got a chance to buy a .243 in a Savage 99 cd or a browning A bolt medallion bot at a good price. I love lever guns but I've always had bolt .243's as I load them hot as possible. I'm going to use it for coyote shooting, some a long ways off. so which would be best for reloading and accuracy ? Got to tell these sellers one way or another by tomorrow.

I think the A-bolt will be more accurate and better for long range shooting. That said, I really like Savage 99's and would probably go that way myself. With reloading, I'm sure you can make it accurate. And those 99's are awfully neat.

Steve

I had the Savage C with the 243-308 5 Rd.clip and loved it and found it to be just as accurate as any bolt action that I had shot in a Rem and a Ruger bolt which all had 22 in. barrels.. Only draw back is to be carefull when sizing-full lenght all the time and mine had a tight chamber and had to get the smaller full lenght resizing die cause the orginal die left the shell very tight in the chamber and had to shoot it to get the lever to open. Same thing with a 30-30 lever my uncle had the same problem with also.

You said that you load hot, so you sure don't need a Savage M-99...You can figure on about 2 to 3 grs. less powder for the 99s...That has never been a big deal with me because I know that 100 FPS or 200 FPS for that matter makes little difference in anything I do with a rifle...

The 99s are pretty forgiving and if your a bit hot they will drop the lever about a 1/4" when you shoot, that will be your first clue...

All lever guns will feed and function better if you use a small base die and better yet is a small base X die....

My advice is not to buy either! Keep shopping. Buying guns like this on impulse is how to run out of cash.

While the Savage 99's are fine guns to own they don't take to overloading as mentioned above. On the other hand the 243 is at bore capacity anyway. Overloading it does not increase the benefits all that much.

As to the Browning I would not own one for personal reasons.

For long range shooting of coyotes you might choose a "deer" rifle that you already have. One of the first things to go on long range shooting of those rats is killing power and cartridges like the 270 and 30-06 hit really hard way out there. So do the small and medium bore magnums.

this really not a n impulse decision as I have been looking for over a year. I really love lever rifles, and that is all I own except for aBAR carbine in 30-06. I don't feel my deer rifles are up to the task. I'm leaning toward the A bolt but I've never owned one, what are their good and bad points, are they usually accurate or do you have to tinker with them ? I had an out of the box Rem. 700 back in the early 70's that shot like a house a fire with no alterations.(it was my only rifle and I used for every thing from mule deer on down)
As to hot loads, my one and only load for the .243 was 85 grn. /45 grns of imr4350/3250/22" bbl took it right out of an old Nosler manual.
I'm going to check back with you after church today and see what goes. Happy Fathers day to all !

Cant say about the decision process, but if you do go with the '99, one thing Ive found very beneficial is to use millsurp brass. Easy enough to make it into 243 brass and it curbs the incipent head case problems inherint in a '99 big time. That way you can use published data and still be loaded hot!