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Savage Model 99-EG Rifle By the Guns and Shooting Online Staff  A nice example of a Savage 99-EG rifle made in the early 1950s. Photo courtesy of GunsAmerica. Arthur Savage's famous Model 1899 rifle was a modified version of his Model 1895, itself an improved version of the Model 1892 rifle (never produced), which was a joint project of Savage and Colt. The Models 1895 and 1899 are quite similar and when the Model 1899 was introduced Savage offered to upgrade any Model 1895 to 1899 standard for $5.00. In 1920, the model number was shortened to "Model 99." Savage's Models 1895/1899 were introduced at an interesting time in the development of American sporting arms. Along with the Winchester Model 1894, Winchester Model 1895 and Marlin Model 1893 (later the Model 336), they are what might be called "fully developed" lever actions and represent the crest of the wave of lever action rifle popularity in North America. The Savage 99, Winchester 94 and Marlin 336 had each sold well over a million copies by the time economies began to be instituted in the 1960s to combat rising production costs. The Model 99 was finally discontinued in 1998, by which time the rising cost of labor meant that even the final, simplified, detachable box magazine version could no longer be profitably produced. These lever action rifles were introduced when the American lever action was first being challenged by the European bolt action magazine rifle. While the Winchester 1894 and Marlin 1893 still retained under barrel tubular magazines that required the use of flat-nose bullets, the Winchester Model 1895 used a single stack, internal box magazine and the Savage 1895/1899 design used a superior rotary magazine. These latter rifles allowed the use of spitzer (pointed) bullets, like the new magazine fed bolt action rifles with which they had to compete. The Savage 99 lever action is quite different from the Winchester 94 and Marlin 336 designs. It is a right side ejection, hammerless action with a rounded, streamlined receiver shape. The action is fully enclosed in a solid steel receiver designed to protect the shooter from any possible trouble. The buttstock is attached to the receiver by a draw bolt, which is a much stronger method than the tang screws used to attach the stocks to Marlin and Winchester lever actions. Its smooth feeding, rotary magazine incorporated a cartridge counter on the machined magazine spool, which is visible through a small oval window on the left side of the receiver. This shows the number of cartridges remaining in the magazine (not including a chambered cartridge, if any) and counts down from five (fully loaded) to zero (empty). The magazine's smoothly rounded, solid metal parts cannot dent or damage the cartridges within. The action also has a cocking indicator in the form of a pin that protrudes from the top of the receiver behind the bolt when the rifle is cocked and ready to fire. Lacking an exposed hammer with a "quarter cock" hammer position serving as a safety, the Model 1899/99 has a small safety catch mounted on the bottom tang behind the trigger than blocks the trigger and also locks the lever closed. This is commonly called the "trigger safety." In the 1960s the Model 99 safety was changed and became a slider on the top tang. Unlike the Winchester 94 and Marlin 336, which are essentially evolved from under lever, falling block, single shot rifles with a bolt interposed between the breech end of the barrel and the falling block to allow cartridges to be fed from a magazine, the Savage's massive bolt is wedged firmly against the rear of its machined from billet steel receiver. The Savage 99 lever action is inherently stronger than its competition and this allowed it to be chambered for high intensity cartridges when they came on the scene. The action's strength and rigidity minimizes cartridge case stretch, making it suitable for reloaders who prefer to only neck-size their cases. There is a long, hook style extractor mounted in the right side of the bolt and a very large ejector mounted inside the left receiver wall to reliably kick fired cases out the side of the action when the bolt is opened. If desired, a single cartridge can be loaded directly into the chamber; the extractor will easily override and engage the rim when the bolt is closed. Model 1899 and Model 99 rifles were offered in many configurations over the years, including solid frame and takedown models, far too many to go into in detail here. A letter after the Model 1899 or Model 99 model number designated the specific variation, starting with the Model 1899A Rifle (round barrel), Model 1899B Rifle (octagon barrel) and Model 1899C Rifle (half octagon barrel), all introduced in 1899 with 26 inch barrels. There was also a Model 1899A Short Rifle with a 22 inch round barrel. The principle model variations included musket (rare), rifle, short rifle, carbine, featherweight and takedown models with round or octagon barrels in lengths ranging from 20 to 30 inches. The most common barrel lengths seem to have been 20, 22 and 24 inches. Various types of open rear sights were normally dovetail mounted on the barrel and the top tang was drilled and tapped for peep sights, at least