Savage Mod.99 Take-down barrel tightening

[glshop20]

I recently purchased a Savage Mod.99 take-down rifle in 250-3000.  The rifle is in good shape except the barrel to reciever fit is sloppy.  I know that accuracy will be poor as is.  I am looking for non-permanent ways to tighten up the threaded connection between barrel and reciever.  I have thought about teflon tape, lock-tite, and possibly tinning the threads with a soft solder.  And suggestions would be appreciated.  I want it to be a reversable fix.  Thanks,  Walt

[gunnut69]

What type takedown mechanism are we talking about. Savage used to differing designs. The first was an interupted thread design that unlocked with a 1/4 turn, the last, introduced because the first models were having problems, has to be completely unscrewed before it can be removed.

[glshop20]

Sorry for not being more specific.  It has the interupted thread takedown design with 1/4 turn to lock-unlock.  The rifle was made in 1914.  I came across a product made by Lock-tite called thread restorer.  It 9is a two part compound applied to the female threads and a release agent applied to the male threads.  It is supposed to be machinable and able to be threaded.  Any experience with this?  Sounds good as it would preserve the take down function of the rifle even though I do not intend to take it down after repair.  Thanks,  Walt

[gunnut69]

The right way to do this would be to turn the barrel shoulder back 1 thread, turn back the face of the breech end of the barrel 1 thread alter the forearm to fit the new setup and reset the headspace. I don't know if thread restorer could take the stress of a high pressure rifle cartridge. These threads usually loosen because of firing, not because of takedown.. I suppose a lot depends on just how loose the joint is.. As the joint loosens there is less and less of the threads holding the pressure which accelerates the damage to the threads and so on and on.. You can see how this becomes an accelerating road to disaster.. I don't know the shear stresses applied to the threads on a setup like yours but doubt severely that thread restorer was designed to handle them. You may try the stuff and NEVER take the rifle down. Fire a few rounds and check the barrel for looseness... If you're interested in shooting the rifle perhaps one could find or make a new barrel.. Please be aware that the weakness of this design when mixed with high pressure cartridges was the reason they switched to full threads and simply unscrewing to remove the barrel.. Perhaps just build a new barrel to use for shooting while retaining the old for display. I've a 99 in 22Highpower that uses the same design as yours. It's been shot but I keep it to a minimum.

[glshop20]

Gunnut69,
 Thanks for the advice.  I will probably try the thread restorer and as you suggest, see how it holds up.  If you know of anyone that does good work with replacement barrels of this kind, please pass the name along.  I want to keep the rifle as original as possible and at the same time be able to shoot it on occasion. 
                                                                                                      Thanks, Walt

[rebel49]

Glshop20:
What you could try that would work better than the locktight is a shim at the barrel shoulder. Now this being said, it is not the proper way of solving the problem, what was mentioned about setting the barrel back is the correct way to do things.
They make shims for tightening up the barrels on Model 12 and 97 Winchesters when they run out of adjustment, but these are low pressure shotguns. Shotguns usually run 9,000 - 10,000 CUP, where your rifle runs about 45,000 CUP. I pesonally would stay away from the Lock Tite method. If you need more info on the shim thickness just ask, it can get quite involved mathmaticaly.
Rebel49

[Hairtrigger]

Wouldn't a shim change the headspace?

[gunnut69]

The problem isn't that the threads are worn, they are most likely stretched.. Thus by shimming the barrel we'd not only increase the length of the headspace in the chanber but not fix the problem either.. The deformed threads would just be pressed together tighter.. I would also recommend the replacement barrel be left fully threaded. This may help a bit. It would necessitate unscrewing the barrel completly each dismount but the receiver would still only be half threaded.. Any good smith should be able to thread a barrel blank and turn it to the desired diameter.

[Hairtrigger]

I took my rifle apart once and only once, just to see how a take down works. I can see hot it would make cleaning easier but am afraid that taking it down often will leave it loose

[gunnut69]

My information has lead me to believe the takedown was a favorite because of cleaning issues. Without the takedown, cleaning is a 'from the muzzle, operation. Few problems occured until the advent of higher presure rounds. The 22Highpower was touted as being able to kill everything including even bengal tigers. There were some awesome velocity claims made and the pressures to which the loads went were the likely cause of most of the problems. Going to full thread patterns evidently solved the problem, which also leads me to believe it was most likely a pressure problem as taking down a full thread would be as damaging to the threads as a partial thread would be.,. In the pressure arena though the full thread added 2 times the threads to retain the barrel..