Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Savage Collectors Savage 99 (75th anniversary) scope base suggestions

Gentlemen,

I'm taking some time to clean up a used 75th anniversary model that I purchased a while back. It's in relatively good shape for someone's hunting rifle. It's definitely not a collectors item, but that any of the 75th ones are.

Anyway, I would like to replace the 1970 vintage scope/rings/bases in. It currently has a set of 2pc Weaver "flip" mounts with a tasco 4x scope. Glass is decent, but I can tell the rings are not helping in the accuracy arena. And frankly, I could use some additional help in the clarity and glass quality with my eyes...

What are some suggestions for bases/rings? I see that Leopold makes a one pc base, and I've noticed that the Weaver back base looks to be a #14. I have tended to use Leapold stuff, but I'm not set on anything. I plan to so put a Leapold 3x9x40mm on it.

Thanks all!

If you're looking for best accuracy, I'd go with the Leupold or other older 1 piece bases.

I've not had problems with Weaver 2 piece mounts, but they've produced some in recent years that are way off spec and can't be zeroed.

[quote=Calhoun]If you're looking for best accuracy, I'd go with the Leupold or other older 1 piece bases.I've not had problems with Weaver 2 piece mounts, but they've produced some in recent years that are way off spec and can't be zeroed.[/quote

I got a new set of Weavers because I thought the issues with them had been fixed. Maybe the ones I got had been on the rack for 20 years. The rear base was visually pointing to the left. I have good Weavers on other guns.

Thank you. I

f I can't find a nice period correct one piece base I will go for the new Leapold. I'm a bit leary of the Weavers after a couple of recent bad experiences.with them.

#1 on the one piece base.
IMO a 3x9x40 Leupold is too much scope for a svelte M99, would much prefer the look of a Leupold 4X Compact

Balderdash

Weaver bases, Burris signature Zee rings

Watching with interest.

My '57 99F 300 sav came to me with Weaver 2 pc base and Weaver rings presumably original with a period correct Weaver K4 60B.
Shoots well but, gasp, I am considering using a Leapold 2x7 for my old eyes. It's not too much larger than the K4 size wise.

Back to lurking and watching.

There are a TON of Weaver 2 piece bases out there which are perfectly good.

They just had some manufacturing problems sometime in the last 5 years or so and bad ones went out.

Fortunately I have probably enough Weaver bases to last me.. well.. forever.

Thanks for the pictures with the larger scopes! Nice looking deer/pigs.

I'll look for some NOS Weaver bases first. I prefer the look of two pc.over one pc bases. My thoughts is to make this rifle into my primary TX rifle with the possibility taking it to Africa in 2025 if I don't take a sporterized Springfield or Mauser 30-06 that are both presently being rebarreled.at the moment. Apparently this is the season of "old" projects coming out of the closet!

Some might say that the 308 isn't enough in Africa, but should be just as effective as the 7x57 for anything I'll be going after. And besides, it would look nice. Has anyone ever used the concepts that we use on two pc stocked single shots of isolating the front stock with a relief and using a small rubber washer at the forearm screw to "float" the barrel? And if so, did it help with accuracy on their 99?

I'm hoping that it will group ok with 150 grain Barnes TTSX bullets. If not I'll try a 165 grain bonded. Shots are all less than 150 yards. For TX, I'll drop down to 130s.

I'm already having to replace the butt stock on it for it suffered someone dropping it on it's toe, cracking and loosing part of the wood and bending the metal butt plate. I won't miss the medallion anyway. Even thought about replacing the brass coated lever, but I'll leave it alone for now. I'll be working on fitting the new butt stock some this weekend. I decided the old girl had sit not being used long enough and could take the place of an ugly Savage Axis I have that I have never liked.

I'm getting too old to use an ugly rifle.

To my eye the 40mm objective lens and 12.4” overall length of a 3x9 overwhelm a M99. A 2x7x33 at 11” L or a 2.5x8x36 at 11 3/4” L would be my choice if using a variable scope.

The rubber O-ring on the forearm is a trick we use to try to get finicky shooting 99s to shoot better. Mixed success, I've got a couple that I think improved slightly because of it.
Not much else you can do except hog out some of the barrel channel to reduce forearm pressure on the barrel, and you risk taking too much if you do that. It's definitely not standard practice.

I really like the Leupold Vari-x3 2 1/2 x 8 x 36. You can mount it low and it has plenty of magnification for hunting.

Thanks. That about the same level of luck I've had on other rifles

The Tasco one piece weaver base is super low and when glass bedded to the receiver, the front mount cups the receiver and acts as an integral recoil lug taking the stress off the scope base screws. You don't have the scope alignment issues that are possible with the two piece bases. I believe a one piece scope mount is more rigid than the two piece mount as well as stronger. The greatest number of ring choices are available for the Weaver base setup. Plus, you don't have to deal with the stupid rail for a one piece mount. Its the only way to fly for a Savage 99 in my book. I also use them on Mausers for the same reasons.

I like the Redfield and Leupold one piece mounts.

Thanks for the suggestions.

Here is a picture of the old girl in process. The butt stock toe was broken and the brass plated end bent. So, I decided that she needed a new butt. I would normally want to have a check piece on a stock, but I purchased this stock from another member. As you can tell it was originally made for a curved finger lever, but I decided to see if I could modify it to somewhat emulate some of the early straight lever rifles that had a pistol grip. I wish it had a bit more cap runway to work with. Still need to make additional shaping changes. If Im not happy with it, it will just become a straight wrist.

Fortunately, the walnut will match up with the forearm pretty well.

I figured that since it was a used hunter, as the undesirable 75th anniversary edition in 308, I didn't have a lot to lose. Besides. I love octagon barrels. I will put a Leopold scope on it to pull out the brass highlights. 🙃

It’s looking nice. The grain pops and very good job fitting at the receiver.