Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Gunsmithing Savage 1899 takedown barrel swap

I brought home a sweet little Savage 1899 Takedown in 25-35. The gun was a 22 Savage Hi Power originally, which is essentially a necked down 25-35 in the first place. There is a butchered gun on Gun Broker with an intact 22 Savage Hi Power barrel. Both guns are the same model, Takedowns, barrel length,etc, and very close in serial number; mine is an early 1913 and the other is a very late 1912. Does anyone have any experience swapping Savage 1899 Takedown barrels between guns? I was wondering on the chances of timing and headspace.

I really like mine and only gave $425 for it, and I can use it. I don't know the availability of 22 Savage Hi Power ammo these days. It never was prevalent, nor were components, i.e. .227-.228 diameter bullets. It would be nice to have it back to original and have the other in 25-35 to use.

Also does this have a model number? It is a model 1899 Takedown originally in 22 Hi Power with a 20 inch barrel.

It has a lot of figure in the wood and the buttplate is pristine. It is fine as is and may just stay that way. I am not running a museum; I like to shoot vintage guns! I just thought it quite a coincidence to find a butchered action with an exhibition grade replacement buttstock with an un-molested 22 Hi Power barrel in about the exact same condition as mine externally. I will get around to pics sooner or later. It is a nice job of a rebore to 25-35. I hope it shoots good. Hurry up Graf's ship my 25-35 cartridges!

With the integral front sight it either fits or it doesn't. I think it will stay as it is. The 25-35 is more useful and at least available, plus I have a lot of .257 Caliber bullet tips, i.e. 117 Grain Sierra Game Kings, 117 Grain Win Power Points, and others in the 100-117 grain range. It appears to be a very popular conversion. I will say it was probably done more for ammunition / component availability than shot out barrels. The action is smooth as silk, the fit and finish is craftsmanship for sure. The barrel may get a little touch up blue but maybe not. I am very happy with the gun.

To be sure, I was not talking about a switch barrel gun. It was going to be a permanent switch yielding a nice old gun to original and pretty much safe queen status and the other being a heavily altered shooter. I am pretty sure it is going to stay as is.

Pics

It looks to be a M99F. Switching barrels can be problematic. Not all of the take down barrels had the same taper so a new forearm might be needed and then there's that thing about a take off barrel indexing correctly.

I am told this is a model 1899H. Featherweight Carbine Takedown. The one that I was thinking of switching was the same barrel / model as mine. I am just going to keep the old girl as is. Also I have learned that the older ones really had no specific model suffix. They were all Savage Model 1899. They specified the barrel style, length, and taper as the difference, i.e. lightweight 20 inch tapered, or octogon 26 inch, etc. People after the fact added the suffixes, not Savage. I had this posted on a few websites.

It requires someone that understands where to move metal and how to get the barrel to index correctly, then check the headspace. It's a bit of an in depth procedure. You need an old school gunsmith that does work like this. The local 24 year old that assembles AR's is NOT the one you want.

Or you can get lucky and it works straight out of the gate.

Also, be aware, each rotor and cartridge guide may or may not feed another cartridge. The best way to find that out is procure some ammo for the conversion you're considering and see if it feeds through your rifle. Some rotors will feed multiple cartridges. I can't verify with 100% certainty, but I believe the 25-35 and 22HP have a good chance of functioning through the same rifle.

If it requires lathe work, it requires a whole lot more than that. Setting it back can not be done in thousandths like some guns. There is an integral front sight. It would have to be set back a full thread. This will then back the barrel latch lug toward the receiver and away from it's latch on the forend.

Pre 64 Win 70's have the extractor cut and the earlier ones had integral front sights. Pre 64 Win 70 barrels will index and headspace properly 99.5% of the time if you are using similar era components. I would think the Savage would have similar results but no one has any confidence in that. The later pre 64 Win 70's used much fewer reamers to chamber/headspace the gun. They final headspaced by cutting the bolt face back. That is what I meant by similar era components, i.e. a fully cut chamber barrel mixed with a deeply recessed bolt face is gonna yield excess headspace.

