Savage 99 Indoor Outing

[Dave DeLaurant]

I found this 99 in .303 Savage on an LGS used rack in 2016. It had a near pristine bore and the exterior metal was in pretty good shape, and it was priced at only $400. The detractors included a buttstock that had been mutilated to fit a ventilated recoil pad, a bent rear sight and ineptly installed QD sling studs. I didn't have immediate plans for the rifle, but a good deal is a good deal.

After I got it home I bought a bag of PPU cases and a set of Lee dies, then put everything aside for future attention. In 2019 I bought a replacement buttstock from Numrich, which I fitted and finished, and removed the QD sling stud from the forend and disguised the hole under a circlet of walnut veneer before putting the rifle aside once more. Finally last year I bought and installed a Marble's tang sight and replaced the bent rear sight with a dovetail blank. With the rifle completed to my tastes, I placed an order for a pair of .303 Savage-to-.32 H&R chamber adapters so I could finally shoot the thing at my indoor pistol club for the first time since I'd purchased it.



I can never be entirely certain how a chamber adapter will perform, but I've had pretty good luck with them through a variety of 7.5-8mm bores out to about 20 yards and this rifle turned out to be no exception. My only complaint is that front sight bead lacks enough contrast against a black target for my eyes. I think the groups could have been one-holers with a better front sight -- or, to be honest, a better shooter at the trigger.



BTW, the 99's ejection is very positive -- I had to chase after a fleeing chamber insert more than once!

 

[Charlie98]

Nice! $400 is a steal, even considering the work you've had to do.

Your replacement stock fairly matches the forearm... nice job!

 

[Jim Watson]

Nice project.
Try a colored target for contrast with bead in the shade.
Poor lighting over the firing line at indoor ranges is a pet peeve of mine. I have gone so far as to hang a magnetic flashlight from the target trolley rail.

 

[Bartojc]

Very cool. Looks great. I have a friend that has a number of Savage 99's. None for $400 though

-Jeff

 

[Random 8]

Keep a chalk in your range bag. Billiards chalk works well, or steal some from the neighbor kids. Blue, white, green work very well on black targets.

 

[NIGHTLORD40K]

Nice!

 

[Bull Nutria]

do you have any 303 brass? Just curious??
Bull

 

[codytrucker]

I ordered some 190 grain flat nose from Hawk bullets a couple weeks ago . He said they were getting close to making a run of them .It couldn't hurt to get on the list .

Can you make cases from 30-30 ? Seems I've heard of people just using 30-30 ammo in them , but I'm not 100 % sure about that . I don't have a .303 sav. YET but I want to try them in some other rifles to see if they'll work . I'm gonna try 'em in a .30-30 model 99 , but I don't have high hopes , Savage always seemed to run as slow rifling as they could .

 

[Dave DeLaurant]

do you have any 303 brass? Just curious??
Bull

PPU makes (or made) them -- I think the hundred cases I bought came via Grafs. They still have some in stock. I don't think I paid more than $.50/case back in 2016, so the price seems to have risen.

https://www.grafs.com/retail/catalog/product/productId/75913

They still seem a bargain compared to the case-forming route:

http://forums.accuratereloading.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/2511043/m/142105231/xsl/print_topic

The .303 Savage and .30-30 cartridges are close enough in ballistics and pressure to use the same starting load data, but the Savage case is fatter at the base by .02" and the 30-30 case is longer by about the same amount.

 

[gunmechanic]

Nice job on the 99 its a beauty!

 

[Shanghai McCoy]

The 99 is such a cool design and way ahead of it's time when they came out.
You did a great job there on both the find as well as the fix Dave.

 

[usaral63]

You CAN cobble .30/30 brass into working in a .303, I've done it. I DO NOT recommend it tho, the base of the .30/30 is far smaller than the .303 and will expand far, far too much. Had a pristine take down 99A years back that I wish I'd kept.....used Lyman's 311041 cast 173's in it and it shot very well......Brass tho was a problem and so I tried the .30/30 on which I base my comment on not doing it.

Stuff shot well, killed a deer with it, but honestly stick with the proper brass.

 

[Dave DeLaurant]

I came across a Lyman 17A Globe front sight in one of my spares boxes on Sunday and thought "why not?" It was a very snug fit in the Savage's front dovetail.



If it ever stops raining here I'll take it back to the indoor range and see which insert works best. I may try polishing one of the inserts shiny or painting it white to see whether that stands out better there -- I've got 3 sets of 17A inserts to play with.

 

[Ugly Sauce]

No fair, one in .303 Savage is what I always really wanted, but never found one. I did finally pick up a nice one in .30WCF. It's a 1914, but was completely rebuilt sometime in it's life. Whoever done it did a pretty good job. It was re-stocked very nicely, and the blue is very nice, except, in the right light you can detect some blued-over scratches, and a trace of very light old rust-pitting in spots. However, I suspect it had a 26" barrel originally, which had been cut down to 23", and not done well, so I took it down to 20" and made a pretty nice carbine. Or 21", or something like that! The action is like brand new, not sure if it was never shot much, and carried a lot, or if any work was done on the action. ?