THE 99: ARTHUR SAVAGE'S MASTERPIECE

Geordie Pickard in , on June 23, 2015

Arthur Savage, founder of Savage Arms, was the kind of character that could only have lived at the close of the nineteenth century.  Born in Jamaica and educated in England and the United States, he spent years exploring Australia with his family, where his adventures took on storybook proportions as he was held captive by aborigines, escaped, and found his way into cattle ranching, eventually owning the largest ranch in Australia.  Restless, Savage sold the ranch and settled briefly back in Jamaica and ultimately relocated to Utica, New York, where he would later found Savage Arms.  As of his arrival in Utica, he was thirty-five years old.

Savage51As befits such a remarkable man, the first Savage designs were groundbreaking.  The 1892 and 1895 were hammerless rifles, designed to take advantage of the new smokeless powder that was changing the field of ballistics.  The 1892, a joint venture between Arthur Savage and Colt, received relatively little attention despite competing for the replacement of the legendary Trapdoor Springfield; it lost to the Krag-Jorgensen and never went into full production.  The 1895 was selected by the New York National Guard over the Springfield 1895, but political wrangling halted the contract and the Guardsmen were saddled with single-shot Trapdoors instead.

Despite these setbacks, Arthur Savage pressed on and modified the 1895 slightly, producing the Model 1899.  This rifle was similar enough that 1895s could be converted to the new style at the factory, a service for which Savage Arms charged the princely sum of five dollars.

The 1895 and 1899, wh           ich soon became known simply as the 99, made use of a rotary magazine instead of the tubular magazine in use on other lever guns at the time.  It was a huge leap forward; by not stacking cartridges end-to-end the 99 could make use of spitzer bullets, an enormous ballistic improvement over the flat-points with which their competitors made do.  The hammerless ignition system was an equally remarkable innovation; the reduced lock time and snag-free profile a striker-fired system allowed would not show up in production handguns for decades.  This tightly sealed steel receiver allowed for significantly higher pressure cartridges to be used, and thus the Savage family of cartridges was born.

Savage57One quirk of the early 99s was a cartridge counter on the rotary magazine; this feature seemed futuristic at the time but was abandoned relatively quickly.  Of course, the loss of the cartridge counter pales in comparison to the shift away from rotary magazines and towards one of the greatest developments in small arms history: detachable box magazines.  First manufactured in 1908 by Savage Arms as an upgrade to the 99, detachable box magazines have become so fundamental to sporting and fighting arms that it is almost impossible to imagine a time when they were nonexistent.  While many 99s were manufactured with a fixed, blind magazine, detachable magazine models have been manufactured at various times throughout their production history.

Savage58The Savage 99 was originally offered in .303 Savage, which, despite several improvements and slightly superior ballistics, never managed to supplant the Winchester 30-30.  The Savage round was ironically limited by its superiority: by designing a higher pressure round with a pointed bullet, Savage had limited its market to users of the new rifle.  Guns from the era of black powder and tube magazines could not handle the improvements and the .303 Savage withered on the vine.

Savage62Not long after the introduction of the box magazine 99, Savage developed a round with uncanny parallels to modern service ammunition: the .22 Savage High-Power.  Note the ballistics of the round: a .227 calibre, 70-grain projectile at 2800 feet per second.  The similarity to 5.56 NATO ballistics is remarkable.  The round was initially lauded as a hunting triumph, but fell out of favour perhaps as a result of some rather public failures on dangerous game.  While drifting into total obscurity in North America, it did live on in Europe where it sees some hunting use and is known as the 5.6x52mmR.

Savage next released the .250 Savage, also known as the 250-3000 for its feat of breaking the 3000 FPS mark for the first time for any commercial calibre.  The 87 grain bullets at 3000 FPS compare fairly well to the modern .243 Winchester, which drives a 90 grain projectile at about 3100 FPS.

