Savage Model 99 barrels

[Turkeyfeather]

I have another model 99 question for the field of gunsmiths.

Does anyone know of someone who is cutting model 99 barrels. I see plenty of barrel companies but I have not been able to find one who makes new barrels for the model 99.  I would just love to find a commercial source for a replacement barrel in 338 Federal.  I have an old rifle with a shot-out barrel that crys for a new barrel. I think the 338 Federal would be the cat's tail for this gun.

Any ideas??

[Lone Star]

Before you rebarrel your existing rifle, what age and chambering is it now?  The .338 Federal is a very high pressure loading (62,000 psi), and for some older M99s it may exhibit short case life or sticky extraction.  If you rifle is factory-chambered for any of the .308-class cartridges, then there should be no problem.  Sorry, I don't know of a barrel source.


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[Turkeyfeather]

Very interesting point about the pressure concern. The old model I have is a 1951 model origionally chambered in 300 Savage.

While the 300 Savage operates at lower pressures than the 308 Win, I had been aware that Savage changed designs of the model 99 when they went to the 308. I have a 1967 model in 284. I know the 284s operate at similar pressures to the 308s but again, I am not aware of any design changes that would incorporate selecting different materials or material hardnesses, etc...

Good point, perhaps other people have some information on this as well.

[gunnut69]

Any competant gunsmith who does rebarreling could rebarrel a M99. A switch barrel would require a bit of extra work.. The main change Savage made as I understand it was a material and heat treat change..

[iiranger]

The barrel companys advertise to the big number of buyers. The boys with the mil. surplus rifle. 98 Mauser. Or the common commercial like the 700 Rem... any decent gunsmith can cut threads on an unthreaded barrel (which they sell but don't advertise as loudly) for any rifle including the 99.

Mr. Ackley wrote that the original 99 was not quite long enough for the "new" .308 WCF and in the 1950s savage lengthened the action. Plenty of strength in the older guns, but not long enough. Maybe not if made in the WW I era, but...

In his books, Mr. A talks favorably about these guns. One man (Titus) necked the .300 to .270 and got pre WW II preformance equal to the .270 WCF out of this smaller cartridge... Don't recall a .32 or .33 but doubt it wasn't tried. LUCK.

[gunnut69]

 iiranger -- I had forgotten about the magazine changes!! They made some parts changes also.. I usually just tell someone wanting to get rid of a 300 Savage to just use the savage round.. It's nearly the same balistics and brass is available as or dies..

[Lone Star]

Many current gunsmiths will not work on the M99; the complex magazine and odd machining on the breech end of the barrel are apparently too much for some modern gunsmiths (at least that is what three of them told me).   Heck, Savage had to simplify the M99's design in the 1970s so that it could be assembled in their factories as the skilled workforce retired away......

Ackley was a great promoter of his products and services, but much of what he published in the handbooks was unpressure-tested data from unsubstantiated sources.  The data came from an era when wildcatters competed against each other for bragging rights, and much of their data is: wildly over-pressured, fired in very long barrels, had one-shot case life, required a hammer to open the action, etc. (Regardless of what was published, all cartridges are slaves to the laws of physics - you cannot get something for nothing.)   Some of P.O.'s theories have been proven wrong with modern testing equipment - but that doesn't diminish his overall contributions to cartridge development, which were substantial.

It was well documented that early M99s exhibited action stretching with high pressure loads in cartridges like the .250 and .300 Savage.  Metallurgical/heat treatment changes were made in the early 1950s, around the time the safety was moved from the lower tang to the upper tang.


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