Tuesday afternoon, I had the opportunity to go and shoot my "new" Savage 99. 
Full "Shooting Report" to follow (within a day or so, whenever I get time to 
write it) but for now, suffice it to say - I'm sold, I'm hooked, this Savage 
99 is the neatest thing since smokeless powder. I only had time to fire 
about a dozen rounds - five Winchester-USA 7.62 (NATO-spec???) commercial 
rounds, and the rest some old reloads left over from my last .308 (Remington 
bolt action). It was very casual shooting - targets were water-filled two-
quart plastic juice bottles at 50yds (what did you expect me to do with open 
sights? ). The reloads (a light ".30-30 equiv" load I cooked up for the 
Remington, using cases fired initially in it and then just neck-sized for 
the second go-round, 150gr FN .30-30 bullets seated "out" with no crimp) 
were fired from a sandbagged rest, chamber-loading them one at a time (cuz I 
wasn't sure how well the crimpless rounds would survive under recoil in the 
magazine). They chambered kinda "hard", due to having been only neck-sized 
(and for another rifle, too) but the 99 had no trouble getting them in 
there. Man, that thing DOES have camming power! Once I figured out where to 
aim (about a foot low!) the bottles died the usual spectacular death. The 
trigger's a bit creepy, but I can get used to it. Main problem was I've 
injured my trigger finger (rope burn, more about that in the "Shooting 
Report") so it kinda hurt to squeeze the shots off, but I managed. Perceived 
recoil was non-existant (bear in mind that I evaluate all recoil in relation 
to that of the Ruger .45-70 with full-power bear-stimper loads, also these 
were pretty puny-powered loads).
Then, with the light waning, I filled the mag and stood up to try a function 
test. Fired the first round - and went under the bottle by about a foot. 
Worked the lever - and got a pleasant surprise. I've become accustomed to 
Winchester and Marlin lever guns, where you really have to whack that lever 
down *hard* and slap it back up *hard*... with the Savage, MUCH less effort 
is needed, and I had the first case ejected and the second one chambered 
almost before I knew what I'd done. Cool! With the second round, I corrected 
my aim, sighted dead-on the bottle, and blew it away. (Gee, another 
"miracle" - I'd tapped the Winchester rear sight into the Savage's dovetail, 
at home, w/o any attempt at precision - just tried to get it more or less 
centered, and then stuck the step-elevator piece up under the springleaf 
base - and yet, here it was "sighted in" for 50yds with full-power ammo. 
This sort of thing happens to me with greater regularity than can be 
dismissed to mere coincidence... must be a gift). Levered again (easy as 
pie, never even noticed the final little "extra-effort" push you need to do 
as the bolt locks into place), fired, bottle blew up, levered, fired, etc. 
The Savage chugged happily right along. Man, that rotary mag is something 
else! And that smoooooooth lever action.... nice! Oh, and recoil? Still 
seemed non-existant to me. Like shooting a very LOUD .22!
At the conclusion of this string, I turned to my lovely wife Weezie (Louise) 
and informed her that we now had no need whatsoever for the Marlin 336 in 
.35 Remington, and quite little use for the No4 Enfield. In fact... well, 
I'm damn sure going to KEEP the best-beloved Ruger #1 .45-70, but it may not 
get out to the deer woods this year. This Savage is the obvious natural 
choice for that little chore - and many others. :-)
Weezie was tired and declined to shoot the Savage - frankly, she's not much 
for any centerfire rifle that doesn't operate by the turnbolt method anyway, 
no matter HOW neat it may seem to ME.... (So, if she goes after deer this 
year she'll probably just tote her old infantry Krag again, as usual - yeah, 
that's HER idea of an all-around rifle, go figure).
The crack in the Savage's stock didn't "grow" any during the firing, and 
looking at it closely I *think* it may have already been epoxied and 
repaired, perhaps years ago.... If not, though, no problem. This Winter when 
I have the stock off to refinish it (to get rid of the putrid Savage 
"painted-on" finish) I'll take a better look at the crack and see if 
additional repair is required, and do whatever's necessary. 
I guess I'll put a scope on the Savage eventually, but I really don't mind 
the iron sights. Maybe I'll split the difference and put a receiver sight on 
it? Don't know yet. Plenty of time to think about those options though - the 
rifle's a definite keeper, so it'll be around.... 
Only one trouble with this whole Savage 99 deal... already, I'm wanting 
*more*... a .250 would be nice, and maybe a .358, and, and.... :-)
So it goes...
Cheers,
  Ben
---
 þ RM 1.31 3302 þ heware a man w/only 1 gun. He probably knows how to use it!
 * Ferret BBS ú N Little Rock AR ú (501)791-0124
 * PostLink(tm) v1.20  FERRET (#750) : RelayNet(tm)
---------------