I have an article that John Wootters wrote on the Savage 250-3000 and Savage 99-A. It was in a column Versatile Handloading and was printed on newspaper like paper. He is listed as Associate Editor.

What publication was this?

Nice find. Dad said his 99 .250 didn't go "Bang!" It went "Meat!" I've found that to be true over the years. John's velocities are right on, too. I get 3415fps with 75gr Sierra hollow points and 40gr of RL15 and 3003 with 100gr NBTs and 37gr of the same in a 700 Classic. Dad's old rifle clocks 3071fps with 37gr IMR4320 and the 87gr Speer hot core. And still says "Meat!"

Interesting use of IMR4320, never used it in my 250 Savages. I need to try it.

Tag

Maybe a Houston, TX paper? I think he lived in that general area.

Houston Chronicle, assistant outdoor editor. Bob Brister was the outdoor editor for 35 yrs.

Brister and Wooters were two of who I cut my teeth on. Great writers and knew their stuff.
Are they still with us?

The 250-3000 is still a great round. They kill well beyond what you would think. I like to shoot heavier bullets in mine. I built my .250 on a Howa 1500 action and ordered a Krieger barrel for it cut with a 1:9 twist. My gun smith gave it a long throat and I seat the bullets long. The barrel is 26" long and it pushes 115 Grain Combined Technology Ballistic Tips out at well over 2800 FPS. It's a fine cartridge and I think it gives a .243 a real run for its money. And Recoil is nil.

I too grew up reading Brister and Wooters. Unfortunately both of them are no longer with us. I had the pleasure of shooting in a sporting clays tournament with Bob Brister. That man was the most incredible wingshot I have ever seen.

Filaman,

Unfortunately, neither John or Bob is still with us. Both were born in 1928, but Bob passed away at 77 in 2005, and John in 2013, only a few days short of his 85th birthday.

I was privileged to know both men, though Bob far better than John. Got to hunt and shoot shotguns with Bob on several occasions, including my first wingshooting trip to Argentina in 1996. Only got to talk to John, both in person at several "industry" shows, and quite a few long phone conversations.

I remember reading his columns.

Should also mention that until recently, IMR4320 was considered one of the top powders for the .250 Savage. In fact, one of my very early hunting mentors only use 4320 in his 99 Savage with 100-grain Speer bullets. He killed a pile of deer with that load, along with a few elk. Though he preferred the .30-06 and 180s for elk--again with IMR4320.

IMR4320 has always been my go to powder in the 35 Whelens,

I thought they were both gone now, but I wasn't sure. I met Wooters at the Shot Show in Houston I think in 1990. I say I met him. He was in one of the booths. I used to watch Brister on TV. The first time I ever saw a buck rattled up was on his show.

I shot sporting clays with Brister around Houston occasionaly. The man was a magician with a gun. The story around Houston was that he and his wife paid for their house with winnings from side bets at Colombaire shoots.

Docbill,

That's exactly how they did it. Bob told some VERY interesting stories about their live-pigeon days, including getting backed by certain people acquired their money by not strictly legal means....

Been using 4320 in the 250 since 1976,same year I bought Bob Brister's book.

My 250 likes 4320. So does my 7x57.

It was quite an era - John Wooters, Bob Milek, Jack O'Connor, Elmer Keith, Warren Page - just off the top of my head. I guess I am getting too old.

That article was in regards to the re-introduction of the 250 Savage cartridge in the model 99A in 1971, which was the first year for that model. In 1975 they added the 99CD model, and it was also available in 250-3000.

Last catalogued in a 99 in 1983. If they'd changed the twist rate back in the 1930's or 1940's before the 243 came out, I still think it'd be popular to this day.

My earlier 99s in 250-3000 have all loved H4895.

MD, what did you think of the writings of John Jobson, please?

My Shotgunning was personally autographed by Brister. I have a whole collection of his books but that is the only one he signed. I read his local newspaper columns and then his F&S columns. It was a REAL treat to shoot with him. I envied his life style as a youth and only later realized what a genius writer he was. He wrote a column 6/7 days a week from about 1952 until he quite in 2003 or so plus the F&S column and then the books.

And he did all of the writing plus all the field time. That has to be a real grind.

jaguartx,

I always thought John Jobson was a very fine writer--and also thought he should have been the shooting columnist for SPORTS AFIELD instead of Pete Brown, who knew a lot technically but whose writing was as dull as gray dirt. Instead Jobson was the camping columnist, where he was better than OK--but his real passion was shooting and hunting.

