savage 99

[Mike]

Savage, in those early years, had the habit of shooting over-sized bullets. The .303 Savage pushed a .311" bullet through a .308" groove diameter bore. Likewise, the .22 High Power used a .228" bullet with a .225" groove diameter bore. Generally, a .22 HP will shoot very well with 60 grain .224" bullets but you should put a .223"
expander plug in the sizing die so the bullets will be held nicely in the neck of the case. Shooting the .224" bullets will add greater lifetime to your brass. The tapered cases for the .22 HP do stretch but they stretch the most when used with the .228" bullets. Also, the .22 HP does quite nicely with cast bullets, keeping velocities down to about 2000 fps. It is an interesting gun to play with and my own .22 HP was made in 1913. My gun is equipped with the additional .410 barrel which allows shooting 2 1/2" shells, single shot of course, and I also have three of the Marbles Auxiliary cartridges which allow .22 rimfires to be used. I mostly shoot the .22 Short CB Caps with the "cartridge," mainly as a trapline gun. Hornady might still make their pointed 70 grain .227" buillets for the European market where the .22 HP is still rather popular, known I believe as the 5.6 X 52R. But that Hornady bullet is too long for the Savage's 1 in 12" twist and much better performance will be seen with the 60 grain .224" bullets. This, of course, is assuming the rifle you've seen still has the Savage barrel or a copy of it. Most 5.6 X 52R rifles have a faster twist, 1 turn in 10" or so. And Savage never did actually recommend their .22 HP for hunting tigers but a missionary in China did use one with tremendous success, it was the only rifle he had. Savage did use him in their advertising along with claims of the power of the fastest (at that time) bullet for a sporting cartridge. The .22 High Power is an interesting study. Shoot sharp, Mike