Savage64Finally, the .300 Savage.  This was the real success story: a .30 calibre, 150-grain projectile driven at 2600 feet per second.  Sound familiar?  The .300 Savage was a necked-up .250-3000 intended to replace the venerable .30-06 Springfield, replicating its performance in a shorter package.  The Savage was a slightly slower round, the .30-06 at that time running around 2750 FPS for a similar projectile, but it packed nearly all of the punch into a case three quarters of an inch shorter.  This allowed for a much shorter action and therefore a lighter, quicker-handling gun than the .30-06 and remained a benchmark of .30 calibre rifle performance until the emergence of the .308 Winchester - a round derived directly from the .300 Savage, developed by the US Army.  Meanwhile, the .300 Savage’s combination of performance and compactness were so appealing that by the 1950s, every major rifle manufacturer offered it as an option.

The .300 Savage was the perfect pairing for the Savage 99: it was an short-cycling, easy-carrying carbine with a full-power cartridge.  Jon Wolfe, founder of Criterion barrels and one of the world’s top M14 experts, called it “a genius of a rifle that epitomizes the best in American craftsmanship, creativity and originality”.  Sportsmen across North America agreed; while it has been out of production for several years, its historic production run sad ended by tooling that was simply too worn out to repair at any reasonable cost, the 99 has a loyal following among deer and elk hunters in particular, but has been used to take all manner of medium-sized game.

Savage65Its popularity no doubt springs not only from its incredible form-to-function ratio - the 99 is a sleek, elegant, snag-free machine which balances perfectly at the action, leading to a characteristic under-magazine wear mark on older models from long trips in the field carrying them in a comfortable single-handed grip - but also from its unbelievably forward thinking features.

Aside from the detachable box magazine and strong, hammerless action, the 99 sported a cocking indicator on the tang, and an ejection pattern that angled spent brass outward away from the rifle rather than the vertical ejection common to many lever guns.  While this was unimportant in the early years of the rifle, with the advent of scoped hunting rifles in the 1950s, it seemed prescient indeed.  So many of these details strike modern sportsmen as bland or de rigeur today, until one considers that the features we’ve come to expect on modern sporting rifles were in most cases developed in the 1950s.  It’s easy to forget that the 99 wasn’t designed to compete with sporting rifles like the Remington 721, released nearly half a century later in 1948, but military rifles like the 1898 Krag-Jorgensen Springfield.  How many .30-40 Krags are still being used to hunt across the continent?

Savage67Perhaps the ultimate compliment to the Savage 99 is to say that it can legitimately be compared to the mighty Lee Enfield, although the battle rifle of the Commonwealth went through several distinct iterations before the iconic SMLE #4 Mk I entered service in 1939.  The 99’s variants, aside from the switch from rotary to box magazines, were mainly in the form of calibre options.  These ran the gamut from high-velocity .22s, to the .300 Savage’s progeny and replacement the .308 Winchester, up to the heavy-hitting .358 Winchester, and even at one point a single-shot factory conversion to .410 shotgun loads.  There were takedown versions made, and various sight configurations were available, but aside from that, the appeal of the 99 is that it remained almost unchanged for a century, and it was so far ahead of its time, today it seems like a classic, not a relic.

If you are considering adding a 99 to your stable, you can look for one of the equally forward-thinking Savage calibres, but remember that with the discontinuation of the 99, even the long-running .300 Savage is now an orphan calibre, and it’s ballistically so similar to the .308 Winchester you don’t need to feel too guilty about opting for the newer chambering.

Savage73Older 99s should have matching numbers stamped on the fore end, the butt plate, the stock and the bottom of the receiver.   The model designation, identified by one or two letters, is stamped on the front of the receiver just behind the fore end.  Later versions become less predictable in this regard, but if what you’re after is a hunting rifle, the collector information is perhaps less valuable than the aesthetic options.

The Savage 99 came with wood of different designs over the years, from plain smooth walnut to checkered, moderately ornate versions with crescent buttplates.  In general, the crescent butt is an unpleasant experience to shoot unless the recoil is very light; a steel shotgun butt was also manufactured and is a little more forgiving, but only a little.  Many of these were replaced with recoil pads for obvious reasons.

Savage79The forestock was made with anything from a pronounced schnabel to none at all - if you’re not familiar with the term, this is the classic German or Austrian flourish at the furthest forward point of the stock, where it flares out into a knob instead of simply ending.  It has a rather stylish appearance on the 99, although it’s somewhat incongruous on such an overwhelmingly American rifle.  There isn’t much justification for it in a practical sense, the 99 rarely being chambered in sufficiently hard-recoiling rounds that a hand stop is necessary.

