I would 75 or 87 gr bullets. The gun was built to shoot 87gr bullets at 3000fps. YOOUR GUN MAY NOT STABILIZE 100GR BULLETS. WORTH A TRY. GOOD LUCK I HAVE ONE MADE IN THE 1920S AND SHOOT 75GR BULLETS IN IT . A FUN GUN.
I would 75 or 87 gr bullets. The gun was built to shoot 87gr bullets at 3000fps. YOOUR GUN MAY NOT STABILIZE 100GR BULLETS. WORTH A TRY. GOOD LUCK I HAVE ONE MADE IN THE 1920S AND SHOOT 75GR BULLETS IN IT . A FUN GUN.
I sent you a pm.
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I left out something. My '65 model 99F had obviously never been cleaned well since new. I had to use a copper fouling remover solution about 7 times before the patches started to come out other than black and blue slime. I used Sweet's 7.62 and Tetra brands over and over, soaking the bore well, running a bronze brush through a few times, and letting them sit for 20 minutes between cleanups. After a whole evening of this, the bore was clean...the first time since 1965. My groups went down very nicely by just cleaning the copper out.
Last edited by reivertom; 10-10-2018 at 06:44 PM.
I agree with the copper fouling, I had one that took two day of cleaning to get all of the copper out. I did shoot much better after that.
Here is a quick update. Hunting season came up fast & unfortunately I also had some recent flood damage to my home. Everything went on the back-burner including the Savage 99 project. But yesterday I needed to make a quick trip to the range to check a rifle & I had enough time to cobble together 10 rounds of .250 Savage ammo with some Speer 87gr bullets to try. The first 2 bullets were on paper & touching at 50 yards. I cranked the crosshairs over to the bullet holes & moved to 100 yards. Next 3 rounds were 2" high & 3" right, but the 3 shot group was 1-1/2"! I used the other rounds to fine tune the POI to the bullseye. Who knows, I may get to try the little gun on a deer or hog yet this season.
Thanks to all for the suggestions & I have plenty more experimenting planned. I haven't even taken the forend off yet. Special thanks to Texas-by-God for some 100 gr Rem RN he sent for me to try. I'll keep everyone posted on my results & what I find out.
Hard times create strong men, strong men create good times, good times create weak men, and weak men create hard times.
All Savage 99's I've owned were capable of 1/2-1" groups at 100 yards.Try a business card cut to fit under the forend tip and play with the tension on the forend screw.I glass bedded just the last inch of the tip. Use 87gr Speer which has a bonded core and kills deer just fine with 34.5gr of IMR 4895 @ 2957 fps or if you must 100gr Speer [shortest ogive in that weight for 1-14 twist] on top of 30gr of IMR3031 for 2650 fps.If these won't shoot sell the gun.Ken Waters Pet Loads .FL size 22-250 brass as it's always available if need be.Good luck.
This is interesting thread for me. I just got a 99Sav in 250/3000 a few months ago. OPs story could
be mine. I wanted one for same reasons, early hunting with a 99 carbine in 350/3000. Mine didn't
come out of a safe. It was in a case in a closet for many years. Same deal mine has been D&Ted for
scope and sling studs installed. Came with Weaver pivots & 4x scope and some 100gr factory ammo.
This rifle is a 1950, 99EG. When I was a kid we used 100gr also with reciver sight. I haven't had a lot
of time either so I'm not done with load developement. Not being a 99expert I started with several
100gr spitzers/ IMR 4895, had K10 on it for grouping tests. Got 2" to 2/34" groups at 100yds. Then
tried Hornady 100gr RNs and rifle will shot into 1". I am going to work with powder charges to see if
this can be improved. Since rifle is for deer I would like to stick with 100gr bullet. I have plenty of
lighter bullets that I used in 25/06 & 257R if I wanted to step down. I had my heart set on a carbine
model like I had as a kid but 99s are not common in this area and a nice one starts at $1K, and they
are usually 300Sav or 303Sav. The 250/3000s are scarce. The newer model with tang safety are more often seen. They aren't the gun of the older models. I'm keeping this one unless a carbine
comes down the road. I've had several 300s & 303s and all the ones I had weren't target guns but
shot as well and better than most repeating deer rifles. I have shot deer with 300sav but not 303sav
I'm sure it will kill them as dead as a 30/30. Another rifle that was suppose to have been made in
limited numbers for 250/3000 was m81 Rem. I have never seen one yet.
pertnear....sounds like you hit a homer first time up to bat. With a few more range trips you'll be stacking them up.
Thanks reivertom, I definitely have a fondness for the cartridge & the rifle. I hope you are right & I'm very encouraged now!
BTW: I like the K4 scope idea for the rifle. These days I like a little more power. Perhaps a nice 2x-7x maybe in order or is that too sacrilegious?
Last edited by pertnear; 12-05-2018 at 11:57 AM. Reason: Fixed my bad grammer & spelling DUH!
Hard times create strong men, strong men create good times, good times create weak men, and weak men create hard times.
A straight 6X Leupold if you must as to not throw off the guns balance and still be able to pick up running game.
BP | Bronze Point | IMR | Improved Military Rifle | PTD | Pointed |
BR | Bench Rest | M | Magnum | RN | Round Nose |
BT | Boat Tail | PL | Power-Lokt | SP | Soft Point |
C | Compressed Charge | PR | Primer | SPCL | Soft Point "Core-Lokt" |
HP | Hollow Point | PSPCL | Pointed Soft Point "Core Lokt" | C.O.L. | Cartridge Overall Length |
PSP | Pointed Soft Point | Spz | Spitzer Point | SBT | Spitzer Boat Tail |
LRN | Lead Round Nose | LWC | Lead Wad Cutter | LSWC | Lead Semi Wad Cutter |
GC | Gas Check |