safety wont move to the safe position, what to do?

Remove the butt stock and eyeball the linkage as you push on the slide. These can be very elusive to solve. I feel your pain.

thanks

I have nothing to add since I don't have a tang safety.
I do have a question though,... does the rifle need to be cocked in order for the safety to slide/function?

I have a DE and a CE. The safety will NOT move unless the rifle is cocked.

Does this ^^^^^ require an exorcism or an intervention? I can never keep the two straight?

Several years ago I had a similar problem in that the safety would just slightly engage. I removed the butt stock and saw that there was a notch that needed enlarging a little bit to slide properly. Worked good thereafter.

Probably a little of both. At some point soon I will have a PE to complete the trio. Luckily the DE is .284, so I killed two birds with one stone. I won't be chasing down anymore post-mils that I can think of.

The safety meck-a-nysum has a square hole in it that fits over the safe-tee button thingy that hangs down inside the ree-see-vur. Sometimes the meck-a-nysum needs tweaking (bent up) to go over the safe-tee square button thingy hanging down inside the ree-see-vur.

All-sew, the meck-a-nysum thingy has an arm that goes from top to bot-tum about 2" long and 1/4" wide, at an angle. An arm, see it? Makes sure it's not bent out sideways a-rubbin on the inside of the wood thingy , a bindin up-like.

couldn't have said it better myself.
actually I tried and couldn't say it!

The man does have a way with words...

Well, werds anyways....

texken. I took one apart and here's what I found.

The safety linkage rides onto a shelf on top of the trigger to engage the safety. If the safety linkage is too long, it runs into the trigger rather than riding up onto it, blocking it. If you pull the pin out of the trigger and catch the trigger spring, you can remove some metal on the shelf of the trigger until the safety linkage slides freely onto the trigger shelf and locks it. What I found is all the machanisms need oil to test otherwise it binds up. Once you file the trigger shelf to the point the safety linkage can slide onto the shelf, polish it until it's smooth with 220 sandpaper.

Here's some photos to help illustrate.

The tit sticking down off the safety arm has to ride up onto that shelf on the top of the trigger.




The safety lever is on top, the linkage goes down and behind the trigger.




Here's the three pieces out (Yes, there's a funny s shaped spring involved!)




The square thingy and the square holey dealy in the meck-a-nysm




The shiny flat surface just above my thumb is the surface to polish until the safety slides onto the trigger correctly




You'll have to remove the buttstock, breech bolt stop (1/2" long L shaped tab that stops the breech bolt from going all the way back and falling out) and the breech bolt from the rifle, and this cartridge cutoff.







Don't drop the spring. I use assembly goo to hold the spring in place when reassembling. Plain grease might work, or crisco/butter in a pinch.

I would say the tit should be the "stop" for rearward travel of the safety rather than what I described above, but that's not the way it worked on this rifle. This rifle is as new. FWIW.

That was real nice of you to go to the trouble to do that for texken. Great pictures, wondered how they worked. Hope I can find this if I ever have that problem. Is this a great place or what.

If that piece needs to be shortened, I would think the issue would have been there from day one. Why does it occur now? Could it be that the trigger return spring is weakened so that it is not returning the trigger far enough forward to lower that lip on the trigger that the safety piece rides up over?

https://www.gunpartscorp.com/products/144200A

If it was my gun and a faulty safety was involved it would be going to my gunsmith, ymmv.

That's always good advice. ^^^^^^ But, most gunsmiths don't know the first thing about Savage rifles so they'll be learning on your dime.

The firing mechanism on these tang safeties is a real cluster**** but the safety where it locks the trigger is very simple. The safety simply slides rearward onto the *shelf* on the trigger and blocks it. Your job, should you choose to accept it, is to make those two pieces engage. Shine a light down in there and move the tang safety while watching what's happening at the trigger. You'll know if they aren't engaged because the tang safety on top of the receiver won't be in the rearward position. Visually there's no mistaking engaged/disengaged.

BTW, as for whether the rifle was like that from day one, I suspect it could have been. This is a 1970 99 DL in 300. It looks unfired/as new. My WAG is that because the safety wasn't engaging this rifle was set aside, never fired, and forgotten. I could be wrong, but that would explain a 50 year old rifle with no use. I was told it came from a widows estate.

Changed some verbiage to clarify.

FB2's solution is exactly what I had to do with my F 308. Go slow.

The hardest part of this process was getting that darn trigger in the right position when reassembling. Also had to move the safety back and forth to remove and replace the trigger, and getting that little trigger spring down and sliding the trigger pin thru it took some practice. Overall it's more complicated than the lever safety models but the safety is visually a very positive yes, it's on (all the way to the rear), or no it's off (all the way forward).

I feel like there's even less opportunity to mess this system up than the old models. Maybe that's one of the motivations behind Savage changing the internals in 1960, more resistant to tinkering that may result in a slam fire situation?

At any rate, Keiths point about the safety not working from the beginning is an interesting point. It does seem to me that he is right, there's no way I can visualize this setup working straight from the factory, and how did that happen to make it past QC? We all know that Savage fell on hard times but a safety not working seems unfathomable to me.

The tang safety is supposed to be a boon to lefties but I found it hard to operate with a low mounted scope. Not much clearance. I also had hunted a lot with a lever safety 99's and found myself reaching under the lever with my left hand when using the tang safety models. Old habits die hard, you can't teach an old dog new tricks, etc. I plan to keep hunting with my lever safety 99's.

As a left-handed shooter I abhor the lever safety. My first 99 was a tang safety and I deeply regret selling it. (A 1970's 99A Saddle Carbine in 250Savage) (stupid, stupid, stupid decision.) My last was a lever safety 99E 300Savage 20" barrel. I like the short barrels as I am "vertically challenged" me self. If I was sitting in a stand with plenty of time it was almost acceptable, but I still had to think about it. But it was an impossibility for me if I were hunting on my own hind legs; my preference. And a low mounted scope did hinder the easiest access to the tang mounted safety but I could handle it so much better/faster. Others, I understand, have learned to deal with the lever safety to their own satisfaction. It was just too awkward for me.
I hope to have another 99 someday. It will be a tang safety and I hope it's a Saddle Carbine 99A like I had before. The caliber is negotiable, as is barrel length, the tang safety is not.

Thanks very much for the directions Fireball! I just finished fixing a 243 that I bought about 4 years ago. Pretty sure it had never worked from new as that little flat spot on the trigger where the safety linkage is supposed to ride onto was completely blued. Works perfect now.

Schit howdy.