There were also versions which came from the factory with pressed-in checkering, versions with integrated sights, versions with factory holes for scope mounts, versions with barrels of different weights and lengths, even versions with octagon barrels…essentially every option commonly available on a rifle with a production run that lasted a century.  One of the more frustrating aspects of dealing with Savage nomenclature is that there is often no definite correlation between the model number and the features; legend has it that Savage serialized their guns simply by leaning every piece available in the factory on a given day against the wall and stamping sequential numbers on it, regardless of the features, or even whether it was a rifle or shotgun.

Savage86One of the entertaining - or maddening, depending on your perspective - results of Savage’s rather haphazard approach to serializing guns is that there are multiple websites with serial number lookup features…and they give different results.  The rifle I have next to me as I write this is either a 1951 or later 1950s model, with lightweight or featherweight barrel, with either a bead or ramp sight, depending on who you ask.  I wouldn’t like to be in charge of evaluating Savage rifles for collector significance, personally.  There is a book on the subject by Douglas Murray called simply “The Ninety Nine” and that is the authoritative text on the rifle if you’ve taken a serious interest in all its permutations; the book is thankfully fairly readily available on the internet but it’s difficult to know how long that situation will continue now that the rifle itself is no longer built.

Typical throughout the manufacture was the colour case hardened trigger guard and lever.  This varies in prominence, but universally adds to the appearance of the rifle.

Shooting the Savage 99

Savage83Any lightweight rifle with a manual action and a moderately powerful cartridge is going to have some kick, and the 99 is no exception.  The 99 hits with authority on both ends of the rifle.  In one of the many discussions which preceded the writing of this article, a local collector bemoaned the fact that such an overwhelming majority of older 99s had been altered to include a recoil pad.  He found it a tragedy.  I found it an act of self-preservation, and the frequency with which this modification is performed should probably be considered a hint, if not an outright warning.

The 99 is a classic American hunting trigger.  They break cleanly at a reasonable weight - I’d estimate a typical rifle to be in the upper two or lower three pound range.  There’s more overtravel than is strictly necessary but it’s a non-issue in terms of running the rifle.  I have found the triggers to be without significant creep or mush to them, with a very solid feel and no warning before the break, which makes the rifle easy to shoot well.

Savage85The action cycles beautifully with a fairly short throw - roughly seventy degrees - and the lever is comfortable throughout the cycle, particularly on models with a curved grip.  The lockup is satisfyingly solid and feeling the bolt drop into place and the rear lugs engage is an atavistic pleasure not unlike shooting a quality 1911. Having chambered a round, the shooter has the option of pushing the safety forward, which not only stops the trigger, but locks the action closed.  No mere half-cock for the ninety-nine; this rifle was an absolutely futuristic machine when it was designed.

While not a precision rifle, the accuracy is certainly adequate for most general purpose hunting duties.  As per usual, the internet abounds with stories of rifles that shoot half-inch groups at a hundred yards, and those stories are likely worth what you paid for them.  Two to three inch groups are more realistic.  But regardless, the 99 is not a bench rifle.  If you have one, please use it as its maker intended: a general purpose middleweight, handy, robust, perfect for carrying in the field, and utterly reliable.  Enjoy the sleek lines of the rifle when admiring the rifle in camp, the light weight and perfect balance point when you carry it while stalking, the solid, short-throw action and striker-cocking indicator when you chamber up in anticipation of a shot, and the classic, timeless experience of a horse kicking you in the shoulder when you touch off a round.

If you have the opportunity, give the ninety-nine a try.  It’s an iconic firearm, not only because of its stunning prescience of design, but also for being one of the great unsung military rifles to be adopted for sporting use by shooters across the continent.  It’s impressive that what was once simply a rugged military carbine became not only a great hunting gun but in many cases a symbol of luxury in a traditional rifle, its ancient history and military origins long forgotten by most users.

Comments

comments

Subscribe to Calibre Magazine

SUBSCRIBE
Copyright © 2021 CalibreMag.ca