I've posted before that I've gotta hankering for a Sav. 99. I got good advice, thanks.
So I closed in on one at pawn shop. "h" stamp (1956) in 30-30. Take-down model. Good condition-- a little pitting on receiver and bluing rubbed off the end of the barrel. Cracked wrist of buttstock, repaired with pins and glue. Gleaming bore after I ran a few patches through it. Original peep tang sight and hinged scope mount.
Attachment 139624
$400 OTD, which is a lot of $ to me. I've looked at about a dozen 99s, the cheapest was $600 for one of the more recent ones with impressed checkering.
When I waffled, the guy kindly let me take it home (with full deposit) shoot it if I wanted. ( I've bought guns from him before.)
the big problem was the take-down. Visually pristine, no apparent wear. But after fiddling with it for a couple hours I could NOT get the wobble entirely out of it. A tiny bit remained, I almost couldn't see it--but I could feel it. For the heck of it, I cleaned the copper out of the bore and shot it with an assortment of handloads and got 3 inch groups with 7-8 grains of Red Dot at 75 yards, 157 gr. .311--so there is possibly potential. And I have idea for a fix, but the attempt would have voided my handshake warranty with the guy.
Btw, I searched the Net for a fix and the answers varied from gluing it permanently with aircraft epoxy to a poorly explained method of peening the threads to having the barrel set back and rechambered.
In short, the negatives added up enough that I didn't want to risk my fix, or pay a gunsmith to try something. so I took it back. I know, anti-climatic.