Savage 99 308 FTE!

[Johnny_Canuck]

I popped down to the Genesee range after work yesterday for a quick tune up on my zero. The rifle is a Savage 99F in .308 win mated with a Leupold MK-AR 1.5-4 scope. I picked this rifle up last Easter but have only started shooting it in earnest recently. I wanted a hard hitting, light, easy handling brush gun. My 300 WM Remington 700 Sendero, Bushnell 6500 4.5-30, bipod, blackhawk cheekpad, and sling didn't quite fit that bill for some reason.

Anyway, I was cycling some different factory loads through with good effects. Winchester 150's grouped best with a three shot 1.1" at 100M. I decided to try out some Federal 150's just for comparison. I fired, racked the lever and ..... couldn't close. The fired brass was still in the spout. A light tap with a cleaning rod removed the offending piece and I fired again. Same thing happened, another failure to extract. Repeat the cleaning rod procedure. 3rd time was also a FTE. I inspected my 3 offending federal cases versus my expended winchester brass, which had not given me any issues in extracting/ejecting. The Federal brass had a small but noticeable shiny divot left where the extractor pulled away. I've been away from my micrometer all day, so I'll post my results on the base diameter later. But the Winchester brass showed hardly any feeding/extracting marks whatsoever. Has anyone else run into this problem? Is the Fed brass just that much softer, it has never given me grief before. I use Win or Rem brass when I do up loads. Any thoughts or comments?

 

[dmb]

I had the exact same issue with a 99E, never did figure out what was causing it, gave it to my brother, his problem now! LIke you pointed out, the Winchester ammo worked fine.

 

[John Y Cannuck]

You're description doesn't indicate how hard the bolt was to open.
If it opened easily, there could be wear in the extractor, or even just some dirt under it.
The federal brass may be manufactured just enough differently to make the extractor, under those conditions, slide off.
If it was stiffer to open, it may still be a weak extractor, or possibly a scratched or pitted chamber, with a hotter Federal loading.

 

[Noel]

Could be too much headspace and the rifle accepts one load and not another.
My 250 Savage was showing signs of high pressure with low loads from the manual. Turned out it was .012" long.

Pushed the shoulder forward on the cases and they are behaving now, but the load development has to start all over again.

 

[Ganderite]

Sounds like the rifle is trying to tell you something.

Good for you for testing beforehand.

 

[Johnny_Canuck]

Head space on the rifle is fine. My Go/No go gauges have not changed sizes. The action was not much more difficult to cycle than on a proper cyclic operation. Rifle is *pristine*, extractor isn't rounded off, shows no significant . No pressure signs other than the sticky federal brass. As I said the federal brass seemed soft, and once I threw my vernier micrometer I found the Federal rim diameter to be undersized by .009". Not much, but that, coupled with the fact that the Fed brass seems softer is explanation enough for me. My rifle told me it doesn't like Federal ammo. It also told me that if I feed it Winchester brass it'll do its job exceptionally accurately, for a lever gun.