Pretensioning rotary magazine spring.

[drone]

I recently acquired a mod 99 in 22 Hi power take down without an interrupted thread 20" barrel.
Apart from being in average used condition there is one issue with it in that the magazine will only "easily" accept 3 rounds. I think there may be an issue with the central bolt through the mag.
When the large screwdriver arrives from e-bay I intend to take the action apart to clean and lubricate it and also find out what is the problem with the magazine.
I feel reasonably confident in doing this but I have one question, ie when looking toward the magazine from the muzzle, which way should the nut be rotated to apply tension on the spring?
Many thanks in advance.
FWIW the gun shoots and cycles OK and the peep sight is an engineering masterpiece.

[Model24]

Rotate the nut in the direction that loads rounds to pretension the spring. If you’re fixin’ to disassemble the mag, be advised that the nut has a left hand thread.

[drone]

Thanks, model 24, anti-clockwise then, looking from the muzzle.
I think my one has a problem with the central spindle as it's impossible to fully tighten the lock nut. We'll see when it comes apart but I won't be able to illustrate it as the method of loading images here is a pita and beyond anything I can or want to do.

[drone]

Well,my special screwdriver bit for the main stock retaining bolt arrived a day early so I pulled the gun to bits, in the words of the immortal bard, a piece of piss. The only tricky bit was finding the firing pin return spring when it fell out onto the carpet I was working over.
The amount of crap inside was enormous and the spring for the magazine wasn't tensioned at all, I cleaned it out and scrubbed the parts with a fine brass brush and brake cleaner and reassembled it, had to get just about 1 1/4 turns on the spring,the zero isn't quite centred in the window but I can get 5 shells in the mag and one in the breech so she's up to 6 shots, trigger feels significantly smoother and, as I mentioned earlier, the firing pin return spring was a bit fiddly to get in with my large fingers but it's there now after two attempts and the gun is as smooth as ever it was. Looking forward to a range session this Saturday 8th June on the Sarts range with pop up silhouettes out to 400 yards.
After shooting it, I'll add a bit more tension on the mag spring to see if that centres the 0 in the window.
My thanks to model24 for his help,really do appreciate it, it always helps if you know what to do before you get into it, much simpler to dismantle than a win mod 94 and 10 times as easy as my model 92.
If anyone reads this and is concerned about attempting it, don't be. Just get quality screwdrivers and findout where that firing pin return spring sits before going ahead.

[99lover]

The indexing of the "0" in the window is controlled by the tab on the cartridge guide which stops the rotation of the rotor when it is empty. When the rotor contains cartridges the tab contacts the body of the top cartridge in the rotor.

[drone]

The indexing of the "0" in the window is controlled by the tab on the cartridge guide which stops the rotation of the rotor when it is empty. When the rotor contains cartridges the tab contacts the body of the top cartridge in the rotor.
My thanks for that, I mistakenly thought that an increase in spring pressure would have moved that, but of course that was incorrect.
What it does tell me is that the gun has been dropped at some stage as the brass of the mag follower/carrier whatever is worn eccentrically on one side which I can't illustrate as I won't allow another bunch of uncontrolled software into my computer.
I just couldn't fathom where it had landed as all the dimensions of the receiver indicated that it was OK, next time I pull the gun apart I'll mount the follower/carrier and clock gauge it for concentricity as it looks like it landed somewhere there.
For info, when I took that particular set of components apart I loosely reassembled it without the spring and the brass component span freely on the bolt, the head of which was unworn and there was minimum clearance, as far as I could see, in the alignment hole. It also span quite freely in its arc of movement whilst loosely assembled in the receiver.
In the meantime it's not the end of the world as, as in many such add ons to guns it's value is only one of marketing value as any shooter worth his salt remains aware of the number of rounds he's fired, after all the guns weren't built for gen Z.

[Model24]

If memory serves, my 99 EG in 300 Savage also had eccentric wear on the carrier. It might be the nature of the beast. I find the shell counter to be the most useless feature of the Savage 99.

[JimFsh]

. . . . .I find the shell counter to be the most useless feature of the Savage 99.

I agree 100%!

It also provides for debris entrance into the internals!

[99lover]

I have thought about plugging the hole in the receiver. My magazine works great but the numbers were not engraved evenly and some are hardly readable. It is really just a novelty feature that back in the day might have been a selling point for Savage.

[Model24]

Glad to hear that you’ve fixed it! Plugging is easier said than done. It’s an obround hole. Easier to just ignore it.

[drone]

Just a quick update, when replenishing the magazine it was dang hard to get he last two rounds into the mag, so I adjusted the spring tension, 1st tried slackening back 1/4 of a turn.better but then I slackened another 1/4 turn and it's the Goldilocks moment, rounds easy to get in, feed is great and I can nearly see the worn out zero smack in the middle of the window!

[Model24]

Glad to hear that 99lover’s works and that drone’s is fixed!

[drone]

Thought I'd refresh the finish on the woodwork, whilst the gun hasn't seen many rounds down the barrel, from what I can tell by a squint around the chamber with a borescope, it's led a very hard life storage wise. The butt plate is corroded and the Indian is partially worn away.
https://app.gemoo.com/share/image-annotation/663518795318546432?codeId=DGYBkaB1b9l2o&origin=imageurlgenerator&card=663518793552744448

The side of the buttplate nearest the stock is also quite corroded and the butt shows signs of water soak in the wood.
https://app.gemoo.com/share/image-annotation/663520194274111488?codeId=vzaV3gW1Ab3Rd&origin=imageurlgenerator&card=663520192730607616

I scraped off the old finish which was completely gone where one's cheek rests against the stock and the wrist of the stock was oil soaked. I spent some hours with a hot air gun bringing as much oil as I could to the surface, took the best part of a day and a half but most of the oil's gone now.Lifted those dents that could be lifted and left those that couldn't.
I've started oil finishing the surface and eventually will apply a wax finish to the resultant semi sheen.
There are numerous hairline cracks that continue seeping old oil out which is really annoying but I'll get there in the end as I don't propose to use the gun until the second weekend in July so plenty of time to get a deep, hard finish.
I'm sending off the buttplate to have it caustic blued but it'll never be the same again.
Polished up all the screws and bolts and lubed them up with copper grease ready for torquing into the gun.
It looks like one of the online gunshops has 200 new brass in 22 hi power that I'm getting for about £128 ($160 ?) and I've managed to get 400 hornady 71 grain soft points and as many S&B FMJ as I want so I should be able to keep the old girl shooting for some time ahead.