Savage 99 in 358 Winchester

[MBTcustom]

This rifle was done for Dragon831gt.
It is completely done by hand.
The metal was drawfiled by hand and then polished with a wooden block and sandpaper, and then blued in my tanks.
The wood was inletted to the metal and scraped into perfect fit and seamless continuity, and then over 20 coats of true oil were rubbed into the wood by hand, and finally the checkering was deepened and pointed up one line at a time.

This rifle was sent to JES reboring where the rifling was cut into the new bore by hand.
The lever was polished out by hand and then sent to Turnbull for color case hardening.

The sights are made by Skinner and were filed to fit the doves perfectly.

All this comes together to create a booliteers dream come true. This is now an heirloom quality rifle and I would wager that Dragon813gt does not recognize it for the plain rifle that he sent here months ago.

Thanks to Dragon813gt for allowing me to help make this rifle a reality.
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[Beagle333]

Very, very nice!!!!! :cool:

[dragon813gt]

Thanks Tim, the rifle looks outstanding. My five week old son will come to appreciate this rifle in a few years :)

So people can see here is what it looked like to begin w/.
http://i198.photobucket.com/albums/aa39/dragon813gt/Firearms/A55B52C7-14D1-4B6C-BE34-DA7E7F7D864E-9910-000005BCC9445839_zps961f43ae.jpg

http://i198.photobucket.com/albums/aa39/dragon813gt/Firearms/A0FC802B-6804-439A-91FE-BD0BAD360E0A-9910-000005BCCF78C142_zpsf7e42522.jpg

http://i198.photobucket.com/albums/aa39/dragon813gt/Firearms/478F4C62-EA17-47E0-BBEB-BEF3A3C9D882-19639-00000D1E5A09BDC8_zpse4b61cfb.jpg

http://i198.photobucket.com/albums/aa39/dragon813gt/Firearms/2D04FCB3-5825-4273-B377-1127DA0EAFB5-19639-00000D1E5F9D322A_zps26bdac83.jpg

Hopefully the comb is the right height for the irons. Once I get this figured out I will ship out my 99 in 300 Savage for you to work your magic on. I can't say enough about how great the rifle looks.

[MBTcustom]

Sandpaper and love my man.
This one was a phoenix if I ever saw one. The pictures don't quite do it justice. Just wait till you get you see it! I've turned it over and over in bright sunlight, and I am pleased with the quality and I can't find any excuse to go back into it.
I am very pleased with this build.

[Larry Gibson]

Very, very nice!!!!! :cool:

Could not have been more eloquent myself!

Larry Gibson

[Artful]

Shazam man - where did you get that wood?

[MBTcustom]

Shazam man - where did you get that wood?
You'll have to ask dragon813gt.
He sent me the stocks, I stripped them down to bare wood and finished them so that I got maximum OMGosh from the wood grain, as well as line to line fit with the metal.
God bless the stockmakers that leave extra wood for me to carve off!

[richhodg66]

I have a 99E in .308 that looks just like the before pics. It's a good shooter and I like it as is. I picked up a Savage 99 Brush Gun in .358 I've been working with and am becoming convinced that cartridge in the 99 platform is the ultimate deer rifle.

Beautiful work as always, Tim. You are truly a master craftsman.

[Just Duke]

Well done Tim Has anyone shot it yet? What caliber was it originally?

[Just Duke]

Where did you get the stock with the high comb?

[shredder]

I really like the way the pics are composed. The barn boards, the blue lantern, the handful of cartridges. You make me want to go shoot! The rifle is a joy to behold. I can imagine the smiles when that gets uncased.

[MBTcustom]

Well done Tim Has anyone shot it yet? What caliber was it originally?

I've shot it. It's a sweet ride. A real sweet ride.
I hated to send it back. LOL!

[1Shirt]

Beautiful!!! One of the dumbest things I have ever done was to sell my 99 in 358!
1Shirt!

[nekshot]

Very nice indeed!! one question- what kinda wood is that?

[dragon813gt]

Where did you get the stock with the high comb?

Ancient Chinese Secret ;)
It's new old stock. If you're on the ball they pop up every now and then. I have another one that's going to go on the 300 Savage. I've been contemplating how many I should buy now because they are only going to be harder to find in the future. And they aren't cheap now.

[gnoahhh]

You nailed it, Tim. Bravo!!