I have threaded and fit close to 100 rifle barrels, all bolt actions.

The 22 Savage Hi Power is a necked down 25-35. When I get some ammo I will see how this gun feeds / shoots.

Having been down the road of Savage TD barrel swaps a couple times, here's what you need to know:

You might get lucky and the other barrel will mate up perfectly. But it probably won't. Even if it does index right out of the gate, headspace is an issue. (Assemblers at the Savage plant had bins of different length bolts with which to mix and match into guns on which the barrels were pre-fitted. That's how they regulated headspace.)

Three things must happen when the barrel is fully screwed in. 1) The index grooves must line up perfectly. 2) The shoulder of the barrel must bear tightly and evenly against the face of the receiver. 3) The breech end of the barrel must snug up against the front face of the "C-Ring" (for lack of a better term) in the receiver. Without the barrel making contact at those two points it's quite likely to wobble- you can't rely on just the threads to support the assembly, they are purposely made loosey goosey so you can screw the barrel up tight solely by hand. Making the barrel make solid contact at those two points while at the same time indexing perfectly is an exercise in frustration, and will make you cuss. A lot. Then, of course it could be all for naught if headspace isn't acceptable.

Best to have a couple spare bolts on hand to mix and match with after the barrel swap is complete.

It's pretty cool to have a couple barrels fitted to one receiver, and to me that justifies the headaches involved in making it happen.

.22HP and .25-35 rotors are the same. Cartridge guides should be the same also- I can't imagine Savage having made two different ones for two cartridges that are so similar.

The barrels on 1899H's of that era were pretty much the same diameter. The fore arm should work with both barrels.

Thanks for the detailed, experienced answer. That said I think I will leave it as is, as long as it shoots. Thanks to all. It is a neat, trim, petite little gun. It has character as should a 100+ year old gun!

Interestingly, of the couple dozen or so barrels I have screwed on Savage receivers, only one went too far, and then only by a few degrees. The rest stopped just short, making fitting pretty easy.

I bought a Sav 99 250 Sav take down made 1917 or 1918 for $175 in 2004.
It had a shaky barrel, that someone made a brass washer to tighten up.

In 2007 I made a 6mmBR Shilen 14" twist bull barrel for it

In 2019 I made a new 250 Sav 10" twist Bartlein barrel for it. I fitted a post war forend so I could mount a bipod and sling, without altering the old takedown forend.

In 2019 I made sketches of the process.

Wow! Thanks! If I ever venture down that road that is good info! I have relied on the drawings in "Bolt Action Rifles" by Frank DeHaas for years that have the same spec drawings for various bolt actions. Thanks again, but if it shoots it will stay as is, the more useful 25-35.

Mike,
I am a huge fan of DeHaas. I can take apart a gun, clean it, look at each part, and put it back together. Then I read DeHaas about that gun, and he has observed and understood more than twice what I have.
I have read his works on bolt actions and single shots, but have found nothing on Sav 99s.

Jack Belk wrote a few interesting things about Sav 99s:
https://www.shootersforum.com/leverguns-their-cartridges-general/191225-savage-99e-lever-issues.html
After reading that, I am careful with oil around a Sav 99 stock.

Well thanks for that additional useful information. But, my ammo came today, and the old girl shoots and cycles just fine! Smooth as butter. The bullets hit dead center @ 50 yards with nice round holes, no signs of yaw. I am happy with it!

Clark,

Sorry for the delay to this conversation.

Is the thread pitch the same on later 99 barrels as it is on the takedown barrels from the 1910-20's?

I am tempted to add a second barrel to mine (1920, 303 Savage).

Thanks,

Garrett

Garrett , all square thread savage 99 barrels should have the same pitch.

Thank you Clark.

I think I have my next project in mind.


Regards,

Garrett

Clarkm, I have a takedown receiver that I'm rebuilding. You interested in making me a new barrel?

No.
I don't want the work, and you would not want my sloppy workmanship.