1904 Savage 99 30/30

rombat

rombat

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Ran into a possible issue with my old 99. I have had the rifle for about a year and it seems to work fine. When I ran a once fired case through a Lee collet sizer I noticed a ring around the top of the shoulder/base of the neck. Further examination revealed that fired shoulder has rounded and pushed forward a fare bit.
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On the left is unfired----right case is fired
 
All 4 cases chamber smoothly in the rifle. My first thought is to use the Lee collet sizer to minimize working the shoulder but this is new territory for me. I have reloaded for 35 years and maybe 40 rifles but this is something new for me. One of the Lee collet sized cases spilt at the neck. Not sure if it started to split before sizing, didn't notice, but certainly was afterwards.
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I have no idea what is going on but that sure doesn't look right.

Could the collet die be set too low, and thus you're sizing more of the neck and into the shoulder than you would normally want to?

Is neck sizing a reasonable way to do things for that rifle? I know some rifles don't have the best primary extraction (eg Remington pump action rifles) and thus full length sizing is recommended over neck only. I have no idea if the 99 falls into that category or not though.
 
I would back off the full length die till you start hanging up on the body taper. Still, it looks like you won't get many loads out of your brass
 
The cases seem to be getting buckled by the Lee die. Maybe it is not adjusted correctly. FL looks fine. Why not just use that die, sizing no more than needed to guarantee easy chambering d secure bullet seating.
 
My initial read on this is that the rifle chamber is not the correct shape in the shoulder area. Is this a factory issue or something that happened in the last 120 years, it's hard to know. The fired shoulders are clearly rounded and moved forward into the neck area. The Lee collet die is compressing the stretched neck area back to proper specs, leaving the shoulder area rounded. My concern with using the full length die lies in reshaping the shoulder area with every reloading and shortening the life of the cases. As other post mentioned the case life is probably not going to be long regards of what I do.
 
I agree with Tiriaq, adjust the FL die to size only far enough to chamber reliably.

I don't like how the shoulder has changed shape in the case sized with Lee collet die.
 
Perhaps double-check the barrel markings--is it by chance a 303 Savage and not a 30-30?
Also, if the rifle dates to 1904 it is a Model 1899. Model 99's started around 1920.
44Bore
 
44Bore said:
Perhaps double-check the barrel markings--is it by chance a 303 Savage and not a 30-30?
Also, if the rifle dates to 1904 it is a Model 1899. Model 99's started around 1920.
44Bore
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Google tells me the 303SAV has a shorter case to the shoulder than a 30-30 - 1.351" vs 1.440" to the shoulder. That should prevent 30-30 from fully chambering shouldn't it?

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That would be correct. Perhaps a chamber cast would help? It wasn't unknown to lengthen 303 savage chambers to accept 30-30 rounds. If barrel is marked .30-30 then that would not apply either. Hope you get it sorted.
44Bore
 
44Bore said:
That would be correct. Perhaps a chamber cast would help? It wasn't unknown to lengthen 303 savage chambers to accept 30-30 rounds. If barrel is marked .30-30 then that would not apply either. Hope you get it sorted.
44Bore
Click to expand...
303 savage has a larger base diameter than 30-30win as well. So one should be able to measure or even possibly see a difference between fresh/full sized 30-30 and brass fired in a 303sav chamber thats been lengthened to fit 30-30win.
 
30/30 WBY...Hmmm I actually had the same thought.
Anyways, the barrel is stamped 30 30 but I don't think it looks like the factory barrel or stamping. Pretty sure it's not a .303 Savage, that fired case would look quite different and as mentioned I don't believe a 30/30 case would chamber.

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The more I think about it I am leaning towards annealing all of the case necks and then using a F.L. sizing die to neck size and just touch the shoulder enough to smoothly chamber. I think that will buy me the maximum case life (which might not be much) and go from there. It was purchased as a plinker rifle. I haven't planned on hunting with it so if I get the odd stuck case it's no big deal. Loaded some 150gr sst Hornaday's and some 110gr .30 carbine gallery loads. It came with a sweet peep sight so I will live with a bit of grief. First shot was a 50 yard kill on a beaver with the sst.

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A factory barrel will have the Savage name and patent dates on the on left side. Between that and the receiver should be the caliber stamp. Looks like yours is farther forward. I would say someone has swapped the barrel.
I have a take down in 30-30 made in 1919 that I like shooting.
 
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