[TXGunNut]

Very nice! Have you received your rifle yet, dragon813gt?

[dragon813gt]

Very nice! Have you received your rifle yet, dragon813gt?

Scheduled to arrive at my house this Tuesday.

[webradbury]

Excellent! Did you wet sand with the oil to fill the grain? Wax?

[MBTcustom]

Excellent! Did you wet sand with the oil to fill the grain? Wax?

No.
I dry sanded between coats, and just kept going till I got what I wanted. I followed a process for applying the finish I learned from a guitar maker who preferred Truoil to polyurethane when using dark tonewoods. It produces a finish that can't be matched IMHO. It took a couple weeks, but it's no big deal. Just put on a fresh coat and the beginning and end of each day.

[DeanWinchester]

Exodus 20:17
17Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his incredibly sweet lever gun in the super manly .358 Win caliber, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ***, nor any thing that is thy neighbour's.

[dragon813gt]

Well this will be hung up at the post office for a few days. The mailman decided to play a game of "ring and run" today so my wife couldn't make it to the door in time to sign for it. They didn't put the package number on the redelivery form so I can't even schedule one. If you've read my posts before you already know how much I hate the USPS. To be honest, I'm assuming this rifle is the package they were trying to deliver. I'm not expecting anything else.

[dragon813gt]

Took delivery of this beauty today. Only took a 40 minute phone call to the USPS to get the redelivery set up and a complaint filed. Looking like I need to go buy some jacketed bullets to test fire this baby. W/ a seven week old baby at home I have zero free time for casting. I never got around to casting up some of 200 FN bullets from the mold I ordered at the same time as the rifle. I'm hoping I have some bullets stashed somewhere so I don't have to buy any.

Tim, the comb height seems just fine for me. I'm thinking I should have ordered a brass front post. Picking it up is rather hard. Shooting it will be the real test but who knows when I will have the time for that :(

[MBTcustom]

I'm glad you like it, and I'm very sorry about USPS.
The front sight picks up just fine on white target paper.
If you want a tip, what I do is keep some matches and a bottle of Papermate. If I'm shooting paper, I smoke the blade. If I'm shooting deer, I paint it white. I've been using Papermate since I was shooting BB guns LOL!

I'm really glad you like that rifle. It's a beauty now, no two ways about it.
Oh and congratulations on the new arrival.
Don't sweat the cast boolits. I think I shut down my whole operation for about a year or two when Natalie was born. I have washed my hands religiously around that kid. Gotta watch 'em.

[richhodg66]

My 99 in .358 shoots the NOE RCBS clone real well with 40 grains of IMR 4320. Find some time to cast, I think you'll really like that bullet in that rifle.

Now I think I'm going to look around for a good 99E like that for a similar makeover. My .358 was made in .358 from the ground up, but that means it has the tang safety and I prefer the lever safety, I'd also prefer the pistol grip stock.

[dragon813gt]

Don't sweat the cast boolits. I think I shut down my whole operation for about a year or two when Natalie was born. I have washed my hands religiously around that kid. Gotta watch 'em.

I don't mind having to buy jacketed if it keeps me shooting. This isn't like the AR I put together, like legos, where I will go through hundreds in a session. A box of bullets should last me a good while. I'm really anal about washing my hands w/ the child. I snuck out to the garage the other day to sort 223 brass by headstamp. I should have done this before I had thousands upon thousands to sort. Talk about boring work. But it's easy to stop at any moment and I don't need to worry about where I left off. I wash my hands w/ D-lead soap and then another two times w/ Dawn afterwards. I do not want to contaminate my son because of my hobby.

As far as the USPS. I know it's an issue w/ my branch. Every time I have to call I know my service is just going to get worse. All they have to do is put the tracking numbers on the redelivery form but they never do :mad:

[taco650]

Tim,

I gather that you like JES for re-boring. Care to comment? I've talked with them once about re-boring my 30-06 to 35Whelen. I liked what I heard but just cant' seem to bring myself to alter my very first rifle. I worked for 6 months to earn the $$ to buy it 'cuz dad said I could have a rifle as long as I paid for it. It was a good lesson to learn and that was 1978 when I learned it. Never forgotten it either, but I digress.

That 99 is BEAUTIFUL!!!!!!

[Love Life]

Very nice rifle!!! Can I borrow it?