Savage99 cartridge conversion

[Mgvande]

Hey I'm wondering what is involved in rebarrelling a 99 savage from 303 savage to 300 savage? I figure the bolt head would change. But are the bolt heads hard to come by? Would it be worth it to change out a crappy 303 savage barrel with a used clean 300 savage barrel? Just putting feelers out to see if such a project is worth it.
thanks in advance

[gnoahhh]

Several things to consider:

A) All 99 bolt faces were the same. No need to contemplate an alteration there. The bolt face is flat with no accommodation for rimmed or rimless or diameter of rim.

B) Your biggest stumbling block will be the rotor. A .300 won't feed worth a tinker's dam through a .303 rotor. Replacement is necessary. Plenty on ebay, but they aren't getting any cheaper.

C) The cartridge guide (thingy on the right side of action that keeps the cartridges from popping off the rotor and guides them toward the chamber as they peel off) is cartridge specific too. Replacement is necessary. Fairly common, but often ignored by ebay sellers who don't understand their importance when parting out junker 99's.

D) .303 barrels turn up occasionally. Be patient. I bought one with a dandy bore for $125 a month ago.

E) Probably the biggest issue when doing a barrel swap on a 99 is headspace. Screwing another barrel in until it indexes, whether a solid frame or a takedown frame, won't guarantee correct headspace. You might get lucky but you probably won't. I learned from an old factory employee that the way Savage conquered the need for extremely tight tolerances in all phases of production was to ignore some of it. Barrels were routinely rifled and chambered, and fitted onto receivers. The assembler then stuck a bolt in and checked headspace. If it was OK he sent it down the line. If it wasn't OK he started mixing-and-matching bolts until he got acceptable headspace. I have found bolts differing in length by as much as .040". They purposely made bolts like that so they didn't have to maintain crazy tight tolerances at every step of barrel, receiver, and bolt production which saved a lot of time and money. Remember, this was back in the analog age, when human interaction with a machine was a big factor. You can't blame them, in fact it was an ingenious way to save money.

Good luck! Savage 99's were ingenious designs and really quite simple once you understand them.

[gnoahhh]

One other thing to consider is the age of the receiver you wish to re-barrel to .300. Actions made before serial number 90,000 have a square backed bolt. Those receivers tended to crack at the square corners of the bolt mortise when subjected to abusive pressures, plus the steel was softer than in later guns. The bolt/receiver mortise configuration was then changed to the familiar radiused design. Then, at around serial number 170,000 (1915), they introduced the .250-3000- a much higher pressure cartridge than what they previously made. Better steel alloys were employed to handle it and were adopted as standard for all 1899/99's from that point on. Nothing further was required for the advent of the .300 Savage in 1920, and remained so for decades after that. Bottom line, keep .300's in receivers made from number 170,000 upward.

[MostlyLeverGuns]

The .300 Savage is a higher pressure cartridge than the .303 Savage. If your 303 was built before 1920 (300 Savage introduced) or maybe 1915 (250 Savage introduced) I would be reluctant to change to the higher pressure cartridge. A 30-30 will normally feed from the 303 magazine. I agree with gnoahhh on the bolt face and rotor. The cartridge guide can be modified to pass the wider bodied 300 Savage. Rebarreling a Savage 99 is a true custom fit adventure, even when rebarreling to the current caliber. You might set a barrel back a thread to square up the dovetails and barrel hanger, then carefully rechamber if headspace is an issue, but simply screwing on another barrel may or may NOT work.

[MostlyLeverGuns]

I guess I was typing when gnoahhh was replying. If rebarreling, the 30-30 would probably be a better choice than the 303, or a 32 Winchester Special or 25-35 for something different. With very CAREFUL, VERY CAREFUL handwork, a Dremel sanding drum could open the rotary carrier to accept the 35 Remington. I tried a couple in one of my 303's. Two would load and feed without alteration, the third tied things up, so a rebore to 35 Rem would work with CAREFUL alteration to the rotary carrier and cartridge guide.

[Mgvande]

Thanks for the info. There is some very knowledgable people on this forum. Looks like I should pass on this project as it seems quite involved. Out of curiosity would a 32 special feed in the 303 savage magazine? I don't believe there is a rebore/rechamber option with the existing barrel.

[MostlyLeverGuns]

The 32 Special should work through the action, but the 303 Savage head diameter is too large for a rebore/rechamber. The 32 Special is .420 plus/minus, the 303 Savage .442 plus/minus so the chamber would be too large for the 32 Special.

[MostlyLeverGuns]

Ran a test on 32 Special in 303 Savage, loaded 5, Closed the action over loaded magazine, cycled the 5 out without trouble, of course I did not try to fully chamber, but they did cycle without an issue, so no action changes needed for 303 Savage to 32 Special, just a different barrel 'in my rifle'. Of course the Savage 99 was never made as a 32 Special.

[ipopum]

I did a conversion of 303 to 30-30. This was a 1895. Everything works fine . Action cycles, cases feed, and it goes bang. I have a lathe but the barrel was from another model # but it did have the old square threads. I also had a chamber reamer which was needed.