Has anyone on here seen or done a 99 rebarrel on a 30-30 or 25-35 in 219 Donaldson Wasp? I was talking with my Dad yesterday about cartridges and that rebarrel I'm getting done on that EG, and he mentioned he still had some brass and dies for the Wasp from back when he had one in the 70s.

It just kind of got another rebarrel idea rattling around in my head, depending on how happy I end up with this one in progress, and if I could find a shot out donor for a reasonable price.

I had a 99 that had been rebarrelled to .219 Zipper, so it wouldn't be impossible to do a Wasp. I believe Zipper pressures are somewhat lower than the Wasp.

Yeah, it is just a Zipper slightly shortened with a sharper shoulder. How did yours feed?

Feed without having to mess with a rotor would be my biggest concern. I imagine the HP rotor would be about perfect, but I don't want to spend the money for a HP just to butcher it.

Seem to remember 1899Sav had one or two 99's rechambered to Zipper, maybe a Wasp?

Ask Jeff about it he has a couple

Seems to me they were Zippers....

It would be very easy to do with a shot out 30-30 rebarreled to 219 Zipper

Way better than the Savage 22HP with it's funky .227-.228 bullet. Seems like an improved type case design like the wasp might work better with a 300 Savage rotor, but that's just my WAG.

I was just guessing a 30-30 family rifle would be a good donor because the rotor is made for roughly the same case and rim diameter. Just the shoulder catch spot would be different.

I'm sure someone here will come across this that has done one, or a Zipper that knows from experience which rifle to start with.

I do know I am NEVER taking the rotor out of a 99 ever again, so if it is something I can't do without modding the rotor, I'll pass on doing it.

Demented minds think alike. .300 Savage rotor was what crossed my mind too. Bear in mind the Wasp is a shortened Zipper with a body blown out fairly straight. .30-30/.22HP accommodations may or may not cut it. The cartridge guide will probably be a bigger headache anyway.

I owned/shot one .219 Wasp in my life and it was in a Winchester High Wall, which in my opinion is a darn near perfect platform for it.

What's the end use of this Frankenstein? Deer, varmints, or simple target shooting? Personally I wouldn't sweat it if I couldn't get it to feed through a 99 magazine. Even if used for deer, do you really really need a 5 shot repeater? I've never fired 5 shots at a deer in my life, or 4 or 3 for that matter. The next shot after the first one is usually a Hail Mary shot anyway.

Probably just a carbine length barreled walking coyote and plinking gun. I already have enough deer rifles for any situation I'll ever encounter. I just figured if I was going to make it out of a 99, I'd like to have use of the magazine.

I guess the one my Dad had was a Lee-Enfield made into a single shot, and he didn't keep it long. He just always hangs onto dies, even if he no longer has a gun for them anymore.

I think the 300 is the way to go as well. Lay the cartridges beside a 30-30 and the 300 see what is closer.

I'll have to see if he can dig up the brass and make up a few dummies. If it's close to 300 I suppose I could stuff them in my EG and see if they work through the magazine.

I'd need a 300 rifle and a donor bolt from a 30-30 family rifle, though. If this ends up being much more than a rebarrel, I'll probably not mess with it. Just a thought I had last night when he mentioned the Wasp brass and dies.

Yes one of them was mine. Wish I had kept it but .......

slightly off topic, but I believe one of the gun heads here converted a 99 to 257 Roberts awhile back

You won't need a 30-30 bolt. All 99 bolt faces and extractors are the same.

I would kindly suggest that an action originally at least used for a .250, or .300, be selected and not an old 1899 from pre 1915. .219 Donaldson Wasp can generate some hefty pressures, especially if the performance that the old wildcatters bragged about is chased after.

Darn it. You got me itching for another one now.

Yeah that was Stever (1899sav) too.

Hrm, I did not know the bolt faces were all the same. That's my new bit of knowledge for the day. 😁

I'm not a hotrodder in any of my 99s, or anything rear locking, for that matter. I chase accuracy, not velocity. None of my best accuracy loads in 303 or 300 are that fast.

