Well, didn't blow my head off!

Ole_270

Well-Known Member
I've got an old M99R 250 Savage made in 1953 that has a fairly rough bore. When I got it, there was a bunch of corrosion in the bore even though it came out of Wyoming, it cleaned up farily well but copper fouls pretty bad. After seeing some posts here and elsewhere about paper patching polishing the bore I decided to give it a try. I cast a lot of NOE 260283, 89 grain plain based bullets for my old 25-20 and though it would be a decent one to try. I calculated the circumference, pi x Dia., and doubled it for a 2 wrap jacket. Cut a few trapezoids at 60 degrees and 1.61 length out of printer paper(supposed to be a little more abrasive than many of the recommended papers). Had to cut a few more when I got them too wet and they tore while rolling. Left to dry overnight, then cut some off the tails, wiped on some paste wax and ran them through the push through sizer. I dug out some of the older brass and ran it through my expander/flairing die. Charged with a starting load of 4320 at 31 grains for a 87 grain jacketed bullet, I left them fairly long so they would engrave on chambering. Stepped outside the shop and fired the first one at my pistol gong at about 50 yards. Bounced that thing pretty good. Case and primer looked fine, so I grabbed the other 7 and leaned up against the walnut tree to see if I was getting any kind of grouping. POI was about 3" low with the scope set for my normal 87 Speer Hot Core at over 3K, but it looked like I got a decent pattern. I pushed a couple patches through it and ran the borescope down it. I thought I could see some smoothing starting, probably wishful thinking, but I've got 50 more of them standing up in a pistol cartridge box to dry. We'll see how it goes.
 

Bill

Active Member
Leave off any lube for polishing effect, barrel will get very hot, I've done a few old mil surps and it works great.


Bill
 
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Ole_270

Well-Known Member
Didn't know you could push it through the sizer dry, most of the posts on the process I'd seen mentioned putting wax on the paper before sizing. I'll sure give it a try.
I noticed the barrel was fairly warm after the 8 shots this afternoon. That load isn't all that fast for the bullet weight so it must of been doing some work.
 

fiver

Well-Known Member
about 20 dry ones will zoom out the polish pretty quick.
you just want to be careful about over doing it same as any other polishing method.
 

Ian

Notorious member
The dry paper goes through a push-through die no problem without lube. As was said, they will heat your bore rapidly so take your time between shots.
 

RBHarter

West Central AR
I once read it can take 100 sometimes for the barrel to settle down with paper patched . My practical experience says it does when it does . The lap affect will present pretty quickly . The polish takes longer but will continue on to such a point that charges will need to increase to continue to break up the patch .......if you go that far of course .
 

Ole_270

Well-Known Member
99R, nice rifle!
It was a gift from my Wife and kids on my 50th birthday 17 years ago, made more special when I tracked down the build date to 1953, same as me. Kind of a weird family conection, it belonged to my sister in laws dad in Sheradon Wy, where he used it on everything to feed the family. Antelope, deer and elk fell to the rifle. Ol Pete wasn't a very big guy, but packing that heavy rifle up the elk mountain took some doing.
 

Bret4207

At the casting bench in the sky. RIP Bret.
There is a lot of stock on an R model. But they feel soooooooo good! That's one really, really nice b-day present.
 

Ole_270

Well-Known Member
shot 15 dry patched bullets this morning. Shot off my deck table with no rear support, just a 1x over a pot for the front, at a knot on the old dead elm on the side of the yard 45 yards away. Put all 15 into just over an inch with no load workup, too thick of paper causing way too much sizing of the lead. Might have to get some green bar paper or another of the recommended varieties to wring it out sometime. Cleaned the barrel and ran the scope down it. Of course the corrosion pitting is still there from before I got it, but the tool marks and fire cracking are almost all gone. The barrel looks much better.
Now to dig out the normal loads and see if it still shoots as well as before.
 

Ian

Notorious member
Fun adventure! Seeing the cloud of confetti never gets old either.

Green bar paper wrapped wet generally adds about .008" to the core diameter which is about perfect for most modern barrels. With a core at about .001" over bore diameter and a paper jacket about the same amount larger than groove diameter, things work really well.
 

Ole_270

Well-Known Member
Ian, guessing it would be better to cast to that core size rather than size down an already oversize bullet.

I caught the wind at a low howl from behind the bench and tried out the two main loads I use in this rifle.
87 gr Speer Hot Core, CCI 200, 36 gr RL-15. I've taken several whitetail with this bullet and it works great.
tuOKTcY.jpg

The rifle is pretty sensitive to forend pressure, not sure I was fully on my game on this group.

87 gr Speer TNT hp, Wolf Magnum primer, 40 gr Ramshot Big Game. I've gotten better groups with magnum primers with Big Game in the 250 and 7mm-08. You wouldn't think such small cases would need hotter primers, but I don't argue with the rifle. I use this one for varmints and coyotes.
bjMAKMA.jpg


Both loads are just over 3000 fps. The TNT load was actually worked up for my M77 Tang Safe, it really shoots in that one.
If anything these were slightly better than what I had been getting so I don't think I did too much damage. Quite a bit of copper in there, but it should clean easier than before.

Edit to add, these groups were shot at 100 yards with an old Bushnell 3200 3-9x44. I really need to come up with a more compact, lighter scope for this rifle. Everyone I pick up seems to gravitate to other rifles.
 
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Bret4207

At the casting bench in the sky. RIP Bret.
Nice! How much barrel do you have on the 99? 22"? My 250 is a Ruger Ultra Light tang safety model with a wispy little 18" (IIRC) barrel. I loaded with Nosler 100 gr Partitions and still got north of 2800 with very acceptable pressure signs. The 250 in a bolt gun is something else. I'd love a 99x250, preferably a later model A or E for a walking coyote rifle.
 

Ole_270

Well-Known Member
The 99 has a 24" barrel, the Ruger standard M77 is 22". That 99R is well over 9 lbs scoped, nice rifle for stand hunting, but not one I'd like to do much hill climbing with.
 

Bret4207

At the casting bench in the sky. RIP Bret.
Oh yeah, lotta wood on the R models. That all adds up. Even the little 99A's with the straight stocks and lighter barrels are closer to 7 lbs than 6. There were more than a few older 99's in 303 down in the Adirondacks I've seen that had the 26" barrel bobbed back to about 20". Changed the whole feel of the gun.