.

Fireball2: I have had VERY little to do with savage 99 Rifles I just wanted to post and relay how thankful I am your friend was not hurt any more than he was!
And I agree with SS396 - be careful and seek "professional advice" when uncertain.
Now I am NOT being critical of your friend at all - but I would not even THINK ABOUT pounding on a partially chambered LIVE round with hammer and metal rod!
OMG!
Again I am thankful his balls weren't blown off.
Thanks for sharing.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

This is a good topic. I just removed a live round from my ar with a brass cleaning rod. It came out very easily with hand pressure, and I never gave it a second thought. Never figured it could go off as I was on the bullet, not the primer. I am not a reloader, but have shot for over 40 years, and this is the first time I have had this happen. Glad your buddy is ok. Glad I am ok too! Lesson learned, guns are dangerous! Handle with caution.

Speculation, short stroke resizing leaving area near the case head too large. This area was jammed into the chamber from first and repeated unsuccessful attempts to close action. Might be a tight fit considering the OP says they were shooting multiple rifles chambered in 300Sav. From this I have to assume reloads were also from a variety of rifles with slightly different chambers.

The round being lodged so tight in the chamber would require some sharp blows from the muzzle end to free. If the round was still held by the bolt inertia from the blows may have pushed the firing pin spring back just enough to allow it to come forward and ignite the primer. The blows may have also pushed the primer out of the pocket slightly resulting in a close relationship between bolt face and primer.

Pure speculation. Just an idea. I’ve recently encountered similar feeding issues neck sizing brass from the same rifle. Bolt hangs up close to getting into battery. Difficult to reverse and get round back out. Haven’t had to drive any out from the muzzle but they where tight! I’m FL sizing for the rifle now.

Very interesting thread for me, I’ve learned from reading through what has been presented.

The bolt was open.

Missed that reading through the thread I guess. Oh well, good thread anyway. Made me think through the process’s of reloading and shooting. Good mental exercises.