That 110gr 303 load I posted the group pic of the other day is ticking across the chrono just over 2100fps. My best 300 loads are a 130 doing about 2700. I like conserving brass, powder, and my shoulder 😉 Now that I have the 303 dialed in, I'm working on the 300. I actually just put a new smaller bead front sight on it today, which should help.

I can't wait for my other EG to get back from McGowen so I can start working up some 250 loads. I am refraining from loading anything until I get it back and can see how tight the chamber is, though.

A man after my own heart. The older I get the less I like recoil, and even though the deer would appear to be evolving toward thicker and tougher hides if internet braggadocio is to be believed , the pussycat cartridges still soldier along quietly doing their murderous business.

I have shoulder and neck issues, so recoil headaches are a problem I like to avoid. I sold off all my heavy hitters when it really started bothering me 5-ish years ago. 300 Savage is about my tolerance limit of being able to sit down and shoot comfortably more than a handful of rounds. It's also why I went with 130 grainers in it. The 150s I started with had a bit more bark than I could handle for fun shooting.

I do NOT enjoy checking the shotgun sights before season every fall. Just a few of those and I'm done for the day. I dunno what it is about sabot slugs, but they seem to kick much worse than the same weight bullet at the same speed from a rifle.

Any 99 re-chamber/re-barrel project should start with getting it to feed out of the magazine, otherwise all the shine goes out of the project.

I have two 99's that feed 219 zipper flawlessly out of 303 rotors. Anther that I got frustrated on feeding the sharper-shoulder rimmed 7-30 Waters.

I gave up trying to feed 375Win from a clip magazine, and screwed the barrel onto a proper rotorary equipped receiver.

There are several life-times worth of experienced counsel here on the 'Fire. The idea of developing a varmint 250 load is only going to take a couple weekends.

How about a 99x .410 repeater?

Thanks. Glad to hear they fed from something fairly common.

The feed was how I started my last rebarrel. I was actually wanting to chamber it in 35 Rem or a shortened 358 Win but neither cartridge would feed for beans from my 300 action. Ended up doing it in 250 because I'd wanted one anyway, and it fed fine from that rotor.

I'll have to make up some Wasp dummies and try them in my 303 and 300 to see how they feed and go from there.

Jeff did you try the 300 rotor on the waters?

I'm also not sure which version of the Wasp the dies are for. I know there are a few different case lengths that were common. Hopefully he'll have dug up the dies and/or brass today so I can have a look and seat up some dummies.

Chris, Your thought that the 300 rotor is the likely solution to feeding the sharp shouldered cases is my best bet for the 7-30, but I have not gotten back to it...., yet... I'm hoping my tinkerbell wings haven't completely molted ..

I have a 99 barrel that I believe is chambered in 225 Win, but it could be some sort of zipper improved. The chamber cast can't really be trusted for good rim dimensions. I would like to see a couple of Your 219 Wasp dummies side-by-side with a 225 Win cartridge.

I've never owned a 225, so I don't have any brass to do a comparison. I've actually only owned a few smallbore centerfires, 218 Bee, 22-250, 22 Hornet, and 222. 222 in a really late built 840 is the only one I currently own.

I know the most common lengths for Wasp were 1.715, 1.760, and 1.816, but I'm sure other variations are floating around since it's always been a wildcat.

And then there's the cost and hassle of having a reamer made that's compatible with what your dies turn out.

I have a .22 High Power Improved reamer if you want to shift gears.

Thanks. I do appreciate the offer, but the thought of such limited bullet choices turned me off the idea of picking up a HP quite a while back. I'm a load tinkerer, and there's just not much to work with there for bullets.

I was thinking of doing a 1-8 twist and playing around with 50-65gr frangibles, if this project ends up going anywhere.

P.S. - that's awfully trusting of you. I sure's heck wouldn't lend a custom tool to a total stranger from the internet 😂

Sounds like you need a lead sled. My 300 Weatherby used to beat the crap out of me on the bench rest. It's tolerable now with a lead sled and 25 pounds of lead shot to anchor it.

There's one available to me out where I shoot, but it messes me up really badly with irons. My POI with it vs without it are nowhere near each other. If I sight a gun in off the sled, I'd be lucky to hit a buffalo broadside at 50 yards without it.

