bought a 99 at cabelas and want it inspected and tuned up who is the best 99 smith out there

quote:

Originally posted by poppycarroll:
bought a 99 at cabelas and want it inspected and tuned up who is the best 99 smith out there

Any competent gunsmith, who's not just a AR15 'mechanic'or only 'works' on 1911s, should be able to help you. Not a lot of 'tuning' can be done. A good, deep cleaning and detailed inspection is what might be needed. Lots of variations in '99s. Everything from all milled steel and walnut to sheet metal, only missing the barrel nut. I have seen a couple of the later models, that use detachable magazines, that were cracked from the recoil abutment to the closest scope mount screw hole. Presumably, from 'hot' handloads.

Yes, only thing that may need “tuning” is the mag spring. Other than that, as long as the parts are all original to the rifle, it’ll be fine as frog hairs.

As said, give it a detailed cleaning before doing anything else. It's a simple design with a subtly complex interaction of its parts.

The main fault to be found is when well meaning Bubbas tried to "improve" the trigger. The Savage trigger is what it is- the best one can hope to do is polish the sear surfaces to smooth it up a bit, yet goofs insisted on shortening the sear contacts to remove creep. To tell if that was done, cock it and bump the butt on the floor to see if the sear trips.

Last word of advice: don't overtighten the buttstock screw. Snug it up just enough to prevent it from wobbling. Any tighter and you run the risk of incurring the dreaded tang crack in the wood. (The two tangs are tapered, and as such represent two wedges being driven back into the wood.)