On the other hand, I cannot remember Jobson writing much about shotgunning either at targets or birds. Back in those days, shooting columnists for the magazines then called The Big Three (FIELD & STREAM, OUTDOOR LIFE and SPORTS AFIELD) were expected to cover it all, whether the shooting involved rifles, shotguns or handguns--or hunting or target-shooting. My guess is Jobson cared most about rifles. Same deal with the Big Three--they tried to cover every aspect of hunting, shooting and fishing--including camping.

Mule Deer, I know you've covered a lot of ground professionally, including being published in Sports Illustrated, National Geographic, and teaching a local writing course, but have you ever written a newspaper article? Just curious.

Seeing the original post about John Wooters writing about rifles in a Houston newspaper column seems odd nowadays, but I'm old enough to remember when guns and hunting were mainstream and seeing displays of rifles and shotguns in JC Penney, Sears, and Montgomery Ward was normal. Our local weekly paper has a sports column, and the writer will still publish the fish and game opening dates and will occasionally feature hunting photos of kids with big bucks.

gaperry59,

No, I have not written for a newspaper. By the time I started started making a good chunk of my living freelance writing for magazines in the late 1970s, newspapers didn't pay freelance writers enough to compete for my time.

Back then, I was writing about fishing as much as hunting--especially flyfishing. The local Missoula newspaper's outdoor editor offered me an assignment to flyfish a local steam of my choice for a day, while a staff photographer took pictures. Then I could write an article for the paper, which would take at least a day--and they'd pay me $75. Even back then the smallest magazines I wrote for paid better--and I was also selling (somewhat erratically, though several times a year) articles for $250 to over $1000.

My 99-A 250-3000 was built in 1972 and I bought it used.

Different powders have been mentioned for the 250-3000, Wootters cited IMR 3031. I tried it in my 99s, but I had more success with other powders. However, my Dad and one of his brothers used it in theirs with good results. Dad starting using it after reading about it from Harvey Donaldson. Davidson said Dupont had the 250 case in mind when they came out with IMR 3031.

Always enjoy seeing you Savage 99-A.......remarkable wood on your classic rifle.

Beautiful rifle! Never had a post-1960 99A, but they are slowly growing on me.

I'm a sucker for the older 250's though.

Those are some nice 250s.

My 1946 99 is not tapped for a scope. Should I decide to have that done, what would it do to its value? Happy Trails

CF member, BullShooter weighed in on the origin of the Wootter's article.

I'd guess that the article is from Gun Week, a tabloid newsprint publication out of Ohio. Neal Knox was the founding editor in 1966, but he left after a couple of years to become editor of Handloder and Rifle magazines in late 1968.

In early issues of Handloader, Wooters is included on the list of Staff with the added credential as "Associate Editor, Gun Week".

I came across an article where Wootters indicated he wrote for Gun Week.

Thursday, February 12, 2004 West Kerr Current Page 9
Currently Outdoors
John Wootters


"For me, at least, reloads
offered one more advantage:
recreation. Assembling my
own loads was and is one of
my favorite pastimes. I enjoy
the process itself, finding it
both relaxing and mentally
challenging. Over the years,
I’ve made much of my livelihood writing about the subject, having published two
books on reloading and
served as handloading editor/columnist for SHOOTING TIMES, THE RIFLE,
HANDLOADER, Petersen’s
HUNTING, GUNS &
AMMO, GUN WEEK newspaper, and other publications."

Drilling holes would drop the value by a couple hundred dollars.

What I would do instead is get hold of a member here by the handle of Lightfoot. He can hook you up with a modified scope base that doesn't require drilling any new holes. It uses the two existing tang holes, and the rear sight slot (like the old Stith mounts did). It's sturdy and works well.

Like this:

roundoak et al.-
The article entitled "Savage's Revival of .250/3000 Cartridge Best News Of Season", written by John Wootters, appeared in the tabloid publication Gun Week, Volume 6, Issue 231, dated April 16, 1971.

I did guess correctly the name of the magazine.

Then I supplied the staff of the inter-library loan division of the Van Pelt Library with only that probable name, likely year of publication, and the article's title and author . Using that sketchy information they went to work with uncanny swiftness and helpfulness. In less than six hours they were able to locate a collection of back issues of the publication, confirm the article's presence, provide a complete citation for it, and supply me with pdf copies of the two pages on which the article appeared.

--Bob

Bob,

That is outstanding detective work by you and Van Pelt Library division staff.

Wayne

For those of you who have never seen a Gun Week newspaper of yesteryear, here is what BullShooter came up with.