Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Savage Collectors ? about an 1899 in 38-55

Guys i just picked up an 1899A (ser# 92xxx) all matching in 38-55. Made in 1909 can I shoot winchester 255 gr factory jacketed ammunition in her? I also have 245 lead cowboy loads. Thanks! Forgot to add bore is easily 8 or 9 out of 10.

Congrats, sounds like a nice one! I can't imagine why you can't shoot the jacketed ammo in it, but I'll defer to the experts of all things 99 if that's not the case.

yes you can,been doing it in mine

Thanks guys.

If the cast bullet loads are from HSM you may not find them very accurate. I bought a few boxes to use in my 38/55 and they landed all over the board at 25 yards. Measuring the bullet diameter I found them to be .376" in diameter. Through trial and error, I found my rifle to need .379" bullets to be even reasonably accurate with .380" to be muc better.

The factory Winchester loads with a jacketed bullet were better but not great. I could get 4"-5" groups at 50 yards most of the time with 3 shot groups but some groups had fliers as much as 8" from the aim point. These rounds also seemed slow at a little under 1200 fps.

I would not have high hopes regarding accuracy, that way you can't be disappointed (but possibly surprised) with your initial ammo choice. After my disappointment with factory ammo, I picked up some .380" lead bullets and had a handful sized in each diameter from .377"-.380". Loading them all with the same charge I luckily found the .379" and .380" sizes to work well. For me this was easier than slugging barrel which many recommend. I'm finding bullet lubrication might also play a factor in accuracy in that those I lubed in Alox resulted in poorer groups than with SPG.

Some powder coated bullets I've tried have also shown some differences in accuracy. The red ones I have have been on par with the SPG while the blue have been worse than with Alox. It isn't the color but the material of the coating. Or the person doing the coating would be closer to the truth as I did the blue while a buddy gave me the red ones.

In any event, enjoy shooting your 38/55, I really like mine. It is tied as my favorite 1899 to shoot.

Woodmaster how is your bore? Ive shot several old rifles in 32-40 and 38-55. If they had bad bores they generaly shot really bad like 4 inch groups at 25yds. However I shot a 1892 Win in 38-40 with barely any rifleing left and with factory jacketed Win ammo it shot about a half inch! Crazy thing is the more I shoot my other 1899 B in 32-40 the tighter the groups are getting with lead bullets. Every rifle is different i guess?

Savage 99 in 38-55! I'm that Kermit the Frog color with envy.

BLR,

The bore is frosty but it does OK with plain lead bullets that appear to be full diameter or .001" over. From other sources and experiences, jacketed bullets tend to group better than plain lead bullets if undersized. That is why the Winchesters did better on the whole than the HSM loads. This is particularly true if the base of the jacketed bullet is not encased. My main experience with this was loading .224" bullets in the 22 Hi Power and a little in the 7.62x39 but others (particularly Mule Deer on this site) have written of this in other cartridges too.

I shot the 38-55 yesterday. The old girl can shoot!! I tried the lead cowboy loads first(245 gr). Got maybe a 3 inch group at 25 yds. Tried some other lead reloads and she shot better, about 2 or less. And lastly I tried 3 shots with the factory Winchester 255 soft points in the white box. 2 were in the same hole and the 3rd shot was touching! Easily less than an inch. Just a great old rifle! Now I know why you never see them for sale in 38-55. I also shot the 1899 B in 32-40. Maybe 3 inches but that was also HSM cowboy loads. Hard to find factory 32-40s and if you did they would be probobly too expensive to shoot.

1899 in 38-55? I'd get in just about any line for a nice one!