Oopsy leads to Wowy in Savage 99

[earlmck]

It had been at least a couple years since I shot my Savage 99 in 260 Rem. Thought I'd make up some nice casty loads and plink a few tin cans with it. Started to sight in and thought "wow, I didn't remember this rifle having such a light trigger pull". Adjusted scope a bit for cast load and fired another. Adjust again and start to fire a third-- Yikes! she fires before the lever is closed. Here is the fired case compared to unfired:

LeverCartridges7184.jpg

You can see that the cartridge must have lacked a full 1/4" of chambering when it fired. Here is the case head: definitely a full-on firing pin blow:

LeverCartridge7195.jpg

I fished the fired case out OK but it took some real pounding to open the action fully. I wondered if it had damaged the bolt, but that appears fine. The resistance to opening was from the lever getting bent. The wowy I am trying to show in these pictures rubbed so hard against the frame that it had to pounded until I could get the gun apart.

Leverwowy7187.jpg

Leverwowy7192.jpg

On examination I find that there is no sear spring to be found anywhere in or near the rifle. It disappeared sometime between the last time I shot the rifle (two or three years ago) and this time. Yes, that light trigger pull should have clued me in to a close examination before proceeding! The only rifle I own with a really light trigger pull is a Feinwerkbau pellet rifle.

I don't know if I'll be able to get the lever straight enough to function: it has to be real close to perfectly straight the way the 99 is built. That and a new sear spring and we'll see if this rifle gets resurrected!

[milton]

Man,that was close! Glad you are OK!

[Paladin]

Man,that was close! Glad you are OK!

+1

[Tycer]

On the plus side, looks like you'll be able to fit a bunch more powder in that case
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,
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Glad you're Okay. Hope she goes back to perfect function without trouble.

[JerryB]

That was a close call, Praise the Lord!!!!!!!!!!!

[ollogger]

Dang Earl that could have been real nasty!!
How many PSI load was that one? bet it would have been real unfortunate with a full pressure load
Glad your ok!!

Brad

[Griff]

Surprising it didn't split or blow open the case. That would have made you soil your shorts! Musta been a real light load! Watch the video linked in this post to see an out-of-battery discharge!

[claybob86]

Surprising it didn't split or blow open the case. That would have made you soil your shorts! Musta been a real light load! Watch the video linked in this post to see an out-of-battery discharge!

That guy must have nerves of steel! Just set 'er down and kept going!

[earlmck]

Surprising it didn't split or blow open the case. That would have made you soil your shorts! Musta been a real light load! Watch the video linked in this post to see an out-of-battery discharge!

That guy must have nerves of steel! Just set 'er down and kept going!

Yes indeedy to that! His looked a lot more dramatic than mine -- I just thought "what the ..." and didn't realize it had damaged anything until I tried to work the action. I didn't even notice it jarring my lever hand, though it must have done some.

The load was 18 grains of 4759 and Lyman 140 grain cast. QuickLoad doesn't have 4759 in its database but figuring it is close to 4227 (which it is) it comes out less than 20K psi for the load, and around 1800 fps. Yeah, sure glad it wasn't a full-powered load!

And Griff, it did put a couple of small splits in the new shoulder area of this "over-improved" case.

[pshort]

Howdy,
"Gun Stories" has an episode on the Savage 99 Wednesday, August 10 on the Outdoor Channel....

Paul

[Bill in Oregon]

Wow, Earl, you really dodged disaster there. Hope you can get your girl up and running again. Glad you came out of it no worse for wear.

[Pete44ru]

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A classic example of how the Lord protects innocents !

I glad you weren't injured, Earl !

.

[Sixgun]

Earl,
Interesting pics and there is one matter that may have saved you.......cast bullet with a light fast burning powder.....very little back thrust with these loads. Had it been a full power 260 that bolt would have come back faster and harder than Griff driving down Rt. 80 pulling 44,000 in his KW.------6