When I started hunting in the 1990s, my first deer rifle was a Winchester 1894 in .30-30. Even as I got my head around bolt actions, single-shots, and semi-automatic rifles, my affinity for lever action rifles never left. Lever action rifles are quick to fire, and the lefty in me liked their naturally ambidextrous nature. They also looked very different from a growing sea of hunting rifles that look the same from a distance. They also serve as a snapshot into what hunters and shooters account for in their pursuit. This led me to my own pursuit of studying and collecting 20th-century hunting photographs. A healthy portion of these feature lever-action rifles with happy owners and downed game.
Winchester and Marlin made most, but I soon stumbled on a different sort of lever-action rifle. It did not have a hammer, loading gate, or magazine. But it did have a distinctive lever. It turned out to be a Savage Model 99, the first mag-fed lever action made.
Magazine-fed lever actions blend the functional appeal of a lever action with quicker reloads and better ballistics with modern ammunition that can be used in detachable magazines. The revival of the lever action in general has pulled the concept back up. Rifles like the Fightlite Herring and Henry Repeating Arms’ Long Ranger and Supreme have debuted to some fanfare. They are still a far cry from what we picture as a lever-action rifle. But then there was the Model 99, which has been around since the start of smokeless ammo.
The Savage Model 1899 did not come close to toppling Winchester or Marlin, but this odd duck enjoyed a century-long run and continues to haunt the Savage Arms company to this day. This is an evaluation of a typical 99, both in the context of its time and what it still has to offer as inspiration and function today.
The Origins of the Savage Model 99
The advantages of mag-fed lever-action rifles are clear. They avoid barrel harmonics issues from tubular magazine loading and unloading. Pointed spitzer ammunition works safely in box magazines, stacked securely on each other. Tube magazines stack rounds tip-to-primer, requiring round-nosed bullets to prevent accidental detonation. Mag-fed rifles eliminate these disadvantages, solving issues that plagued lever actions for years. Arthur Savage unknowingly solved this problem as early as 1893.
Arthur Savage Sticks the Landing
Savage tried his hand at everything from homesteading to railroad work to inventing the radial tire. But in the late 1880s, he settled on firearms design and contracted with Marlin to make his early models. Savage did not foresee pointed bullets. He did want to build a rifle strong enough to take advantage of new smokeless powder. Savage entered a hammerless lever action rifle into the US Army’s 1892 rifle trials, which resulted in the Army dropping its black powder single-shot Trapdoor rifle for the smallbore smokeless Krag Jorgensen.
Savage’s refined Model 1895 in the smokeless .303 Savage debuted the same year as the .30-30 Winchester cartridge in the Winchester 94 and gained a few militia contracts, but the rifle proved more successful as a hunting arm. It featured a two-piece stock, a solid breech block, and a six-shot rotary magazine.
A Long Run
The Model 1899 is visibly identical to the Model 1895, but features a lighter, pointed fore stock, a loaded chamber indicator, and a .30-30 chambering. Larger black powder rounds like .32-40 and .38-55 were also added. In 1921, the .300 Savage debuted. It became the most popular round used in the 99 series, but the rifle came in over a dozen different chamberings through its production run ranging from .22 Hi Power to .243 Winchester, and .308 Winchester.
The Model 99 came in a number of configurations during its production run, including carbine, rifle, featherweight, and take-down models. In the 1950s, scope mounting options became a factory option. In the 1970s, the box-fed Model 99C, made the rounds. The Model 99 was quietly discontinued in 1999 due, in part, to high manufacturing costs and declining demand.
A Mid-Century Savage Model 99: Quirks A Plenty
Although I am an advocate for Winchester and Marlin lever guns, once I saw the Savage 99 in black-and-white, I had to have it in living color to see what it is about. My Model 99 was made in 1941 and shown plenty of in-the-field carry where the magazine and butt plate has rubbed white. Still, the rich blued finish is present along the barrel, and the lever retains its case-hardened finish. The checkered blonde walnut stocks are immaculate as is the bore and the action itself.
Pre-Tweaks
The particular model I ended up with is a typical example manufactured decades before Savage began to make tweaks to bring the cost down. The buttstock features a knurled bare steel butt plate and a low comb that makes for an easy cheek weld and sight picture on the iron sights. Some Model 99s featured a cheek piece, but a slick-sided buttstock like this one is more common.
