Savage 99 G

[KCSO]

I stopped in a Cabela's in Sidney this week and came home with a Savage 99G takedown. The rifle is tight as brand new and other than some stock and blue wear is in excellent shape. It was a reject from the gun library as it has been drilled and tapped for a scope and it was missing the rear sight. The bore is a shiney as new. Now I need to find some bullets and see what it will shoot. The gun was made circa 1930 and has a 22" barrel with a 1-14 twist so it should be good for a cast bullet around 100 grains at say 1600 fps. Whe I got the gun home I dug in the junk drawer and found a redfield peep for the rifle and then dug a little further and found a Weaver 2.5 scope. I installed both and the peep will nestle under the scope if I crank it all the way down. This should make a good small game rifle with cast, if I can find a good bullet.

Now for the kicker...
As a matter of habit I always check under the buttplate of any rifle that passes through and I have a nice collection of STUFF, ranging from a $100 bill to a 1906 hunting license. This rifle has killed an elk!!! The cancelled tag was under the buttplate. Somebody must have figured it was gun enough for the job and it worked. I am going to try and find out if the owner is still alive and see if there is some history here.

[carpetman]

KCSO---Wills probably has done extensive research and learned there has only been one elk killed ever with a Savage 99G and the owner died April 14,1991. No history whatsoever other than that. Can't even find the guys name. Besides all that,there is no connection whatsoever that can be ascertained to say that Billy the Kid ever even saw your gun.

[MT Gianni]

Caliber?

[NVcurmudgeon]

I stopped in a Cabela's in Sidney this week and came home with a Savage 99G takedown. The rifle is tight as brand new and other than some stock and blue wear is in excellent shape. It was a reject from the gun library as it has been drilled and tapped for a scope and it was missing the rear sight. The bore is a shiney as new. Now I need to find some bullets and see what it will shoot. The gun was made circa 1930 and has a 22" barrel with a 1-14 twist so it should be good for a cast bullet around 100 grains at say 1600 fps. Whe I got the gun home I dug in the junk drawer and found a redfield peep for the rifle and then dug a little further and found a Weaver 2.5 scope. I installed both and the peep will nestle under the scope if I crank it all the way down. This should make a good small game rifle with cast, if I can find a good bullet.

Now for the kicker...
As a matter of habit I always check under the buttplate of any rifle that passes through and I have a nice collection of STUFF, ranging from a $100 bill to a 1906 hunting license. This rifle has killed an elk!!! The cancelled tag was under the buttplate. Somebody must have figured it was gun enough for the job and it worked. I am going to try and find out if the owner is still alive and see if there is some history here.

KCSO, guess your new 99 is a .250-3000 because of the 14 twist and your thinking a 100 gr. CB would be good? "Made circa 1930" and "1906 hunting license?" Could it be the gun was made in 1903?

[KCSO]

The gun is a 250-3000 and was made in 1929. The hunting license in this gun was not dated 1906 but that is the oldest one I have found to date. The gun couldn't be an earlier than 1910?? as I think that is when the 250-3000 was developed??? I was amazed that someone took this little popgun out for elk and bear, especially in country where there were grizzlys. I always ranked the 250 under a 243 and I kinda thought that was a little light for mule deer. I need to find a mould for this beast now. I am thinking I might go with a 85 gr bullet for the 25-20 as this won't be a cast bullet deer gun.

[versifier]

A lot of people tend to underestimate the capabilities of the .250-3000. Around here they are used mostly for deer and black bear, but I know a few who have taken moose with them. I know one caribou hunter who takes his up to Newfoundland every year, too. As a deer rifle, it's good to 200 yards and a bit more if you can see better than I can now. [smilie=1: I wouldn't consider it underpowered for mule deer at reasonable distances, and while it wouldn't be my first choice for moose, it would instead happily double as a varmint rifle for medium distances. With cast especially it ought to be great on smaller critters. Some of them need small base sizer dies to feed properly, and they aren't cheap.

One word to the wise about old Savage take-downs: don't. The threads are notoriously easy to mess up - a really talented bubba can manage to mangle them on both the barrel and the receiver. I have met such a person - he has ruined two of them. Fortunately he has no children so the "bubba gene" may die with him. Me, I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

[9.3X62AL]

KCSO--

My Savage 99 is about that same age, 1930, and is a solid-frame. Ditto on 1-14" twist. It has fired the NEI 100 grain (#019, IIRC) that resembles a 30 caliber RG-4 spire point that shrink in the wash VERY WELL.

I haven't taken anything larger than jackrabbits with the rifle, but wouldn't hesitate to use it on deer with good bullets. While the 250 was undone by the 243 Winchester and its media coverage, I think any ballistic real-world advantage of one over the other is pretty hard to quantify. I have a largely shot-out (but still pretty accurate) Rem 788 in 22-250 that I might have drilled out to 250 Savage, to gain a scoped rifle in the caliber; the 99 has a Marble's tang sight, and will stay so equipped.

[KCSO]

I was also leary of the take down feature, especially as this one has the full thread and you need to completely unscrew the barrel. The barrel is very tight and rather than mess it up I simply cleaned it and set the barrel back in with a drop of loc tite. I do not ever anticipate taking it off again. As to 243 I had one in a Savage 99 in 1974 and when I shot it over a chronograph I was so dissapointed i sold it off, it never pushed any 100 grain bullet over 2800 fps and that is samo -samo with the 250.