Aside from the necessary evil of shotgun slugs, I've just dumped all my heavy recoilers and replaced them with milder cartridged rifles. We can use muzzleloaders for the 2nd half of our firearms season, so I always pack my .50 when I can. It's much more pleasant to both carry and shoot than the shotgun.

Well, that idea is officially in the dumpster and on fire. Got the dies, but he couldn't find the brass, so I formed some from some 22HP brass. Ended up destroying more than I got formed.

I can see why Dad didn't mess with it long... not worth the headache. The one I stuck a bullet in didn't feed in either action anyway.

did You try feeding it through your 300 rotor?

Tried the 300 and 303. Didn't feed well from either. 300 the shoulder was way too far back and it would get all cockeyed. In the 303 it sat fairly straight but kept wanting to catch in the front of the magazine. Those dies were for the 1.81" Wasp. They might feed in the 303 with a different bullet, but those were the only .224 I have on hand.

Really more a matter of forming the brass, it sucked. Not even close to that much hassle to me. Had to trim the brass before and after sizing, and the expander kept wanting to get caught and tweak the necks. I've never seen an expander like that before, it was almost squared off around the edges. The dies have to be from the 40s or 50s. $10 is printed right on the end of the box as the price.

Yeah, those Easton dies weren't all that hot. I've encountered them a few times over the years and came to the conclusion that there's a reason they're mainly found in the bargain junk bins at the gun shows.

It's beginning to look like this conversion may be pretty time consuming. After all, even if the rotor is sussed out there's still the matter of the cartridge guide to contend with.

Why not scrounge up a Winchester HiWall and barrel it up? With the value of 99's skyrocketing it's not so farfetched of an idea anymore. There's a reason why HW's were the platform of choice back in the Golden Era of .22 wildcatting, and 99's in that role virtually unheard of. (But Savage barrels were employed a lot. Many references were made of using Savage barrels fitted to other guns in the making of .22 wildcats. I often wondered if they were using Model 23 .22 barrels or if Savage had a side line of making some barrels for the gunsmithing trade. Dunno.)

Yeah, I was not fond of those dies at all. The seater was a pain to adjust, too. I will not be doing anything in Wasp for the price and headache of ruining that much expensive brass.

It was just an idea popped into my head when he said he had those dies. All of the wildcats/oddballs I've owned (a grand total of 2) were both built on H&R single shots because they were cheap and readily available at the time.

I'll probably just find another 99 chambered in a cartridge I'm interested in sooner or later and call it good.

Probably a wise move although I was interested in following your journey down that rabbit hole!

I may still, if I find a beater really cheap, but those are few and far between. I did come really close to getting that EG rebarreled in a shortened 358 Win, but went with 250 instead. Feed and ejection were ok, but with the fatter neck/shoulder, I could only get 2 or 3 rounds in the magazine because they were canted in the 300 rotor.

More likely I'll just eventually just pony my cheap@ss up and find a decent one in 25-35, 22-250, or 32-40, though.

FWIW, A couple years ago I had Ranger Point Precision convert a NIB Marlin 336 to 219 Donaldson Wasp. RPP installed a 24 inch 1/10 twist Douglas Premium barrel, adjusted and slicked up the action and set the trigger at 3 lbs. The rifle is a tack driver pushing 70 grain spitzers at 2900 fps.

In essence, I have a 22HP using .224 bullets. I have yet to hunt with it and it is presently in climate controlled storage as is all my reloading equipment and supplies awaiting completion of our home addition.

Regarding the 22 Hi Power, I have been able to find .228 bullets from time to time. Also, the 22 HP is still popular in Europe and is known as the 5.6X52R. Thus, loaded ammo is available. I have a Savage 99 DOM 1913 chambered in 22 HP. It's a neat little rifle.

T.S.

The brass I used for my resize test was actually Norma 5.6x52. Way easier than hunting down 22HP headstamped stuff. I had bought a handful and a set dies several years back when I was thinking of getting a HP, but the rifle expense and spotty bullet availability changed my mind. I sold the dies, but hung onto the brass just in case I ever needed it.