The stock features a press-checkered pistol grip, although straight stocks were also available. The fore-end has more uniformity. It tapers to a scallop and shares similar press checkering. The stocks wear steel sling swivels for mounting a two-point sling.
Savage 99 Action
As with most lever action rifles, the Savage 99 has a two-piece stock bisected by the receiver and lever. But the Model 99’s action is the real estate that defines that rifle most. The receiver is one solid piece of billeted steel enclosed at the bottom with two beefy tangs that run at the bottom and top of the action to secure it to the butt stock. The lever rides in the lower tang behind the receiver. When opened, a clockwork assortment of linkages follows it, followed by the massive breech block. The Savage 99 has no hammer has a striker-fired action that cocks as the breech block tilts up and locks in place against the ejection port.
The striker action and lockup echoes Glock more than Winchester, but with the action open, we can see inspiration from Mannlicher as the Model 99 uses a rotary magazine. Like a steampunk Ruger 10/22 magazine, rounds are fed past the spring-loaded feed lip onto a brass sprocket. Each subsequent round fills each chamber of the sprocket as you work against a tension spring until the magazine is full. The magazine holds six rounds.
Round Counting
If that was not wonky enough, the classic Model 99 has a round counter. While the magazine is not transparent like modern round-count capable magazines, the left side features a brass counter that shows you how many rounds you have left in the magazine.
The Savage 99 came in a number of barrel lengths, but my 24-inch barreled model is the mean length across the different models made. It is a tapered barrel made for quick pointing and light packing. It wears a dovetailed front sight post and a semi-buckhorn square notch rear sight that is both dovetailed and step-adjustable for elevation.
.300 Savage: The Most Prominent of Many
My Model 99 is chambered for the .300 Savage cartridge. Developed in 1921, it aimed to replicate .30-06 ballistics. The .300 Savage uses pointed .308-inch bullets between 150 and 180 grains. This short-action cartridge predated the .308 Winchester by decades, proving the concept early. It falls slightly below .30-06 power, pushing bullets about 200 feet per second slower. Many mid-century rifles chambered it, including the Winchester Model 70, Remington 700, and 722. Despite its use in other rifles, the Savage 99 defines the .300 Savage.
Savage 99 Quick Specs
- Caliber: .300 Savage
- Capacity: 5+1
- Barrel Length: 24 inches
- Overall Length: 42.5 inches
- Length of Pull: 13 inches
- Weight: 6.2 lbs. (unloaded)
On The Range with the Savage 99
We form preconceptions about every rifle class based on firsthand and secondhand experiences. These perceptions simplify buying decisions among countless options. Lever-action rifles are known for rapid fire, lightweight design, and ambidextrous handling. However, they’re often typecast as cowboy guns or close-range brush rifles. Shooting the Model 99 proved that Arthur Savage and its users envisioned far broader roles for the rifle
Loading Up
After sorting out some .300 Savage ammunition, I added a sling and Leupold Freedom 1-4x rifle scope to my Model 99 and headed for the range. After an initial positive sight-in from the bench at 25 yards, it became clear that the existing tip-off Weaver mount that came with the rifle was off center. At 100 yards, I ran out of windage adjustments while barely hitting paper. Later Model 99s came tapped for a standard Weaver mount, but this gunsmith job on this earlier rifle was not well executed.
I tipped the mount to the side and reverted to the factory iron sights. That got me on paper. I returned sans scope and with more ammunition in tow for a second trip. Loading the Savage 99 is like loading a fixed-magazine 10/22 with an added feed lip on the left side of the magazine. Rounds are pushed down and to the left past the lip until the last round sits under the lip. Pull the lever home to the grip and the breech block goes home, with the extractor picking up the first round early in its travel. The action opens in a spring-assisted and effortless fashion, but as you push the lever home, you can feel the snag of the striker against the trigger as it cocks when the bolt locks against the receiver. Now the rifle is loaded.
Initial Thoughts
Later, Savage 99s came with a tang-mounted safety similar to a Mossberg shotgun, but most have a lever-mounted safety on the right side. Pulling the safety tab back locks up the lever and trigger. Pushing forward with the trigger finger makes the rifle ready to fire.
