Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Savage Collectors Bear hunt/Savage 284/ friend John and son

Thought you guys out east might enjoy a few photos of Oregon. To make it legit, I included a Savage 99 in 284.
A pleasant day with my wife the photographer, friend John(cowboy hat) and his disabled son Chris. Chris is homebound so this trip was all about him. He shot a 30/30, drove dad's quad, hunted bears, ate hot soup off the camp stove on a cold day. He was grinning the entire day! We all love that kid (he's 25, so not really a kid)

We did chase one good bear John spotted, but more an exercise to learn his haunt than any hope of seeing him again this day. We'll be back after this bear. Chris got to share the excitement of the hunt just the same.

Towards the end of the day we wanted to do a little shooting, so we all took turns with the wifes 16" 30/30, the 38 Super, and we each fired our big guns. John shoots a 7 mag, I shot the 99F 284. Except for the 30/30 and Super, we fired 425 yards at the soup cans leftover from lunch. Don't let anyone tell you a Savage 99 isn't any good for long range.
John cheated with his first shot and blew gravel all over one can, knocking it over. Thinking he slayed it, we were high fiving, laughs all around. Then I tried, and got darn lucky on my first shot with a direct hit, sending the can 30' in the air. We all laughed like little girls, like only guys that hit beyond their ability do!!! Chris fired lots in the 30/30 with some light loads I cooked up with Speer Plinkers, even connecting himself on a water bottle at about 60 yards. His muscle control is poor due to his disability, so this was a great shot and again high fives all around.
In one photo, you'll see that you never know what you might find stashed in the mountains.

Anyway, all the best to you Savage cranks from Oregon, enjoy the photos from my wife.

Unloading for the day-



Chris, John, and I





The first green grass of the year-



Here's where we found the only bear we saw today-



We did a lot of stopping along the way to get photos of everything you notice on the spring hunts that your senses have been deprived of all winter!



[img]http://i1186.photobucket.com/albums/z371/Weather223/April5bearhunt030_zps39ee5a45.jpg[/img]

We wanted to stop and try our hand at some longer shooting. The trail you see just over Johns black hat is a dead end track and is 425 yards away. We set up some soup cans for targets.



Getting the 284 ready. Bipod too short, went with sticks instead.





The unlucky can



I'm pretty sure I know how this got up in the mountains, but I wouldn't mind knowing why.

All in all, what a great day. Made all the more special by my wife and Christopher going along. Hope you guys see grass sometime before June up there in the NE!

Shoot straight.

* Special thanks to Rory/Calhoun and more guys than I can remember for getting this 284 going with reloading supplies, advice, loads, bullet choices, etc. Even now Mike/Lightfoot is helping me understand tightening up the rotor spring to aid in cycling. All the goods including the scope, bullets, brass and dies came from fire members. You have no idea how thankful I am!!! It's a shooter, just what I need for these ranges, and I couldn't have pulled it off w/o all the help I got here.

A 30 second or so video Rebeca put together.

http://www.magisto.com/album/video/MzUgVkFABFAgJTgHDmEwCXh_

Looks like lots of fun was had by all. Not much snow here now, but still looking for the first green grass and birds.

Wonderful!! Not much better time than spending it outdoors with family and friends. Looks like all had a good time. Jealous here.

Steve

What a great day! That's a preetty accurate levergun at 425 yds!! Poor can never had a chance.

I've been stretching out my range a bit. Prepping for a trip to MT/WY in October. I'm sure I'd be better with hand loads, but I don't have time to set up a reloading station, though XCIX left me all the goods NIB, learn how to do it, then do it, then work loads etc..... Corelokts doing the job, using the 308 EG. Popping 4" balloons @ 300. The next 100 yards gonna be interesting.

Roy,
That looks like a blast.
It ain't all about the harvesting....
And yes, the boat does look a bit out of place.....

looks like Chris had a ball good on you guys for doing that.


norm

Therein lies a tale of a day well spent. Thanks for sharing, Roy.

Looks like a fine spring day! still 2 ft. of snow here but bare spots here and there! Roy in the 6th pic down lower rt. conner looks like a face in the river to me. owner of the boat? Thanks for the pics!

Sorry if I bore you guys with this stuff. I call the Savage forum home so you guys get more than you bargained for sometimes. Just appreciate all of you.

The rifle is a 99F. New to me, so I relied on a lot of advice from the forums to get it going. The load that shoots so well is a Speer 145 grain SPBT over 57 gr. H4831SC. The 284 in a short action requires a pretty stubby bullet, and the guys on some of the other forums recommended the Speer for it's good .502 BC and compatibility with the 284. Don't know how it performs on game yet, but it flies well. This may be the right 99 for long range. Bout the best you can do in a short action from the factory. Except there's always the 6.5/284. That's one that may need building.

I think Savage made the most of their 99 with this cartridge.

Little early in the day to be hittin' the sauce hey John?!!

nice Roy, looks like you guys had a great day.. 60 degrees here as I write. bout time.
looks likes a good wheeler ride their too.
thanks for the 284 recipe I'll give it a try

plab

nice Roy, looks like you guys had a great day.. 60 degrees here as I write. bout time.
looks likes a good wheeler ride their too.
thanks for the 284 recipe I'll give it a try

plab

This is the Savage forum, so lets have a look at that 284....

there was a 25-284 at the gun show this week end but I did not have the coin .

norm

Pretty garden variety for this place, almost as bad as a tomato stake, some might say worse. I like the way it shoots though.













[img]http://i1186.photobucket.com/albums/z371/Weather223/284001_zps5d82a803.jpg[/img]

Pretty nice gun.

Someday it'll be worth somethin......

Just pullin ur leg Roy.

I like it.