My dad was in oil exploration and worked in some of the most remote places in the world. His favorite rifle was a 99 Savage in .250-3000. He killed a tiger in Sumatra with it in the late '30s and killed a boxcar load of big game in Ethiopia in the '40s, including a cheetah, a lesser Kudu good enough for Roland Ward, and so on.
I always wanted one, but as I grew older I learned why Dad always said, "The 87 grain bullet is better than the 100 grain." The Model 99s rifling is optimized for the 87 grain bullet, and many of them will not shoot 100 grain bullets accurately.
A few years back I stumbled across a Model 99 in .308 Winchester and snapped it up. This rifle was built around '58 and has the safety on the trigger guard, so it came out before Savage was forced to make changes for economic reasons.
Another rifle I always wanted was a model 1895 Winchester in .30-06. But I learned most such rifles have headspace problems -- steel too soft for such a high pressure round. The Model 99 in .308 combines the virtues of both rifles, power of the .30-06 (or almost) and the strength and carry-ability of the Model 99.