savage 99

[Bullshop]

A customer brought in an old 99 in 300. He said it went off when he closed the action. I tried as fast and hard as I can work the lever and did get it to slam fire once. Before I jump in this gun is there anything I should know about dissamble/reassembly? I have never worked on one and want to avoid any BOING!! lost springs or other.
Thanks Savage nuts!
BIC/BS

[C A Plater]

I've got two of them and so far the trickiest thing is getting the rotary magazine spring tension right. Avoid getting any of the foaming bore cleaner anywhere near the brass rotor. It'll gum up the works pretty good. Once you pull off the buttstock, you will be able to see what is going on with the sear and the striker and know what to do.

[Pepe Ray]

Stock held on by thru bolt.
Once you remove it most everything is exposed and accessable.
I've been inside only one, trying to fix a safety. Found that not ALL models have been illustrated in the commonly available gun books.
I didn't find any unpleasent surprizes, except the different safety.
Good luck, Pepe Ray

[scrapcan]

Make sure you look it over pretty good for peening of the bolt/lever slots while you have it all apart. Some of the 99s are prone to peening /battering and can result in excess headspace.

The headspace issue does not account for the slam fire, but while you got it in little pieces it is a good time to look.

[wmitty]

I suggest you count the turns as you unwind the rotary magazine's spring tension; I failed to do this and I'm still wondering if the current tension of the follower spring is correct.

[ammohead]

I suggest you count the turns as you unwind the rotary magazine's spring tension; I failed to do this and I'm still wondering if the current tension of the follower spring is correct.

wmitty,

Just take it in and out a couple dozen times till you get it right! That's what I did. After about 13 or 14 tries, it goes pretty fast.

ammohead

[stocker]

When you get the stock off you can see the link up between the sear and the fring pin /striker head. From the factory these rifles came with a considerable amount of engagement between these parts. Too much to suit some folks so they removed metal from the linking sear to reduce the amount of engagement and lighten the pull and reduce trigger travel. With time and wear (or maybe it was iffy when the job was done to begin with) you can get the slam fire effect. I would start looking for a new/used sear. I acquired a nice mid 50's 99F from a gunsmith's estate that has a 2.5 lb. trigger pull. Nice to shoot but the sear engagement is so minimal that I don't truly trust it and am looking for a part to replace the existing. I have an unmodified rifle of the same vintage and the engagement is nearly 1/8 of an inch. The modified one would be measured by thousandths and not many of them either.