Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters M99 Savage conversion

I just had a wild idea. Can a 1950's Savage m99 in 300 Savage be rebarreled to 6.5 Creedmoor. It appears that the cartridge dimension are almost identical. Would it feed ok with the rotary magazine?

Would there be any other problems with this conversion? Years ago, I remember a wildcat 270 version of the 300 savage called 270 Titus. The Creedmoor would be a modern version that has good ammo available.

Let me know what you think.

Centex Bill

This is probably a question that will get more responses in the Savage forum.

If you already have the rifle, borrow or buy some 6.5 CM factory ammo with the longest bullets available to test whether they with work in the magazine and then cycle them partially through the action.

I had a similar project in mind for a 7mm-08. Actually, as a hunting rifle, I'd suggest the 7mm-08 to be the better chambering.

The answer is yes. It can be done. 260Remguy is right: the Savage collectors know better on this.

Even if it can be done what is truly gained? A 300 Savage with 150gr load can kill any deer to 300-400 yds no problem properly set up. The fellas of yore who used Savage 99's in 300 were mostly limited to the old bullet choices of the day and the rather limited capability of optics of that period. Thats changed and now theres really great bullets and we have optics that can strech out even the lowly 300 Savage. Just sayin the 6.5 creed is all the rage currently, but the 300 Savage isnt as if you just are armed with a slingshot, its pretty formidable in its own right.

You have a really good point there. My current Opening Day GOTO deer rifle is a 99 in 308 WIN that I download to 300 Savage levels. Truth is, I really have not needed anything else, but I can't help myself.

Have you thought about a 338 Federal?

The 99 in 300 savage is probably a good fit for the Creedmoor and that is a conversion I might try. I would not be so anxious to try to barrel the same rifle in 7mm08 but if the donor was a 308 it would be fine. I have rebarreled 308's to 7mm-08 and it worked well.
If one did barrel a 99 to the 6.5 Creedmoor, he would want to keep his loads on the milder side to prolong case life. This is true of everything in the 99. It is strong but a bit flexible. GD

I think I'd just have a .308 Savage 99 re-bored to 358Win., and leave the old 300s alone. To me it would fit a lever gun's use better. I want one in either a 99 or a BLR. I have a 99F or feather weight in .243, but the barrel taper seems a bit thin in this model to re-bore to a 35. I know the 6.5 CM is a popular thing these days, but I don't see a lever gun wringing out all the accuracy most 6.5 gurus crave.

I got a 1917 Sav 99 take down 250 Sav for $175 in 2004.

I made a 6mmBR bull barrel for it in 2008.

I make a 250 Sav select match barrel in 2018.



When rebarreling a rifle, there is no special extractor relief cut on a Mauser or Rem700.

The extractor relief cut for a Sav 99 is a nasty one.

Awhile back, a friend of mine on another forum bought a 99 in .243, or, at least, he thought it was a .243, and it was so marked. It shot horribly bad. He was in great distress over the whole thing, but we talked him into visiting the guy who works for Sierra and was also on the forum. Since he was only about an hour away from Sedalia, he took the 99 down to Tommy to figure out the issue. Tommy loads and shoots ammo all day long for his "day job", and knows his way around a rifle.

After doing some snooping around, and doing a chamber cast, he found out that someone had rebored the 99 to .260 Remington, withOUT updating the barrel markings. As luck would have it, the rifle shot okay when they get right ammo for it. Bill has gone on to kill a deer or two with his 99, and he seems happy enough with it, now that he knows what the chambering actually is.

My semi-half-educated guess is that rebarrelling a 99 to 6.5 ManBun would work well enough, but it would be an abomination unto the Lord, as He wouldn't be pleased with such shenanigans.

Will that magazine accept 2.8" long cartridges?

I have no doubts the 6.5 Creedmoor would feed fine from a .300 Savage action, since the Creedmoor is based on the .30 T/C, which is an almost exact copy of the .300 Savage. But you'd run into problems with cartridge OAL, since the .300 Savage's SAAMI length is 2.6 inches.

So you would have to seat the bullets a bit deeper. This would be a loony's rifle so handloading is a given. GD

Several years back, I posted pictures of my custom 99 6.5 Creedmoor. I am not able to resurrect the post and still can't get pictures off this computer to post. It was a .308, so feeds quite well. It really likes Speer 140gr Hotcores and 41.5gr H4350, consistently shooting sub-inch three shot groups. It's heavy for some with a 23" inch Shilen #3 contour barrel and a nice walnut stock from Show-Me-Gunstocks. The stock is a classic design without the pronounced drop that 99s have. It works for me.

Amen Brother!

If I were to come across a nice 99/300 (that I could afford), I’d consider it a lucky day and go shoot it. To each his own, but why mess with a perfectly good and classic rifle/cartridge combination by converting it? What am I missing?

Many (if not most) of the high-BC bullets typically used in the 6.5 Creedmoor would have to seated so deeply the neck probably wouldn't hold them securely--which was part of the original problem with the .260 Remington, when the high-BC trend started.

The other advantage of the 6.5 CM over the .260 (at least in normal times) is affordable and accurate factory ammo. Have quite a bit of it, both because buying some but generous manufacturers. NONE of it will fit in a .300 Savage 99 magazine.

You're also making the same assumption that many anti-Creedmoorites are, that everybody handloads.

I feel the same.

If I had a 300 Sav. 99 that for some reason didn't shoot right and I wanted to rebarrel it, and I liked the idea of a smaller cartridge, I'd just make it a .250 Sav.
I missed out on a mint .250 99A about 25 years ago because I didn't have enough cash in my pocket (and it was gone, at $275, by the time I got back from the ATM), and I've never really gotten over that...

With the bullets you would be forced to use in a rebarreled .300 to 6.5CM, I do not think you would gain anything significant over the .250.
SPS has a bunch of some kind of special run of Nosler .257 115gr Partitions with kind of a "stumpy" ogive on sale now for a really great price, and I bet they would be the PERFECT bullet to load in a .250 Sav with a fast twist barrel in a short magazine.

Rex

I don't have a 99 in the shop right now to measure but I admit it could be a problem if one wanted to load the long bullets. I'm not sure what remedial work might be necessary. Not a problem for a real loony though. Luckily, I'm not one so I'll never have to try! GD