For about the last 10 years I have been looking for a Savage 99F made in the 1950s and 60s only.Lots of them around in .308, 243, a few in 358 but the rare ones are the 284 and 250-3000. The have the last of the brass rotors and underlever safties..

The one I have been wanting is the 250-3000. I bid on two at auctions and they went for upwards to $1900 so didn't get them. Found one a few years ago for $2000 and passed.

This week I got one in the mail, and I got it at a very fair and reasonable price from the wishlist on Guns International and its a dandy. I stuck a 3X Leupold on it and its cowboy ready for Mule deer behind my house..

My dad shot 50 plus elk with his but it got stolen in storage at the barn on my father in laws farm. I shot 4 or 5 elk with it when in highschool.

Shot mine today sighting in and tested some loads I had worked up a long time back..It shot absolutly incredibly accurate competing against my bench gun and my varmint guns, and that amazed me for a lever action but most savages and 250-3000 are accurate, but this is one of a million.

Best accuracy was with 80 gr. GS Customs HPs and that is one good deer bullet at 3075 FPS with a dose of H414..I have used it in the past on deer, antelope, Javalina and rock chucks.. This one will be used this month on rock chucks as they are coming out of their holes and I'll pick up a few coyotes in the process..The 100 gr. hornadys shot real well as dis several brands of factory ammo..120 gr. Speer Grand slams key holed a bit?? 117 gr. bullets were accurate and no key holes..why I have no idea but its of little concern overall considering it shoots eveything else.

Ray,
Does your rifle retain the 1:14 twist rate of the earlier models..???
Mine is a 1941 production, 1:14 bbl. I've gotten excellent results with the about any 100's but have wanted to try the 117's also.
Thanks for the report.

I got a 99F .358 in 1966 and it became my primary deer rifle for the forests in VT.

The hunting is and was tough there with few deer. I would take running and going away shots and practiced. I prefer powerful cartridges for that.

Don,
The model I have is supposed to have a 1x10 twist and was so advertised..After shooting mine I noticed it keyholed 117, 115 and 120 gr. bullets and 100 gr. Nosler bal tips..but shot 100 gr Speer and Hornady flat bases into tiny groups and damn near bench rest accuracy with the 80 gr. GS Customs..This lead to a investigation and sure enough its a 1x14 inch twist..

Savage towards the end of 1956 put together a few of these guns with left over barrels in 1x14 twist..You cannot tell the difference unless you check the twist as the markings are all the same..I been told that makes my gun more rare than ever, but I doubt that would have any bearing on collector value..

Thanks Ray.
I was thinking you must have a 1:14, but the vintage wasn't correlating. That's a unique rifle you have..!!
I'm a leftie. I like the caliber so well, I bought a Rem700 LH in .308 the first year they were offered, intending to have it converted to .250 Sav. Then I went and killed a nice deer with it, so the switch never happened..!!
If I ever get around to building a bolt action .250/3000 it will have a 1:10 bbl. for those 115-120 bullets.

Well my lovely beauty went down the road at a price I couldn't possibly turn down..I'm such a gunwhore..I turned around and got a real nice 99EG from Bill in Oregan, and another from a neighbor, both in 250-3000..I also talked to a guy that has a 99F 1955 in 250 and its new in the box, made him an offer, so we will see.

I would love to find another 99F made in the 1950s to 1960s, but in 65 to 75% condition, so I could have a saddle gun in that caliber and model..the good ones just bring too much money to use.

Ray, when I saw your first post, about the new 99, the first thing I thought of was "I wonder how long it will be before he sells it?"

Ray You Dog..!!!
I can't believe you let that very unique 99 get away.
Ah Well Pard...I'm sure you'll have another one to play with real soon.
Cheers.

I know, I done went an done it...I should have taken up crack cocaine, its a much better addiction than gun trad'en...

If I ever find one in 50% condition I'll keep it cuz nobody will want it!! thats why all my keeper guns look like crap , but boy do they shoot good! .

quote:

Originally posted by Atkinson:
I turned around and got a real nice 99EG from Bill in Oregan, and another from a neighbor, both in 250-3000..

Well at least you still got a couple 250's. I finaly picked me up a Winchester m-88 the other day. My dad used to have one of those when I was young, it was stolen out of the cab of his truck the day before leaving to deer camp several years ago and Ive been lusting for one ever since. It is a 1961 model, like me. I found a weaver pivot base for it which seems to be stable and repeatable, and best of all it mounts the scope real low. On a whim I picked up an old Japan made Western field (Montgomery Wards) fixed 4X40 scope on flea-bay for a song. I was stunned when it arrived. Pristine condition, leather lens covers, post reticle and the eye relief is impressive! Best Ive ever seen from any Japanese scope. It looks like a clone of the Denver Redfields. There is a bit of distortion at the edges, but for what I paid it is a lot of scope. It looks great on the 88. Im a happy camper, need to load up some .308 rounds and try 'er out. Assuming accuracy is acceptable she will accompany me to Elk camp this fall.

I had a Weaver pivot mount on my first centerefire rifle a Ruger 44 Mag. The mount worked great.

Ray --- you just about had me in tears until you sold it for a few $$$,

I have one that I got when my grandfather died much to young and it would take a good size truck to tote away all the groundhogs I shot with it from about age of 8 to 16 - Dad and I would go out almost every evening during the Spring & Summer - he'd mostly fish and I'd sneak around and ambush the varmint's. It started out with an unknown aperture sight and it wasn't for 2 or 3 years it finally got a used Weaver -- didn't need to do so much crawling.
I eventually graduated to a more sophisticated rifle and higher power scope but I'd still took it out every so often, especially if I was going to hunt in an area where the ranges weren't so long.

It's been cleaned up, but not refinished, and it hangs in my home office next to a black-and-white photo of me and dad with the first deer (an old doe) I shot with it.

Bill
things move fast around this outfit, I sold the fine 99F, gave yours to the grandson, bought another 99EG 250 locally, and found myself an old beat up 99F in .308 but with a good bore and shoots great, so will probably peddle the EG, The 308 will stay around for a good while becasue nobody else would have it..