Got a wild hair and bought a Savage 99G Takedown in .300 Savage today on one of the auction sites (never owned or even shot one before). It is drilled and tapped for scope and has a repaired crack in stock so not a collectors item, but otherwise mechanically sound. I intend to restock perhaps with a long Mannlicher style stock in front, rebarrel with a 20" .358 Win., and put a detachable 1-4X scope on it. Hope to load it with 250 gr. bullets. My question is will I have any problem rebarrelling to .358 Win. - i.e. magazine length on heavy bullets - or any other problems you might think of.

Can't say for sure but I believe the .300 is a shorter action than the .308 Sav, unless your 300 is a newer model, which it's not if it's a G model. You could take a 358 & see if it'll cycle thru the action if so you might be all right.

What I do know:
Is that Savage lengthened the carrier assy in 1954 to accomodate the .308 family of cartridges to 3.01" or thereabouts. The carriers are all just slightly different I have learned.

What I don't know:
Is whether they made any internal receiver mods to accomodate this longer carrier that would preclude you from doing a 358 conversion in an older receiver. I saw a converted 358 recently at one of the gun stores. Was a real beater though. I have a friend that had (...still has?) a Sav 99 in .358 for sale - if you are interested email me.

I have several 99's just never spent the time tearing them down and comparing them. I prefer the older post S/N 78,xxxx rifles up until the top tang safety models came out.

The carriers in the older models are mated with the tabs on the right hand side of the action. I believe that the magazine cutoffs on the left side are also different between rimmed and non rimmed. There is a great article on "Converting the Savage 99" by Robert Snapp in the Jan 1972 Amer Rifleman if you are interested in digging at your local library. Regards - Jeff P

Thanks for the input guys. I think this gun was made in late 30s, as I think takedowns ended in 41? I had looked at OALs for .300 Savage vs. .308 and .358. For 180 and 200 gr. bullets the .358 had the same OAl as the .300 Savage max. The 250s were 0.2" longer with same max OAL as .308. Will wait and see how it looks when it shows up. And I will try and chase down that article on converting Savage 99s.
Sorry Jeff, didn't have the spare cash for this gun, let alone another 99. Sometimes I just can't help myself.