Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Savage Collectors The Savage 99: Regional Preferences?

When I moved to New Mexico in 1974, you would still see a few hunters packing 99's. Mostly in 300 Savage or 308 win. A lot of horseback hunters used them here. As time went on you saw them less and less. I started noticeing them in the pawn shops (gun stores here are usually also pawn shops). I picked one up in 308 and still have it, it is actually my son's rifle now, but he leaves it at my place. In 79 I married a local girl, (we are still married) and her dad hunted with a 99 in 250/300. I hunted with him many times and it was all he used for deer or elk. He is 85 now and gave up hunting about 10 years back. He gave the rifle to his oldest son, who still uses it down near Kerrville Texas. You don't see them on the used rack much anymore and when you do they bring a good price if they are in decent shape. I have fond memories of hunting with my father-in-law and his 99. My boy recently moved to Vancouver, Wa. and I hope to get a chance to hunt with him there someday while he packs his 99. They are great rifles and I wish Savage would bring them back, if only in some limited runs. If I find a good one in 308 or 358 I will snatch it up and it will definitely get used from time to time. KDJ

Alright, now it's my turn. In the mid 1950s, when I was a young teenager, my dad and I went hunting with a very well known cougar hunter named Earl Roberts (Robertson?). Earl worked as a grader operator or foreman for the County Road Dept. in Skagit County, Washington State. Both Dad and I carried .30/30s, mine a Winchester '94 carbine and Dad's a Marlin 336. But Earl carried a 99EG in .300 Savage. (For quite a while I didn't know there was anything but the EG among 99s..) Our hunting wasn't the best but I still remember Dad and Earl talking about the Savage. Earl said he had two of them, the .300 and a .22 Hi Power. Dad asked how the .22 Hi Power was on deer and Earl said it just "jellies the meat." That, as I understood it, was why he carried his .300 and not the .22. Earl also commented to me about knives for taking care of deer. I liked a sheath knife, probably bigger than I needed, and Earl showed me his pocket knife along with the comment, "That's all you need." The knife he showed me was a Muskrat style with the narrow blades. I've often wondered if that wasn't a Remington R4593... Anyway, Earl did his best to still the Savage 99 wants in the blood of both me and my dad.

Then, just a year or so later when I was 14, I went to our local gunshop by myself. After going in the door the first thing I saw was a like-new 99EG in .250/3000 laying on the counter. A sign on it said "Sale" and I think I remember the price as $67.50. So, I borrow their telephone and called Dad. Just a few minutes later my father and mother both arrived and Dad was more than interested in that .250.

To continue. I remember that Dad asked the 'smith if the .250-3000 was as good for deer as the .22 Hi Power. Of course, we were quickly informed about how superior the .250-3000 really was. Dad bought that .250 on the spot.

What did surprise me was that he bought no ammunition. Later I realized that he couldn't afford the ammo that night. Dad worked at a good job, you bet, but he was paid only once per month. A week later, however, he came home with a box of Peters 100 grain loads for the .250. And, the price of that box was $3.85. I remember that because our State's sales tax at that time brought the cost of a box of .250's up to an even $4.00. (How times have changed!)

Dad got his deer for the next two years with that rifle. Then one day, when I was 17, I was coming home, from my part-time job at that same gunshop. Our house had two front doors because of a fully enclosed front porch. As I went in the outer door, Dad was coming out at the inner door and that .250-3000 was in his hand. I asked where he was taking the .250? Dad replied that he was going down to the gunshop to trade it in on the new Savage 110 in .243. I reached for the gun and suggested that Dad go sit on the couch. He did that, and I took the .250 to my bedroom.

Then I went back down to the gunshop and bought the .243 for Dad. The price for the new .243, if I remember right, was about $94. Yes, Dad had to go down and sign for the new rifle but that .250 was mine! It still is...

Neat! Write all of that down, or print it out, and make sure it stays with the gun way down the road when it goes to someone else (hopefully someone in your family).

Well, I don't know how many are still in use but back in the 50's, the 99 was pretty common in da U.P. The ".300 Savage" was the state of the art deer rifle in many camps and guys traded in their Marlin and Winchester levers to purchase one. About half of the eight or so hunters in my dad's camp carried 99's - three .300's and one .303. The camp owner, known as the one-armed bandit, couldn't use one as he had lost an arm in a saw mill accident. I still hunt with my dad's 99R and I know several others who hunt the same area who use 99's in 250/3000.

Mike

Re: Chiefs50 -yep. AN old friend and gun collector who grew up in Michigan (he passed away a few years ago) told me when he was a kid that if you were a serious deer hunter you carried a 99. My dad and a few uncles and Grandpa all used 99's in Minnesota. I bought my first savage-a shortened/chopped barrel 30-30 for $35.00 in 1965. Paid for it with paper route money. My uncle bought it at an auction and then sold it to me. Don't have it anymore, and don't remember the model, but am guessing it was an 1895? For some reason I remember the serial number was in the 35,000 range.
Gary

MnFn, that would make it an 1899 A if it had a round barrel.

Thanks ROMAC. It was a round barrel. I occaisionally look for it at local gunshows, but it has not surfaced. Not a big deal, really as I have two 99 .300's and much prefer them to the old one(it had the barrel chopped with a crude front sight soldered on).

In my part of Pa., Model 99's were about as common as giraffes in Cleveland......I actually never saw anybody with one although a few fellows had them.....Mostly Rem. 760's.