Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Alaska Savage 99

Well at one time I had a darn nice Savage 99 in .358 Winchester I bought right but ended up letting go. I am now a bit older most of my Alaskan hunting has been with an 8mm Rem Mag. I am no longer likely to go sheep hunting got a good deal on a Savage 99 action so I decided I buy it and build a .358 win. He had a rock creek barrel an decided on a 22 in tube. Figured for what a .358 Savage 99 is going for I can get a custom 99 for pretty much same price. Since I will use it for Moose, berry picking, caribou and fishing it seems like a reasonable compromise. I roll my own so should be pretty much covered. Enough for bear if I do my part.

I'm all in. Love the 99 in 358's and have quite a few of them. Just make sure the action is above serial # 900,000 or it'll have the short (original length) internals that won't work for the longer Winchester cartridges.

Well trusting my Smith he says it will work and he is a Savage guy.

Fireball, you are not the only one that mentioned the thought that an early 250-3000 action could not be converted to a .358 Win. As a matter of fact I’d read that often enough that I called the smith working on it to confirm it and he informed me that it was all ready done. To be honest my smith is much farther on this project than I would have expected. My past experiences with time lines and Gun Smiths has been excellent work but extended lead times. At the rate he is going I will have it in hand with plenty of time for load development before hunting season.

8mm, a decade ago I carried a savage 99 for a little while, and used on a coupla good bulls. Here are my experiences:

Rebore by Jes reboring from 308 win, necks in the rotary mag were opened up for 358.

Rotary magazine spring was finicky and weak when asked to cycle heavier 358 rounds or any river silt got in there. Jammed occasionally. Spring had to be re-indexed and cleaned often. Pain in the ass to take apart and clean.

Rear locking was hard on brass if you tried to hang with bolt gun pressures.

Tiny savage 99 extractor was weak and would slip off fired case if chamber got dusty.

Decent lil thumpah, but aint no dmn meowzer style. Lil model 70 featherweight, Kimber 84 or a short action Ruger 77 would be better......

We'd all like to know how it works for you.

This has always been on my mind about extraction on the Savage 99 and rotary tension. Ive no credible experiance on the matter.

Ive thought of doing this exact project awhile back and Mainer AK advised me about it. Real world expeeiance in river systems he runs.

My solution is stick with my Ruger Hawkeye 338RCM compact rifle or my Ruger scout rifle. Those are bullet proof.

It would be possible to rebore a Ruger Frontier rifle or Scout rifle to 358 win. But the initial cost of the rifle isnt cheap. But i know of a nice MKX mauser in 308 for sale $350. It would be easy to rebore that and much less than a 99.

Personally, I would go buy a Remington in 350 mag!

I have a 99F, originally .308, rebored by JES to .358 Win. In fact it was my first 99, and Mainer put me on to it (it's from Maine!). I have had zero problems with it cycling, but I have kept my loads reasonable. I have had to restock it (got that from Fireball) as the original stock wouldn't quit cracking, but other than that it has been a dandy rifle. I have taken a moose and a black bear with it. The .358 is a good round IMHO.

I suppose a bigger reason for this "new gun" is cause it is so hard to find 8MM components. Today I saw some Speer 8MM bullets and seem sit had been a long time since I saw any 8MM of anything.

I have a matched set of 99F's in 308 and 358. The 358 shoots super well with 225 or 220 grain bullets at 2400fps driven by BLC2 at reasonable pressures. Great handy little rig.

I also have a pair of 350 Rem Mags in a 600 and 660. It will do a bit more but I dont think the moose know the difference and the 99 gets more style points IMO,

I would leave it alone. F’ing with success there. Mainers experience.

8mm,

I have a 99 in 358 and love it. Only shot a few deer with mine but I’m sure it’ll do anything you’d ask of it.

I’m also a BIG fan of the 8mm mag! I’ve shot all sorts of stuff with mine. I have a box or two of 200TSX I could let go if you’re in dire need. I don’t know if you’ve ever used that bullet but it is wonderfully accurate in my rifle and at 3000fps it absolutely hammers game. Pm if you’re interested.

Ben

My .358 Win. experiences make no sense. Back in the early 80's I was reading a book about old guide Hal Waugh and he talked about his wife Julies old Mod. 70 .358 Win. stating it was a wicked little gun for brown bear in the brush. That rifle was down the road for awhile at the old Brown Bear Gun shop and Museum here in Kenai and I used to go in and drool on it and the seal skin scabbard. So years ago I hear a guy I know is taking his beautiful .358 Win. Dakota 76 in to sell or trade. I call him and he said he wants $600.00 for it. I tell him he is nuts and buy it, I also make the mistake of telling him I will sell it back in 6 months if he gets sellers remorse. He did and I did and a month or so later I found out he traded it for a used hand gun. Crap!

Prior to that I traded into a Mod. 99 Savage in .358 Win. for about $150.00. A year or so later I sold it for $150.00 to a friend, never fired it. Now this is a couple of examples of trying to be a reasonable person and treat friends well during gun deals. It is also a couple of examples of me buying something I never really needed or planned to hunt with, my 45-70, 30-06 and .338 meet my needs in Alaska. It also proves, like many it is easy to read something and think a certain gun or cartridge will fill a non existing void in my tiny arsenal.

The rest of the story......

I was taken by the thought of a .358 Win., but I now realize it is the old style lever guns on a Marlin or Winchester pattern and .358 and .35 Whelen ballistics I find most interesting. So I ended up with a nice Mod. 94 Big Bore .356 Win. and a nice new production Mod. 71 Win. I turned into a .348 Ackley Improved. I have .358 Win. ballistics and then some with the .348 Improved and the .356 Win. is close enough. I have finally satisfied the .35 caliber urge. Whew!

Back to the Mod. 99 Savage. In the to small gun safe rests my only Safe Queen, my dear old Dads Mod. 99 in .300 Savage with the old 4 power Weaver scope with the post reticle. He used it on mule deer and antelope out west and fox in Iowa. His buddy from Cantwell, Alaska slayed many a moose and caribou with his iron sighted .300 Savage in the 50's and 60's. So I think mine will stay as is and maybe a grandkid will hunt with it some day.

I don't recall seeing Julie's rifle there. I did see and handle Hal's that she had given to UAF museum only to repo it because they didn't want to display it. That is how Brown Bear ended up with it according to Dave. I'm not sure who has it now.

The 99 in .300 Savage is a decent round, though nothing to write home about. I have a .300 Savage 99 in T and one in EG and both are fine rifles. I'd carry the .358 over both of them.

Well, how'd it work?

my old neighbor Benny a WW2 VET who always hunted with a Savage 99 /300 Savage, Benny killed plenty deer,moose and bear. Benny was the reason i started to collect and shoot Savage 99`s , because i sighted his old 99 in for him and i could not believe how accurate that 99 was compared to my 30-30 Winchester lever i owned.

If you're talking to me Roy... It's a wonder! I carried it everywhere with that pretty monte carlo stock, being extra careful to not scratch it up. Did that for a few years for black bear and moose. And then my son bought me a Marlin M95 in 45-70 for my birthday last year, and I pretty much carry that around in the woods now because I don't care if I beat it up. I love my 99s, don't get me wrong. But that old 45-70 cartridge is a stopper over bait and for moose at 30-50 yds.