The iron sights are not perfect. Aftermarket Marbles and Lyman peep sights were popular additions, as were scope mounts. But even in its stock configuration, the setup is better than too many modern iron-sighted rifles that tend to come with blocky sights attuned to fast-close shooting. The front sight is just large enough to make out but small enough not to cover up my bullseye targets out to 100 yards.
Accuracy and Power
From my Caldwell Rock Jr. rest, I threw in five rounds of Hornady Superformance 150 grain SST ammunition and fired them through my Caldwell Chronograph with a target at 100 yards. With the first shot, the butt wrapped smartly against the shoulder, but the width of the plate kept felt recoil down. The light and trim muzzle bucked but settled back on target in a fraction. I recorded my shot then repeated until the magazine was empty, and I had a rare smile on my face. The average muzzle velocity of this load is 2,792 feet per second–a rival to contemporary 150 grain .308 Winchester loads and about 100 feet per second slower than a comparable .30-06 load.
Keep Trying
After letting the barrel cool, I tried again using Winchester’s 150 grain and 180 grain Power Points. Muzzle velocity was 2,622 and 2,446 feet per second, rates that are closer to historic loads used in the .300 Savage. Recoil was noticeably less.
The .300 is certainly no intermediate cartridge, but one can tell it is a slight step below other .30 caliber rounds. But the .300 and other cartridges that the 99 used were much closer to the bolt-action league than the lever action camp, like .25-35, .30-30, and .32 Special. Rounds like the .250 and .300 Savage were faster and more aerodynamic, making them ideal at intermediate ranges. To that end, I brought along my Marlin 336 in .30-30 and engaged a steel silhouette at 300 yards. I had to hold my scoped .30-30 two feet above the target to hit the preferred center point using Winchester 150 grain soft points. With the Savage, I could hold on to the target and hit it every time with a deliberate trigger squeeze.
Range Results
Even at closer ranges, the Savage doesn’t quite shoot like a lever action. From the bench at 100 yards, I can coax five rounds of Hornady SST ammunition into a 2-inch group. The other rounds hit wider but still gave a respectable 3-inch group. My Marlin .30-30 can achieve that sort of accuracy with its 3-9x optic. When prolonged shooting is required, the Savage does fall short. The thin, tapered barrel groups admirably for the first three rounds before heat starts throwing rounds, widening otherwise MOA groups.
Clearly, the ol’ 99 was intended as a handy pack rifle meant for a few fast shots on game. Despite its somewhat bulbous look and solid receiver, the rifle weighs little over six pounds and balances right under the magazine for ease of carry. It is equal to the Winchester and Marlin, but with much more potential.
The Savage 99: Discontinued, Not Discounted
The Savage Model 95/99 series was out a dozen decades before the concept of the magazine-fed lever gun became the latest fad. But on looking at the Model 99 one can see why the concept did not catch. The Savage 99 has a smooth and strong action and shares parity in the handiness department with other lever actions, while boasting flat shooting power that those other rifles could not rival. A rifle like this could not be made so well today.
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Factory magazines were rarely trouble-free, and cleanly assembled factory rifles were even harder to find. The 99 was always more expensive than comparable Winchesters or Marlins, even at its peak. Winchester and Marlin rifles met most Americans’ needs well enough, making them popular choices. As skilled labor aged and machinery wore down, costs rose while productivity declined. New workers demanded higher wages but produced less than their predecessors. It’s a common story for any durable product that ages over time.
Conclusion
In the final years of its run, Savage economized to keep the model alive, but it proved cheaper to kill the 99 and focus on bolt-action rifles. Fast forward to the 2020s, and CNC machining has brought the lever gun back and with it, the ghost of the 99 reappears every time Savage offers a new product. Although reintroductions are the next great fad in the firearm industry, Savage has no plans to reintroduce the Model 99. That is probably for the best, as they probably could not do it justice. That is not an insult, but a description and, perhaps, a challenge. But until, if, and when that happens, there are plenty of 99s out there, and those who own them tend to hang onto them. I know I will soon be on the hunt for my next one.
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