Dad's Savage 99 in .284

Hello all,

I have had a good time with this one and I have not even shot it yet. I have discovered "modern" round counters, new ballistics and a huge desire to be able to go back in time and beat the brush with dad and grandpa with it again.

My dad passed in 2008, my mom passed just two months ago. When mom passed I took possession of all the guns. My dad was not known as being mechanical or finicky with his gun cleanliness. Every time I have sat down to care for one of his guns I have been amazed as to why they were allowed to stay so dirty.

This project is his 1964 Savage 99m (I read somewhere the 'm' means it had a Monte Carlo stock and gold trigger) in .284 Winchester and topped with what seems to be a period correct Tasco 4x32. Another cool feature of it is that it has a Buehler scope mount and it says Orinda, Ca. on it. Orinda is in the county where I live and I have done some crime fighting work in that town while rendering aid to the local force. There is nothing gun friendly left in Orinda anymore, so Mr. Buehler's days are quite a ways back in the rear view mirror. This Savage is in great condition, despite needing a bath, showing only honest wear on the blue and the wood.

.284 Win is very hard to find in "normal" times, it is absolutely impossible to find a source for it now. I remember growing up not liking dad's old Savage. To me Savage was an off brand and it made no sense to have a rifle that was so hard to find ammo for. My dad told me how the .284 had been a wild cat and then it progressed into commercial production. In my twenties I began to "get it" and started to find the whole wild catting thing interesting, but I still preferred to have something with more accessible ammo. I always thought I would want to have it redone in .308.

I do remember dad taking at least one deer with his Savage when I was very young. Now that I am in my fifties I am very well versed on the allure of the Savage 99's. I would not even think about redoing it into a .308 now. I just want to keep it "dad correct" and keep it range and field ready. Hopefully I will find some .284 for it someday.

Your Dad had good taste! Don't worry, .284 ammo will be around and I assume that if you're into wildcats you reload, so ammo isn't a problem.
The .284 case is one of the darlings of the LR boys and brass will be around as soon as the current situation normalizes.
Tip-Keep an eye on that early Tasco.

Good Shooting.

I absolutely love your dad's rifle!

Ammo note, I have a Wildcat rifle in 6x284. When I bought it, it came with 200 unfired WW brass. As I developed loads I bought 50 Norma 8.5x284 and 50 Lapua 6.5x 284 brass. I had some promising loads so I tried the in all three brands. Same powder, same bullet, same primer, just different brands of brass. The Norma and Lapua brass produces identical 5 shot groups of .013" on center; the Winchester brass produced 1.785" on center.

The Nosler company made brass and ammo in 284, it is definably worth trying too.

Your dad's rifle is worthy of good ammo! Skip the newer Winchester, and get the good stuff.

Ivan

I went through the ammo that my dad had stored up for his Winchester Model 88 .284 before he died and looks like three or four boxes of Winchester Super X and I think four boxes of his hand loads all marked as to powder, bullet make and weight, etc. It’s the only caliber he reloaded. If Winchester put out a short action Model 70 in 1963 when the .284 came out, the caliber might have been a success.

To increase powder capacity in short actions with standard bolt faces .284 was wildcatted to just about every caliber. Curiously I have a .30-284 FL die set. I use its sizer as a neck sizer for 7.5X55 Swiss. It comes very close to touching the 7.5X55 case body. .284 brass works as a substitute for 7.5X55 brass in Schmidt Rubin rifles. The too small rim will fall out of the Swiss extractor less than 5% of the time in some Schmidt Rubins but functions perfectly in others. In a pinch I'd bet one could turn down the rims of 7.5X55 brass then resize it for use in .284s.

Back in the 1990s The Blue Book of Gun Values had a Savage 1899/99 collector revalue the prices in their book. He doubled or trippled the prior year's book prices. That ended my hobby of collecting shooter grade Savage 99s. Before then I'd owned about a dozen. I still own two. Their most important strong point is better accuracy than rear lock up Winchester and Marlin lever actions. Their most important weak point is they allow modern high pressure cartridge cases to stretch. They'll trash .308 and .284 cases in 2 -3 reloads. The only way to extend the brass life is to reload to lower pressure. In my observation Savage 99s tend to be closet rifles that mostly come out for deer season. There are better rifles for reloaders but I like Savage 99s anyway.

My most memorable two were pre-WW II, a saddle ring .30-30 and a feather weight take down .300 Savage.

That .300 would reliably produce 5 shot 100 yard groups but only if its barrel was kept cool. When other shooters admired it at the range I'd remove its barrel half way through the group then hand it to them. They'd unknowingly air cool it waving it around. I'd screw it back on and finish my 1" group.

The .30-30 had a straight grip stock, a 20" barrel and a saddle ring. It shot well but is mostly memorable for its configuration which was unusual for a Savage 99.

Being a lefty, nice lever actions are dear to my heart as most LH bolt action rifles are pretty spartan/utilitarian.

I looked for a reasonably priced 99 in .358Win for many years before giving up. I would have had to cheat a widow to get an affordable one. I scratched that brush gun itch with a Ruger American in .450 Bushmaster (much uglier rifle than a 99, but I digress) which of course has the .284 as its parent case (I digress again).

I'm still searching for one, really any rotary mag 99 to get me started, but am not paying $800 for a rusty example in one of the obsolete, hard to find calibers...and they only go up from there. Long gone are the days of the Main Street gun shops with racks of used-but-loved 99s, Win 70s & 94s, Remington 721s/8s/81s, etc for less than a new hunting rifle.

hkcavalier said:

Being a lefty, nice lever actions are dear to my heart as most LH bolt action rifles are pretty spartan/utilitarian.

I looked for a reasonably priced 99 in .358Win for many years before giving up. I would have had to cheat a widow to get an affordable one. I scratched that brush gun itch with a Ruger American in .450 Bushmaster (much uglier rifle than a 99, but I digress) which of course has the .284 as its parent case (I digress again).

I'm still searching for one, really any rotary mag 99 to get me started, but am not paying $800 for a rusty example in one of the obsolete, hard to find calibers...and they only go up from there. Long gone are the days of the Main Street gun shops with racks of used-but-loved 99s, Win 70s & 94s, Remington 721s/8s/81s, etc for less than a new hunting rifle.

Click to expand...

Through the 1990s local pawn shops and used gun racks were packed with ignored Savage 99s and Remington Model 8s and 81s. I bought a blue worn late 50s 99 Featherweight .243 for $175 and think I made $50 selling it later. But after I snagged the Lyman tang sight off it for the identical 99 I already had. A Remington Model 81 in .300 Savage cost $250. Then prices exploded and they all disappeared.

That 284 sav 99 is a rare and much sought after rifle/caliber combo. I know you're not going to sell your Dad's rifle, but in nice condition it would bring $1200 - $1500 easy.

I love 99s. I still have my great grandfather’s 1899 and would love to find one in 358 Win. I am glad you’re hanging on to it and keeping it as is. You have a real jewel.