Savage Model 99 - lead bullets?

[Ronbert]

Question for the collective- Does it make sense to you that someone fired some unjacketed bullets thru a Savage Model 99 in 300 Savage sometime in the past? (and leaded the barrel)

Background- I'm cleaning my grandfather's Savage. By s/n the gun is 1951. He bought it in 1958 from an individual (I have the receipt). He hunted some I guess but not so much that I ever knew of him as anything but an occasional meat hunter. I have 3 boxes of his original ammo, each are about half used so I don't think he shot it much. (When I was a "big boy" of about 11 I was allowed one shot thru that rifle in the late '60's)

5 courses of Gunslick foaming bore cleaner removed a lot of copper. (Boy what a great product!)

Inspecting the muzzle end shows light colored frosty deposits. I'm not sure whether it's lead I'm seeing or corrosion damage. (I have little experience in this regard)

So I used some Remington Bore cleaner (scrubbing abrasive) on a short rod on the deposits at the bore. (patch wrapped brush wetted with cleaner) I do this at the muzzle so I can see the effects. The muzzle appearance hasn't changed much but the patches are very, very black. A half-dozen patches continue to be black rather quickly.

So, thinking about it some more, I dig out the lead remover cloth. After dry patching the bore where I've been working, I cut a patch of lead cloth to fit around a jag and with a single in-out stroke of the bore the patch comes back as black as if I'd dipped it in carbon. A half-dozen of these patches continue to come out black.

Am I on the right track here? This is turning into a lot of work!

Thanks for your help!

 

[Mike Irwin]

Yes.

Although not as common as it once was, many shooters used to use lead bullets and light charges of flake pistol powders like Unique or Red Dot to make reduced power loads for .300 Savage, .30-06, .308, .30-30, etc.

I used to shoot quite a few lead bullet loads out of my Savage 99 and my Remington 721, both in .300, using about 10 grains of Red Dot and a 100 gr. lead bullet.

Out of the 721 the load was absolute death on squirrels out to about 70 yards.

 

[Ronbert]

Hmmm. I have no way of knowing but it seems that maybe the guy who sold my grandfather the rifle had been shooting lead reloads. My grandfather was not a reloader so it wasn't him. But maybe somebody in that small town was.
Could be that the leading hurt accuracy so the gun came up for sale.

I'll try a Kroil soak next.

Thanks!

(My 721 in .270 was my father's before he went off to flight training in the early '50's. My grandmother "loaned" it to my uncle who finally got it back to our side of the family - me- 40 years later! No leading in it. Maybe 30 rounds thru it lifetime.)

 

[Ronbert]

Short followup to my own posting.

Someone was reloading. One of the old Peters ammo boxes has a reload data sticker on it showing reloaded with Remington components in 1968. The bullets are jacketed but the idea of lead bullets earlier sure seems plausible.

 

[GONIF]

If you cast them hard ,and keep them at moderate speed you will be fine . I would make sure you realy clean the bore good .

 

[plainsman456]

I have had good luck with jb bore paste in the past.The patches come out blacker and blacker,when they look to be lighter i put some fp-10 in and wire brush some more.Usually takes about 45 min to an hour,sometimes longer.Good Luck

 

[Mike Irwin]

"My 721 in .270"

Oops! My bad, the .300 Savage was chambered in the short action 722...

 

[Paul B.]

I don't think those frosty spots are from leading. I'd be more inclined to think it's mild corrosion from all that copper fouling but I'd have to physically see it to be sure.
I think that Remington abrasive you used that created those black patches is perfectly normal and not from leading. I use JB Bore Paste which is basically the same type of cleaner and no matter how many times you use that stuff, the patches will always come out black. It's the nature of the beast. Put some on a patch and try it on a known clean piece of steel. A nice black patch will be the result.
I could be wrong, but frankly, I don't think there is any lead in that barrel. One thing you can try, and if it is lead, this should "get the lead out" is get a Chore Boy scouring pad and pull some off and wra it around a tight patch. Scrub the bore thoroughly with that and if the patches are still there, then it's not lead. Another trickis plug the bore and fill it up with mercury. (Fat chance these days.) If the patches are truly lead, it will amalgamate with the lead which, after pouring the mercury out of the barrel a wipe out with a tight patch will remove any trace of lead. In fact, that was about the fastest way to remove lead that I know of. Too bad we can't do that anymore.Saves a lot of work cleaning a barrel of lead.
Paul B.

 

[Ronbert]

I've spent several more hours on the project.

I checked the archives and read about the Chore Boy scrub material and did that routine with several re-wraps of the brush and many, many strokes.
It seemed to have reduced the deposits by about half. But additional strokes aren't having a lot of effect. There's a thin layer in the grooves and down along the edges of the lands.

More patches with Rem bore cleaner continue to come out black. I've used it on .45ACP bores after shooting lead and I concur with Paul B that it probably turns black on its own. But I'm seeing the brush bristle ends making a blacker pattern on the patch wrapped around it so maybe there's still something useful it's doing.

More lead cloth patches continue to come out black very quickly.

The amount of material (or corrosion) left is getting a lot smaller but this sure is a big project. I shouldn't be surprised that it doesn't want to come clean after 50 years.