Sweet Savage 1899 in 303

[Glaciers]

Well I started making up some loads for my favorite old Savage. It was made in the early teens IIRC. It's is a Delux pistol grip Perch Belly stock, crescent butt, 26 inch half round half octagon barrel, ivory globe front site that lays down, with a folding barrel site, and a tang site similar to a 1B. The rifle is in very good but used shape with a strong bore. My phone is down and a lot of pictures are on it so I will grab my wife's phone and get a picture of the rifle. The pictures I have on my laptop are to large.
I do have a couple of pictures so I will put them on now along with some of my first loadings.





Fairly nice shape for over a hundred years old. I've had this rifle for a little more than 30 some odd years and until now never fired it.

I used a NOE 311 165 RF bullet I cast with Al's 2 cavity brass RG hollow point mold. I prefer the flat or cup point to the hollow point.



I tried my best to get this bullet to work in my 30-30's but it's a full diameter nose with a way to slow of a taper to the flat point to work in either the Winchester or Marlin. But sized to .311 and checked and coated weights in at 165, works without a hitch in the Savage 303.


Started out with 6.3 grains of unique that's the 4 in the upper left of center, looked good for a start, then down hill. The two patterns lower also on the left. Then at 9.5 grains, improvement. Upper right orange dot 10 shots, right at 1400. Switched to 2400, patterns. Started at 15.5 grains and ended up at 19.2. With the increase in powder, also increase in groups. Right side, lower patterns. I believe things would be better with softer alloy. These were COWW aged 6 weeks, ended up at over BHN of 18, maybe pushing 22.
Worked out ok for the first go around with this nice rifle.

 

[Rick H]

I love Savage 99's always wanted one in .284 Winchester but never found one I could (or would) afford. I'm thinking a decent .308Win sent to Jes to make a.358 would be a nice project as well. I think I have one more rifle stock job left in me.

 

[oscarflytyer]

Rick - If you find that 99 in 284W - Snatch it! Long ago, I traded for one. My biddy warned me that it was a W TX truck gun, especially when he saw the 1917 30-06 Sporter I was trading him for. I assured him I still wanted to trade. And never regretted it. Love the rifle, and the caliber. Plus, I do not feel bad dragging it thru the woods! Son #3 killed his first deer with it, and in his safe now.

 

[Glaciers]

Couple more pictures


The mid barrel site




Perch Belly stock

 

[Ian]

That's a beaut, John. That tang sight is priceless.

That bullet should do a lot better than that. Wheelweights ending up almost as hard as linotype? Did you water-quench them? I had one of those moulds and it produced amazing groups from my Marlin .30-30 that has the chamber neck going halfway to the muzzle. It would fit a lot more things if the moulds were cut correctly and cast a bullet the size they're supposed to on on the nose per the drawings, but NOE hasn't figured out how to do that yet.

Try Reloder 7, IMR 3031, or 4064.

 

[Missionary]

I do like that folding front sight !! Ours has a tang also.. My only regret is that we did not buy a bunch of 99s 50 years ago.

 

[Glaciers]

Not a lot of 99's in this country. Might see one or two at a gun show, maybe.

Ian, R7 is high on the list as is 3031. Things were starting looking good with unique, that upper right group of 8 of 10 measured 1 3/8, with the one east and one west opened it up. Will be trying more there. My wheel weights are probably at the newest, 30 years old. Will be blending some pure in to soften things up a bit. Tested these two days after casting at about 12 -13 BHN, then powder coated and just did not get back to them till Sunday morning. They were certainly harder by quite a bit. Thought about putting them back in the oven. I think that bullet at about 12 or 13 would work better. Had a problem with the checks not wanting to fit square, next time they get checked before coating.
I think this rifle will shoot good just need to work more with it. That NOE mold was one I hoped Would work in something I had. Going to try the 311 041, and the RCBS 311 180, plus a couple of NEI mold that should work. Will find something. Just need to concentrate on one rifle at a time. But up next a 30-40 in a 95.
As a side note I just had my eyes checked and waiting on new specks. That might clear things up. Hard to see that front bead, but I'm not giving in on opens and receiver sites. That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it.

 

[david s]

Sometimes you pick up a rifle or pistol with out any idea of it's history and know it's previous owner was serious about there equipment by the way the arm is set up. Yours looks like one of those. You have some room to increase the bullet weight to around 190 grains if the mood strikes you. The extra bullet weight being the advantage of the 303 Savage over the 30-30's 160 grain original bullet.

 

[MW65]

Beautiful rifle!! Not many 99s out here in Oregon. I was lucky to stumble across my 99f at my favorite store, at an amazing price. In my 300 sav, I've had great luck with rel 7, rcbs 30-180-fn, cast with range scrap/hard cast at 50/50. Looking forward to your testing!!

-Andy