[Dale53]

I have a couple of .257 Roberts and it is only a "tad more" cartridge than the .250 Savage. The Roberts has one advantage, however, with the faster twist, you can get 2800 fps with a 120 gr bullet. My Roberts is especially good with a 115 Nosler Partition bullet at 2800 fps. It took a black bear in Canada and I am here to tell you, it flat did the job. The bear was trotting around the hunter and was looking back at him when the bullet broke the neck and both shoulders. Bear down and dead instantly. Lots of damage and excellent penetration. You couldn't ask for more.

I would use the .250 Savage with good, but jacketed bullets on all of the lighter big game without a single worry. Grizzly, I don't think so. For MR. Griz, I would much prefer one of my .45/70's or my .375 H&H...

Dale53

[NVcurmudgeon]

One of my friends has killed a trainload of muleys, including some big ones, with a 99 .250. He got his start about 55 years ago, when Nevada was THE place for out of state hunters. Both his sons used the same rifle to start their hunting careers, and I expect to hear any year that it has made meat for the third generation.

[KCSO]

Here it is with scope and Redfield Peep.

[hydraulic]

Our Forest Service range con bought my 99 250-3000 for shooting elk. He had been using a .243 but his teenage son wanted it.

[KCSO]

Here is J W French with some of the game he shot with his 250-3000 in the early 1920's. He also took 9 grizzly bear with this rifle.

[1Shirt]

This is an interesting thread for a number of reasons. However as I read through the various replies, I am always reminded of the old yankee saying "Don't try to outshoot the man with only one gun". Most of us are gun nuts with a fistfull of weapons, but there are a lot of folks, particularly in back country areas who only own one, and are satisfied that they will kill anything they want to shoot. Am always reminded of Bell shooting elephants with a 7x57. Years ago there was an article in one of the Gun Digests about an Army Major who had been all over the world armed with one hunting rifle, a 99Sav. in 250-3000. Don't recall the full article and altogether what he shot with it, except for one huge crockadile (or however you spell it). He sure didn't think he was under gunned. KCSO, think you got a super piece of gun history with your buys. I never seem to find what I want in the used gun line at Cabellas.
1Shirt!:coffee:

[KCSO]

1 Shirt

If there is anything you need call Bill Rayer in the Sidney store. He's a retired leo and manages the gun library. He can put you in touch with anything in any Cabela's store. They also just opend a web site on the gun librarys so you can look at a gun and then call to buy. I get to your town all the time and have yet to get into the Cabela's there.

[dnepr]

Ithink you will be suprise how well the 250-3000 works, mine has taken 3 deer all solid one shot kills , I have a savage 99E and it is one of the handiest little rifles I own.

[stocker]

1shirt: Does the name Crossman ring a bell for the army type?

[hydraulic]

KCSO:
I hope Bill Rayer knows more about guns than he did about American History when he was a student in my high school history class. Didn't know he had left this part of the country.

[Bret4207]

KCSO, by using the loc-tite you've just saved yourself a heap of headaches. Takedowns are fun, but I don't believe it does the rifle any good. The loc-tite will keep the vibration from loosening the threads. It can happen. And you won't be sorry with a 99! Maybe a few of us 99 fans can so Ol' Ranch Doggy that the 99 can compete in his postal match. Time! I need TIME!

Kenneth Fuller Lee was a fan of the 250 and the guy mentioned above was I think a Missionary by the name of Harry Selous or something along those lines. It's in one of the old tomes like Sharpes book or maybe Keiths or Naramores. Didn't Roy Chapman Andrews also carry a 250 throughout Mongolia and China?

[NVcurmudgeon]

KCSO, by using the loc-tite you've just saved yourself a heap of headaches. Takedowns are fun, but I don't believe it does the rifle any good. The loc-tite will keep the vibration from loosening the threads. It can happen. And you won't be sorry with a 99! Maybe a few of us 99 fans can so Ol' Ranch Doggy that the 99 can compete in his postal match. Time! I need TIME!

Kenneth Fuller Lee was a fan of the 250 and the guy mentioned above was I think a Missionary by the name of Harry Selous or something along those lines. It's in one of the old tomes like Sharpes book or maybe Keiths or Naramores. Didn't Roy Chapman Andrews also carry a 250 throughout Mongolia and China?

Selous was an old African hunter who formed a unit called Selous' Scouts in WWI. Roy Chapman Andrews also famously used a .22 Savage Hi-Power in the Orient. IIRC he took at least one tiger with it. Guess he lived up to James 5:16. "The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective." Is ".22 Savage Hi-Power" a ballistic oxymoron?

[Bret4207]

You're right Bill. I'll have to take a look and see if I can find the right names.

[9.3X62AL]

There was an article in "Handloader" (IIRC) an issue or two back that described how calibers or caliber/bullet combos with a starting velocity of around 2700 FPS seem to have a "sweet spot" for game taking within reasonable ranges.

I didn't know I was doing so for this purpose, but I have loaded most of my deer rifles with that velocity range in mind--the 308 with 165's, the 250 Savage with 100 grainers, more recently the 6.5 x 55 with 140's. My 30-06 has used 165's at about 2850 FPS for some time, but I might start running 180 NosParts near 2700 this year. For deer the size of California blacktails and muleys, the 30-06 is probably overkill--but the whitetails I saw in Alberta in 2005 would correspond more closely to the 6.5 or the '06. While others have taken elk with the 250, I wouldn't consider it with the heavier calibers I have available.

I need to hunt something.......SOON.