Guy Miner
Master Loader
- Apr 6, 2006
- 17,487
- 4,639
Wow - what a treat! This rifle has been "around" for my entire life. Grandpa's house, later my father's house... It's an old Savage 99, with the brass rotary magazine - and interestingly two barrels that can be changed out quickly. One is the .22 Hi-Power barrel, the other a .410 shotgun barrel. The magazine only works with the rifle ammo, the shotgun ammo won't fit and must be single-loaded.
Back in the 1970's or early 1980's Dad was going to start shooting it, and found ammo difficult to obtain. He finally bought a box of Canadian 70 grain soft point ammo. Ballistics on this cartridge are supposed to be about 3100 fps with a .228" diameter 70 grain bullet. Interesting...
Dad never got around to shooting it and a couple of years ago he decided I ought to have custody of the rifle. Eventually I obtained a set of loading dies (Thanks!) and some old .228" dia Speer soft points... And a little research revealed that people were having success with commonly avail .224" bullets as well. I still haven't handloaded this puppy, but equipped with all 40 factory loads in my possession (the Canadian "Imperial" ammo and a box of 70 grain soft-point Norma ammo I'd unearthed somewhere) I headed to the range...
Told my friend that I thought the rifle hadn't been fired in 50 years or more and was asked "How do you know it's not going to blow up in your face?" I smiled and replied that it was a good gun.
You know what? It is a good gun.
Didn't blow off my face. Did hit the target. Now we were only a few yards from the backstop, but using the rear notch sight on the barrel (there is another flip-up rear aperture sight on the tang) the first shot hit dead-center of the paper plate, and clobbered that plate! I shot it a few more times and put it back in the Jeep, with a big ol' grin on my face. Very satisfying. Sent Dad the photo, told him that I'd finally shot that rifle and he was happy as all get out too.
I'm going to do some more shooting and loading for this very cool old rifle, and believe I will be carrying it on some coyote hunts, with a cougar tag in my pocket! It's not legal for deer here in Washington, but is legal for coyotes and cougar. Typical for a Savage 99, it carries easily. I think this is going to be a fun rifle to have back in action!
Regards, Guy
Back in the 1970's or early 1980's Dad was going to start shooting it, and found ammo difficult to obtain. He finally bought a box of Canadian 70 grain soft point ammo. Ballistics on this cartridge are supposed to be about 3100 fps with a .228" diameter 70 grain bullet. Interesting...
Dad never got around to shooting it and a couple of years ago he decided I ought to have custody of the rifle. Eventually I obtained a set of loading dies (Thanks!) and some old .228" dia Speer soft points... And a little research revealed that people were having success with commonly avail .224" bullets as well. I still haven't handloaded this puppy, but equipped with all 40 factory loads in my possession (the Canadian "Imperial" ammo and a box of 70 grain soft-point Norma ammo I'd unearthed somewhere) I headed to the range...
Told my friend that I thought the rifle hadn't been fired in 50 years or more and was asked "How do you know it's not going to blow up in your face?" I smiled and replied that it was a good gun.
You know what? It is a good gun.
Didn't blow off my face. Did hit the target. Now we were only a few yards from the backstop, but using the rear notch sight on the barrel (there is another flip-up rear aperture sight on the tang) the first shot hit dead-center of the paper plate, and clobbered that plate! I shot it a few more times and put it back in the Jeep, with a big ol' grin on my face. Very satisfying. Sent Dad the photo, told him that I'd finally shot that rifle and he was happy as all get out too.
I'm going to do some more shooting and loading for this very cool old rifle, and believe I will be carrying it on some coyote hunts, with a cougar tag in my pocket! It's not legal for deer here in Washington, but is legal for coyotes and cougar. Typical for a Savage 99, it carries easily. I think this is going to be a fun rifle to have back in action!
Regards, Guy
Don't they have chukar or something out where you are? That 410 barrel sounds like a pleasure to carry for something like that. Very cool. CL
