Over 50 Years Without a Savage 99…

[Old No7]

Usually you would see a post saying something like “50 Years With an XYZ…”, but in this case, I went that long without something. If you’d asked me 5, 10 or 20 years ago, I don’t think I’d say I was interested in a Savage 99 at all. Or even 6 months ago… But over the last couple of months, something made me start to look –- and I liked what I was seeing! And holding! So I’ve now added a new-to-me levergun to my stable!

It’s not like I didn’t know what the Savage 99 was; it's just that they weren’t common among the hunters that took to the woods with me. Oh, I’m sure if I could have asked my late father or uncle about them, they might have had a story or two to tell, but I just had “no interest” in or exposure to these leverguns earlier in my life. Now, I’ve always enjoyed the Winchesters and Marlins that I’ve shot or owned, and the first-ever gun I shot was a leveraction Daisy BB gun. This novel Savage design came on the heels of the old single shots like the Ballards or High Walls that my father introduced me to at a young age. But I just never got bit by the “99 bug” -- until recently, that is…

I looked at many .303 Savages, a bunch of .308s, and a smattering of .300s, but I never found a .250-3000 Savage, which really would have sealed the deal for me. Without getting into the serious collector-type pieces, I was seeing 99s range +/- $200 from a $600 average, with stock sights. Scopes or octagon barrels always added more. I think I did well at getting this one, with the $120 to $200 value (depending on where you look and how bad someone wants it) Lyman tang sight on it. My price was $550 out the door, and I think I did OK. Did I???

Here she is, a 1938 Savage 99F with the desirable (to me) straight-grip stock, schnable forearm tip and tang sight. Those are 3 features I inherited a love for, from my late father. Come to think of it, my vintage .22 and replica .38-55 High Walls have all those features too.

Savage 99F - 300 Svg (1) (Medium).jpg

You can see from this angle that I’ll need to fill the dovetail slot with a blank. The rear sight was still on it when I got her, but I like the clean sight picture of not having the rear sight there when a tang sight is used.

Savage 99F - 300 Svg (2) (Medium).jpg

Here’s a shot of the receiver and the Lyman No. 1A tang sight, followed by an original ad for that sight. Mine has the flip-down “combination” smaller aperture inside the larger peep, but it’s stuck for now, so I will have to soak it in Kroil overnight.

Savage 99F - 300 Svg (3) (Medium).jpg

Lyman 99 No. 1ATang Sight.jpg

There’s a low white-bead front sight on the ramp for now, but the sights are too high at 25 and 50 yards, so I’ll add a slightly taller brass-bead sight instead. This should be just the ticket to use in the thick woods here in Southern Maine or when it’s pouring and I don’t want to take a scoped rifle out in the woods.

Savage 99F - 300 Svg (4) (Medium).jpg

I went a long time without having a Savage 99… And I had never shot one before this afternoon either! But 10 shots went downrange well, and now that I’ve got her –- yippee, another levergun!!! It's odd, but the older I get, the more I find myself attracted to the guns that my father would have enjoyed in his youth. He's been gone 6 years now, so maybe this brings me closer to him; as he's just a "heartbeat away" anyway...

I sure will enjoy cleaning her up some, repointing the checkering, staining the buttstock and forearm to match, changing the front sight and sighting her in. I have plenty of time to get her all ready for this fall… After all, I waited almost 54 years for her to come along; so I guess just a little more time won’t hurt us any.

* Does anyone have any good .300 Savage reloads to share?

...$2.00 a round for today's 15-minute adventure at the range... Yikes!!!

* Or do you have any good Savage 99 memories or hunting stories too?

Tight groups!

Old No7

[Pete44ru]

.

You made a score on the 99F, for only $550 !

For that kind of money, the subject gun is usually a Grey Rat.

CONGRATS ! .


.

[BrentD]

Sweet rifle. There was a day when I lusted after one. I got over it before I got the money to buy one. But every now and then, they turn my head and I pause to think about it for a minute. I especially like that tang sight which adds tremendous value in my book.

