Savage Model 99

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The Model 99 was a famous best selling hammerless lever action rifle produced from 1899 until the early 1990's by the Savage Arms Company in Utica, New York. The company may be best-known for the Model 99 and the very popular .300 Savage sporting cartridge, which was the parent stock during a WW-II development contract of the eventual civilian .308 Winchester sporting cartridge, later adopted in the 1950s as the 7.62mm NATO cartridge.

An early version of the Savage 99 (the Savage 95) was one of the contending rifle models offered to the US Army when they were looking for a replacement to their Springfield Model 1871 rolling-block rifle. The Krag-Jørgensen was chosen over the Savage and other models, including the Mauser (Belgian 1889) and Lee Magazine system (Later chosen by the British and become the Lee Enfield).

The model 99 uses a rotary magazine to hold the cartridges. Unlike other magazines which use metal plates and springs to push the cartridges towards the bolt, the rotary magazine uses a spring-loaded spool with grooves to hold the cartridges. The Savage 99 takes advantage of the spool to include a counter to indicate how many shots are left. (Later models replaced the rotary magazine with a detachable box magazine, which was simpler and less expensive to manufacture.) During its production history the Savage 99 was chambered at one time or another for .303 Savage, .30-30 WCF, .300 Savage, .250 Savage, .22 Hi Power, .243 Winchester, .308 Winchester, .358 Winchester, 7mm-08 Remington, and .32 Winchester Special among others.