Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Savage Collectors 99 reloads and OAL

Hello
Curious what other 99 owners who reload have found out about OAL and accuracy.
Do you use the reloading book OAL or do you set them out longer towards the lands ?

1st, I understand 99s are minute of deer and are not meant to be benchrest shooters.
2nd, I also understand the OAL is limited to the rotary mag
With that, I have found that the rotary mag length, has not been an issue with my 99s.
3rd, Just looking for the best accuracy available, for each rifle.

I usually set the OAL.2 to .3 off the lands and have had decent results in my 99s doing this, and very good results with my bolt guns.
This is my bolt gun OAL "Go To" method.
I am curious what you "99 oldtimers" have found out, if anything, as a "rule of thumb" in regards to reloads and OALfor these old girls?
Thanks in advance

I load mine to factory length. That gets me an inch or less in the 8 or 9 I have. I have multiples of many calibers, couldn’t keep all that straight trying to load for each rifle. I’m just a deer-pig hunter, inch or less works for me. My longest shot is 300 yards at the place I hunt.

I played around a bit with OAL for best accuracy in a few 99 cartridges, conclusion:

COAL in the 99 is not built for ANY long distance load combos, (long-heavy bullets, or more powder column) , so hunting bullets that can touch the lands and be under 2.78" OAL, work great! Anything 2.8" that has consistent feed success requires different powder trials for best accuracy at that length.

I had issues with OAL unloading live rounds. had to shorten a bit. they hit on the side of the reciever

Magazine length governs COAL.

When I was shooting with the .308 in the Savage 99, and I still have one 99 left in .308, I ended of running Hornady 150 grain Round Nose or 150 grain Nosler partitions with 44 grains of IMR 4064 or 44.5 grains of Varget which typically yielded around 2700 FPS and 1 moa or less, give or take. Never had an issue with max COL at 2.80 COL. I did have two 99's in .308 that would lock up with these loads though, but it was not due to COL but rather the pressure. Of the two bullets, the Hornady RN's provided the most impressed kills and the NBT's were a little more accurate.

I believe they went to the longer 2.8" mag about SN 900,000 around 1955. I use 2.8" in my 308, but is still over .100" off the lands-long throat.

I usually set the OAL.2 to .3 off the lands and have had decent results in my 99s doing this, and very good results with my bolt guns.

Meant to say
.020 to.030 off the lands
I need glasses, but I am fighting it