Congratulations. Looks like a keeper and one I would take hunting any day, rain or shine.

[JerryB]

That is truly a northwoods deer rifle. When I was young I used to see a lot of them in the northwoods of Michigan, one of my uncles had one in 250/3000 round that he killed a lot of deer with.

[pdentrem]

Very nice! I have two 99s. The first one I got is a 99 TD in 250-3000 and a second barrel in Rem 22BR. Pictured in my avatar. Later I was fortunate to purchase from my uncle's estate, his 99 in 300. It is a duplicate to my Dad's, they had purchased them both at the same time.
Enjoy them, they tend to be the most accurate leverguns out there.
Pierre

[ollogger]

very nice rifle & a great buy!!

I had one like yours I bought in 1969 for 80 bucks ( with out the tang sight) I took white tail
mule Deer & black bear with that gun in 3 states, it did just fine on all game shot with it
sadly in the late 80s I gave in & traded it for a 300 mag, what a sap!!!!
I did hand load for it but couldn't tell you what I used other than the old Lee hammer tool



ollogger

[H_Talon]

welcome to the dark side

I have 4 and love my 99's ... you did good !!!!
way back when, if you have a 99 in 300sav you were the
talk of the deer camps ...

now only one problem, like potato chips you can just have one
so looking forward to seeing your next 99

again good job ..

[Old Savage]

.250 and a 300 and you can be ready for anything.

[Centennial]

Wow! Now I need one of those too.

[earlmck]

I know just what you're talking about, No7: I also went an awful long time without a 99, though I had kinda' wanted one for quite some time. Now I have to think a bit to count up how many I have (turns out to be 6 -- oops! it's 7 -- I think...)

Anyway, congrats on your acquisition. Which you stole, by the way. Or at least, got a heckuva good buy on.

I have intentions of coming up with a really good cast bullet load for the old 300. Which I have not yet done, will post results when accomplished...

[Gobblerforge]

I love my 303 except for the crescent butt. I'm looking for shotgun butts now.
Gobbler

[firefuzz]

My very first experience, at the ripe old age of 7, with both a hi-powered rifle and a lever action was with a Savage 99TD in .303 Savage. It was with that same rifle my Dad made the most astonishing shot(s) I've ever seen on a live animal. This happened almost 50 years ago, but I can remember it like it was yesterday. I've probably said it before, but my Dad was one of the finest shots with an iron-sighted rifle I've ever seen in my life, but as the story got told in the passing years even he admitted there was a smidge of luck in the first shot.

We were living with my grandparents just before Dad and my Mom, step-mother...but the woman who raise me, got married. The coyotes were raiding the chicken coop on a regular basis and one made the mistake of coming by for dinner just as Dad got home. The 'yote grabbed his entrée and took off running for a quieter place to enjoy his meal. Dad stepped in the back door, retrieved the Savage from the rack there, stepped out, levered a round into the gun, and calmly shot the chicken thief, who was fast making his escape, thru the neck....over a 150yds away, still wearing his white shirt and tie from work.
It's intended meal fell out of it's jaws and was beating a fast path back to the safety of the coop when Grandpa, who was coming from the barn, told Dad something like he could never make that shot again in a hundred years. Dad replied to him to go find another coyote with a chicken in his mouth and he'd show him. About that time another coyote topped a rise about 50yds from the escaping bird and decided to take advantage of it being so far away from home and took off after it. Pop levered another in another round and rolled the second chicken snatcher at about 125yds, about 20ft behind the chicken. Dad looked at Grandpa and said he'd have waited but he didn't want to see the chicken roughed up any more....Grandpa told Dad it was a sin to be a braggart and showoff and walked back to the barn.

After this happened I badgered Dad for weeks to let me shoot the Savage. After warning me several times that the gun kicked he finally got tired of the harassment and let me shoot the gun with him holding onto the forearm. After it kicked the dog snot out of me I never asked to shoot it again and he sold it to a cousin who it was stolen from several years later.

