To all you 99 owners;
I'm interested to hear about any common weaknesses or problems you have with your savage 99's. I believe the ones built later had less workmanship. I'd love to hear your opinions.

I definitely have a weakness for those old Savage 99's.

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I have a premil and the workmanship is very good. Trigger was heavy, but can be improved to "good".

Gents,

I agree that the more recent guns were not worked as finely as the older guns in terms of fit and finish, at least in my limited survey of 2 (one made in 1940, the other 1980+/-) I have also noticed that the newer gun doesn't function as surely as the pre-war job, and that it will either allow rounds to remain well down in the magazine to be coaxed out with a pen, or some such. I have never had any issues at all with the old gun.

Accuracy is about on par with both, although I have noticed that the older gun heats up quickly, and the bullet impact begins to walk right thereafter. The old gun also has a fairly generous chamber, that tends to work the brass more than a little during firing- I re-size often and it has a fairly short service life, considering. Nice gun though, shoots fairly straight, and has zero recoil, I taught my daughter how to shoot with it, and she is heck on unexploded stationary clay pidgeons at 100 yards.

Best to you fellows.

Steve

I have a late production straight stock, finger groove .358. The barrel is too thin and light. The balance is too far aft for a snap shooting rifle – at least for me. Overall the rifle is a bit light – even with a scope – for a .358 shooting 220- or 225-grain bullets. For a rifle shot only during hunting season this is not a problem, but for year round shooting it is a light rifle.
I shot the forend off this rifle at least twice. I remember a third time but I could be wrong. The tenion under the barrel holding the forend on tearing through and leaving the forearm in my hand. This resulted in a good whack on my glasses and a red mark over my eye as I was shooting from the bench. I believe we finally have the problem solved.
I have had a few feeding issues too. Every once in awhile a round will stick and it takes a small screw driver and a lot of fiddling to free things up.
I like the rifle well enough but prefer my .356 Winchester.

Great rifles and a design that was far ahead of its time. The better rifles are the pre 1 million serial numbered ones which I believe was reached in 1960. They moved the factory about that time and made some cost cutting changes. Nothing drastic, but similar to what Winchester did in 1964. In general, the fit and finish is just better on the earlier ones. I have a 99EG chambered for the 300 Savage that will do an honest 1.5" group at 200 yards with my handloads. I've never had a bolt gun do that well for me.

Anything Post-million serial number isn't quite as well built as the pre-mils. I love them all, except the model C with the Clip, eeeyuck. I only have 1 post mil it is a Saddle gun in 250, it's a shooter, and a darned good one. Les

Savage 1899s/99s do have one very common problem: split stocks just behind the upper tang. This is generally caused by over-tightening the stock bolt.