until the safety was moved to the top tang. Some special models were supplied with peep sights. Telescopic sights can be conventionally mounted low atop the receiver and, after scopes became popular, Model 99s came drilled and tapped for scope bases. Buttstock and forend styles also varied. Perhaps the most common forend shape for most of the model's history was a slender Schnable, but plain end and carbine ring forends were supplied on some models. There were also variations in the shapes of the Schnable forends. Most of the early Model 1899A through F models normally came with straight hand stocks, as did pre-WW II Model 99s. After the war, pistol grip stocks predominated. By about 1960, plain end forends, Monte Carlo stocks, white line spacers and impressed checkering made an appearance. In the opinion of many, these features degraded the sleek appearance of the Model 99. The Model 99DL (1960-1973) was the flagship production model of this period and exhibits these features. Buttstocks terminated with steel, hard rubber or black plastic butt plates and sometimes (on later models) recoil pads. Relatively late in the Model 99's production life the original safety, cartridge counter, machined rotary magazine and provision for mounting tang sights went by the wayside. They were replaced by a top tang safety and a detachable, sheet metal box magazine that were much cheaper to manufacture. The latter was released by a large, unsightly round button on the right side of the receiver. By this time the action had lost some of its (previously) silky smooth operation. Many options and custom features were offered during the model's long production run. These included special sights, plating, factory engraving, fancy checkering, deluxe grade walnut, straight hand or pistol grip stocks, round or octagon barrels of various lengths, rifle (crescent) or shotgun (flat) style butt plates and various forend shapes. At one time, starting in 1905, Savage offered special grades of the Model 1899 with engraving options. (Standard grades A to G were not offered with engraving). These included the A2, CD, BC, AB, Excelsior, Leader, Crescent, Victor, Rival, Premier and Monarch. The latter was the top of the line and retailed for $250, a lot of money in 1905. According to Fjestad's, top of the line, factory engraved Savage 99s in excellent condition now sell to collectors for as much as $75,000. Although the seminal Model 1895 was offered only in .303 Savage caliber, the Model 1899 was initially offered in .303 Savage, .25-35, .30-30, .32-40 and .38-55. These were rimmed cartridges, but later (starting with the .250-3000) rimless cartridges were added. In 1912, the .22 Savage Hi-Power was added to the line and in 1914 the .250-3000 Savage (the first commercial cartridge with a MV of 3000 fps) appeared. 1920 saw the introduction of the famous .300 Savage cartridge in the Model 99. Between 1920 and 1940 there was even a takedown Model 99 offered with a .410 bore shotgun barrel. In the 1950s, new short action cartridges began appearing and many of these were adapted to the Model 99 before it was finally discontinued in 1998. These included the .308 Winchester, .243 Winchester, .284 Winchester, .358 Winchester, .375 Winchester, .22-250 Remington and 7mm-08 Remington. We were fortunate to acquire a traditional style Model 99-EG rifle for this article. The Model 99-EG solid frame rifle was manufactured from 1935-1941 pre-war and from 1946-1960 post-war. Our example was made in 1953, judging by the serial number and the letter "E" stamped on the lever boss, a date of manufacture code. It is an original type Model 99 with a 24 inch barrel, rotary magazine, cartridge counter, trigger safety and cocking indicator pin. The dovetail-mounted open rear is complemented by a long brass bead front sight on a ramp. Barrel, receiver, trigger and butt plate are blued, the lever is color case hardened and the bolt was left in the white; these are typical finishes for Model 99s. It has a pistol grip stock and the Schnable forend used on Savage Model 1899/99 rifles for most of their production life. We have always found this Schnable forend more attractive than the bulkier plain or semi-beavertail forends. There is four panel, bordered, hand cut checkering on the forend and pistol grip. The black pistol grip cap has very fine checkering and appears to be made of hard rubber, while the shotgun style butt is protected by a steel butt plate. The action is so smooth that, once the bolt is unlocked, gravity alone will cause the action to simply fall open if the barrel is pointed skyward. Yet, unlike most bolt action rifles that will do the same thing, there is almost no slop or play in the system. When operated, the action feels tight, yet smooth, with zero tendency to bind as the bolt is closed. It is an impressive action. Guns and Shooting Online Gunsmithing Editor Rocky Hays disassembled the rifle and checked it for proper function. At the same time he did a trigger job, which resulted in a clean, 2.5 pound pull with zero take-up and no creep, although some over-travel is unavoidable. Our test rifle is chambered for the .300 Savage cartridge. This is the cartridge that, more than any other, popularized the concept of short action cartridges. In 