Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Savage Collectors Year savage 99 action length change?

My experience has been that all levers from 90K up to 999K can be swapped. It's just a matter of tweaking it to get that lever bite lockup working well.

I’ve read that a lot of 99s were hand fitted. There maybe someone still alive that worked at the factory. A big maybe.

It is entirely possible that there are straight levers that will fit, or that can be easily modified to fit. The inner crescent of the lever near the handle has a cam profile that is absolutely crucial. I have a couple I can play with to see if I can get closer to an answer. Fireball is so correct in his statement about trial and error and the need for fitting. It's not rocket science, but there is no room for carelessness or assumptions either. When I build from an empty receiver, I have a sequence I follow to reduce the number of times I have to go back to square 1 and start over. I'll holler when I get this past the arm waving stage.

Lightfoot, your comment makes me wonder if they changed the cam profile on the lever safety models in 1960. I will look into this further.

I just looked at 6 levers, all with lever safety. One was the E I mentioned earlier that would not let the F fire, one was a straight grip s/n 226,xxx and 4 were pistol grip, origin unknown. When it comes to the cam that controls no-fire with lever open, I saw no design differences, supporting Lightfoot's findings. I did find manufacturing variations that were visible to the eye. It would be easy to construct a fixture that could be used to at least partially quantify some of the important variations. The practical result of all this is to support the belief the the levers are interchangeable in the 90,000 to 900,000 range, differing only in manufacturing variation.

So, Alan, I believe that if you get your post 900 pre mil pistol grip, you have a good chance of finding a straight lever that will fit. You may need to remove or add a bit of material to make it work (or you may not). You do need to check for no-fire and fire out of battery (lever drooped) prior to loading it with live ammunition. Just my view.

Sam

Thanks a bunch Sam! I learned a lot. I have a 99f in 308 , but it’s too nice of a gun to modify. I will look for an ugly duckling for a project. Somewhere I have the Murray book. I have some ugly stocks coming from a member, so I will have something to do. Alan

Ralph(the owner)and I scratched our head's over this one.Out goes the 900,000 BS.

Sqweeler, this really clears everything!! What a letter!! I really enjoyed it! It is going to be interesting to other peoples responses who contributed to this post. One for the books!! Thank you so much !!! Alan

That is the one and only 243/308/358 ever seen whose serial number was under 900,000.

And, if I remember, you couldn’t load the magazine. It was a single shot.

So almost surely a factory screwup.

I think they gambled on the .243 working like a .250 in the short magazine and realized it wouldn't. I don't know that it was a single shot but it was very unreliable.

Why they ever shipped that gun is beyond me!

243 was available at one time long ago with a 100gr roundnose.Probably would have worked.I'm sure there was a correct spool in it,so the only problem was O.A.L. with today's spitzer ammo.Easily corrected with a handload.Wish I could've got my hand's on it.

They shipped it because some weirdo like me wanted it.

I think it is just a case of a model in transition where they used up the parts they had already made. When savage bought fox, it is said they used up parts that fox had made, till they made the newer model B. Just an opinion

Thanks for posting that letter. Keeps everybody on their toes.
The BS part may be somewhat harsh.
In general the Savage serial numbers that we assign start/stop dates contain a transition period however small. Let's call the transition period "slightly fuzzy".
In the case of the 900,000/.243,.308,.358 with 1 known example in the 700,000 range is best described as a piece of "lint".
Good info to know!

Took out Dad's 300Sav 1956F.Federal factory 243 100gr 2.565" oal (which is a little shorter than my 300 handload's)goes in the rotor,feed's and ejects perfect.

Hey sqweeler, what are the first 2 numbers of the serial number if you dont mind and will this action feed rounds .200 thou longer?? Thank you for your help.

782xxx. 2.600" or under. 150 Hornady handload seated to cannelure 2.595".They changed internals more so for the 308 at 2.800".

The 300 Savage specs are for 2.6" COAL, so not surprised those 243's fit. They're in the allowable length for under <900,000 SN.


A full length 243 Win at 2.7" might have problems. Almost surely a full length 308 Win at 2.8" won't go in.

I wonder if you can load .308 diameter round nose bullets short enough in a 308 case to get them to feed in a pre-900,000 magazine?

Probably - but so what??

Savage lengthened the magazine and made the distinction by jumping the SN up to 900,000.

Should be end of discussion...