I am not looking to push the envelope at all. I have a model 99A (made in 1973?) in .308 Winchester. I was just wondering if the rifle will hold up if I feed it a steady diet of 50,000 CUP loads. To this point I have only used loads that were somewhat mild.

[ 05-29-2002, 18:39: Message edited by: Buzz ]

Well, Ive never had any problems with any of my 99's, and they've had a staedy diet of factory and equivelant loads for quite a few years. FWIW - Dan

I have been loading for 99's since 1964 with the .358 Win. Most of my loads have been near max and the one I have used now for about 15 years has been over max by the new data for imr 4198 and the 180 Speer. The action seems fine and the cases extract very well. Also the other signs of high pressure are not there and the velocity is good at over 2,700 fps.

But the cases do get insipiant head separations. I think this is due to the rear lockup of that action. All my cases are WW .358's. I am not sure how many loads I get out of a case as I have them mixed. I check every case inside with a wire feeler gage.

My tang safety featherweight 308 circa between 1960 and 1973, actually two of them now that I got a twin for my son, are fed a steady diet of 46 grains of IMR4064 in Winchester cases JUST FL resized enough to close the action and CCI200 primers are getting an average of 2800 fps with 150 grain Speer Hot-Cor's. I get ONE inch groups all day long with this load in my gun and it's right on the verge of a hot load and if I try Federal primers the primers flatten and the shells get sticky. But with the CCI's I haven't seen any problems with the brass but I've only put a few loads through them as of yet.

I've just gone to some Speer FP 130's to try this year but have no accuracy nor velocity reports yet.

[ 06-01-2002, 06:12: Message edited by: M99ER ]