1920, Savage shortened the .30-06 case to fit the Model 99 action and loaded it to duplicate the ballistics of the original .30-06 load, which used a 150 grain spitzer bullet at a muzzle velocity (MV) of 2700 fps. The .300 Savage uses a short (1.871 inches long) case with very little body taper, a sharp 30 degree shoulder and a short neck to maximize powder capacity. The maximum cartridge overall length is 2.60 inches. The .300 Savage quickly became a best seller. It became the most popular of all the cartridges offered in the Model 99 and was also chambered in bolt action rifles from Savage, Winchester and other makers. In the early 1950s, when the US military was looking to replace the .30-06 with a shorter cartridge offering similar ballistics, but better adapted to use in automatic service rifles, their starting point was the .300 Savage. Through the design process the concept evolved into the T-65, which Winchester introduced to the civilian market in 1952 as the .308 Winchester and NATO adopted as the 7.62x51mm in 1954. The .308 case has a longer neck than the .300 Savage and is 0.144 inch longer overall. Contrary to current practice, the .308's shoulder angle was set at 20 degrees, 10 degrees less than the .300 Savage, presumably to aid feeding in autoloading rifles. Soon after Winchester introduced the .308, Savage offered the new cartridge in the Model 99. By the middle 1960s, Savage was selling more Model 99s in .308 than in .300. Although not the best seller that it once was, the .300 Savage cartridge remains reasonably popular due to the large number of rifles so chambered that are still in use. Ammunition is loaded by all four of the major American ammo manufacturers. In addition, Remington and Ruger have fairly recently made limited runs of bolt action and single shot rifles in the caliber. Our Model 99 rifle came with an old (and basically worn out) Bushnell Sportview scope mounted in Weaver bases and rings. We kept the bases, but substituted windage adjustable Millet rings and a modern Bushnell Banner 3.5-10x36mm AO riflescope from our stock of reserve accessories for the shooting portion of this review. We think a more compact 2-7x scope with a wider maximum field of view would be perfect for this rifle, but we didn't have one on hand and the 3.5-10x Banner worked fine at the range. Specifications
As usual, we did our test shooting at the Izaak Walton range south of Eugene, Oregon. This facility has covered bench rests and target stands at 25, 50, 100 and 200 yards. Mild winter weather in western Oregon prevailed during our days at the range: overcast with a high of about 54 degrees F and negligible wind Federal, Hornady, Remington and Winchester, among others, currently offer .300 Savage factory loads. We had no problem finding the latest Hornady Superformance factory loaded ammunition at our local Bi-Mart department store. This is loaded with a 150 grain SST bullet at a muzzle velocity (MV) of 2740 fps. In our stock of test gun ammunition, we already had some Remington Express factory loads with 180 grain Core-Lokt PSP bullets at an MV of 2350 fps. We used these two loads in our test rifle. After bore sighting our Model 99 and checking the point of impact at 25 yards, we moved to 100 yards to shoot some three shot groups for record from a Caldwell Lead Sled DFT at Redfield Precision Sight-In Targets. Guns and Shooting Online Owner/Managing Editor Chuck Hawks, Chief Technical Advisor Jim Fleck and Technical Assistant Bob Fleck handled the shooting chores. Shooting Results and Comments
This time out, Jim shot the smallest groups with both loads. Because the Savage 99 is no lightweight, the recoil was not bothersome, even without the Lead Sled. Even though the .300 Savage cartridge is considerably more powerful than a .30-30 and very close to a .308 Winchester, no one complained. On the other hand, the extra weight means the Model 99 does not handle as fast or point as quickly as a Winchester Model 94AE rifle with a 24 inch barrel and riflescope, which should not be a surprise. Very few, if any, hunting rifles handle as well as a Model 94. However, the sleek Model 99 handles better than any bolt action deer rifle. The Savage receiver is smooth-sided, which makes it more comfortable to carry than a bolt action and repeat shots can certainly be fired more rapidly. The Savage's smooth lever action is definitely a plus in this regard. Rocky's trigger job meant that our Model 99 had perhaps the best trigger pull of any lever action rifle we have ever reviewed. Everyone acknowledged that the excellent trigger was an aid to shooting good groups. Aesthetically, the Model 99-EG got high marks from our staff. It is an exceptionally sleek design. The balance point is about an inch behind the breech face, so it is almost exactly between the hands when your hands are on the checkered areas at grip and forend. Accepting a wide range of both classic and modern short action cartridges and offering faster repeat shots than a bolt action, better reliability than an autoloader and superior handling to either, it is easy to see why the Savage 99 has remained popular and is still widely used some 117 years after its introduction. RIFLE REVIEW SUMMARY
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