I've always wanted one in .250 Savage, refused to part with the money they bring. I think it was a sad day when Savage stopped production on the 99's, if they had announced it was the last year of production and went back to the rotary mag model for the last year and chambered them all in .250-3000 they couldn't have made enough of them to meet demands.

Nice fine No. 7, especially the straight stock model. I've seen very few of them and am really envious.

Rob

[Old Ironsights]

Coming from a "non-gun" (not "anti", just "non") family, my first experience with any centerfire rifle was with a borrowed 99E in .308... and it pretty well ruined my chances at gravitating toward bolt guns for hunting.

It took another 20 years, but I finally picked up a 99C in .308 a couple of years ago.

Every Levergunner should have at least one "Pointy Bullet Levergun" - either a 95, 99 or BLR.

Me, I'm a 99 guy (but I DO want a Russian Contract 95 someday...)

[Bill in Oregon]

Rob, that's a wonderful story and you are a fine storyteller. Thank you for sharing. The image of your father in white shirt and tie calmly killing those coyotes reminds me of the rabid dog scene in "To Kill a Mockingbird."

Old No. 7, you picked a fine example to end your 99 dry spell.
My recently acquired .300 was also made in 1938, but wears a more conventional Lyman rear sight:

[Grizz]

That's a beauty and I'm glad you found it. It's a gun you'll never regret having and I doubt you will ever wish to release it. I think I would buy one more if I liked the terms.


some hunting, yes. shot the first deer with a .243 S99, that had a 4x scope on it. I was about, 15? maybe, camping on the Mogollon Rim with my Dad and a couple of his pilot buddies. It was Dad's rifle. I was walking down a dry creek bed on quiet rocks when I noticed a big timber wolf stalking me. actually going at a crouch from tree to tree off my port quarter. the scope and the nearly contact distance made it hard to zero in, but I drew blood and the wolf ran off. then, about 5 minutes later while sitting down trying to consume the extra gallon of adrenalyn, two deer ran in from the west and stopped about thirty yards in front of me. the .243 made a pencil size hole on the near side and blew lungs and ribs out the tennis ball size hole opposite.

in Alaska my daughter bought a 300 Savage 99 and used it very effectively making meat, as did her brother, skiff hunting in the fjords. Very reliable and trustworthy, a true producer.

and lately we found the 308 that I posted up recently, love that rifle, er, I like it a lot.

they don't have the cowboy image, they are a thing unto themselves, and exquisite IMO.

Grizz

[Nath]

Excellent Old7....I passed on a 308 20years ago and never forgot the moment I bugged out on the deal

Nath

[stew71]

Purdy.

I've always wanted one, passed up more than my share of them for various reasons, and may perhaps pick one up if the stars and planets are properly aligned.

[Hobie]

That is the configuration to have, and a beauty to boot!

[Centennial]

I still have the one my younger brother picked out for me with my money 40 years ago; a 99A with Schnable forearm, in 308 Win. with see through mounts and a steel tube K3 Weaver.

[wolfdog]

Very nice! Looks like it is a takedown too. I had wanted one for a long time especially a take down. My buddy Steve had a couple one a pristine 303, the other a pretty beat up 1928 production 300 TD, with Williams fp sight. At some point in time it had been D&ted for a side mount scope, which had been removed and plugged at some point. He had been looking for a Krag rifle just because, and I happened to have a 1912 Norwegian, and since I already had 5 other rifles in 6.5x55, the deal was down. Mine isn't very pretty but it shoots,functions well, and it made meat for me the first time I took it hunting last fall.

[Old No7]

Thanks to all for the comments and especially to Rob for his fine story! That was neat, thanks for sharing.

I think the low price was dictated by 3 holes D&T'd in the receiver; 2 at the front for a scope mount and one that is visible just ahead of the safety (but off center by 1/8"). I filled one last night with a long screw, cut off, peened down, then carefully filed and reblued. Best part of this purchase was that I had a $540 in "trade credit" against the price, so I actually got this for very little $$. (And I wasn't using the other old guns I traded anyhow...)

I'll keep the forum posted on how she cleans up and on my load development results. Should be fun.

Tight groups!

Old No7