Contender Series model 99 Premier is a powerful underlever. The dark wood stock is nicely checkered.
Contender-Series Model 99 Premier
by Tom Gaylord
Contender Series model 99 Premier is a powerful underlever. The dark wood stock is nicely checkered.
Contender-Series 99 Premier
The new Contender 99 Premier is a large adult spring-piston air rifle. Although it isn't that long, at 44-7/8" overall, the pull length of 14-5/8" is the longest I 've ever measured outside of a few gargantuan custom jobs. The weight is only 8 lbs., which is on the light side of normal for adult spring rifles, so there is no strain carrying it into the field. That's good, because this will be a popular rifle with hunters.
Specifications
Let's get the specs out of the way before we take the rifle out for a range test.
Comments on the action
The underlever is held tightly by the cap at the muzzle until you are ready to cock the gun. Then, it pops free for cocking. A screw adjusts the spring tension to make this as easy or difficult as you like. Once cocked, the breech cannot be closed until the small lever at the rear of the triggerguard is pulled. This is the anti-beartrap mechanism, and it also prevents the gun from being uncocked. Once the underlever is stored away and the sliding chamber has returned to its forward position, the automatic safety must be released before the rifle can be fired. To release it, pull straight back. In a new gun, the cocking sequence will seem stiff and tight. As the gun breaks in, it smoothes out.
Three levers in the triggerguard. On the left, which is the back of the triggerguard when you hold the rifle, is the lever that releases the sliding compression chamber after cocking. The trigger is in the center, and the safety is on the right. To release, pull back the safety toward the trigger.
The underlever comes back far, reducing the effort required to compress the powerful mainspring.
Loading
The rifle is loaded when the sliding chamber (the silver part) is withdrawn all the way by cocking the gun. On some underlever airguns, the room available to load the barrel is cramped. On the 99 Premier, the whole top of the action is open, giving you plenty of room to work, as long as the scope doesn't overhang this area. Shove the pellet all the way into the back of the barrel with your fingers, because a deep-seated pellet helps accuracy. No seating tool required.
The sliding chamber (silver) is forward. Notice the nice even borderless checkering!
When the gun is cocked the sliding chamber slides all the back. This allows access to the breech for loading.
The breech is exposed when the chamber is slid back out of the way. This is where the pellet goes, nose-first.
Mounting a scope
Of course, you can use the Premier with open sights...it's a wonderful rifle just as it comes. To wring out all the accuracy, a scope is necessary. I mounted a Tech Force 3-12x44mm in Air Match high rings. The rings clamp to the 11mm dovetails, and I simply slide the rear mount back until it butts up against the built-in scope stop plate. This plate is low and unobtrusive, but it works as well as any other, which is all that matters.
Cleaning the barrel
I customarily clean the barrels of all new rifles with a brass brush loaded with J-B Non-Embedding Bore Compound. It's a fine abrasive paste used by benchrest shooters to clean their rifled barrels thoroughly without harming the rifling. A new rifle barrel always has rough edges, bits of metal clinging to the surface of the rifling and some rust. The rust comes from the bluing process, plus storage. I've learned that cleaning with J-B Compound is a sure way to get the absolute finest accuracy from a rifle right from the start, so I always do it for a new gun.
A brass brush is loaded with enough J-B paste that the bristles no longer show through. I use a solid cleaning rod, but you can also use a jointed sectional rod if you like, as long as the rod you use is not flexible. Clean from the breech whenever you can, however the 99 Premier does not allow it because of its design, so you'll have to clean from the muzzle. Cock the rifle to open the breech, then use long continuous strokes to go all the way through the barrel in one direction. When you get to the end, reverse and pull the rod all the way out. The first 10 strokes in both directions will be difficult, most especially the first two or three, then you'll notice the effort decreases. Two things are happening. First, all the crud in the barrel is being loosened and carried out, and, second, the brass bristles on the brush start bending to conform to the size of the bore. For that reason, I always use a new brush to clean a new barrel.
After cleaning, I push a pellet through the barrel to see what the rifling looks like. I'd done the same thing before cleaning; when the pellet came out, I couldn't see the rifling marks at all. There was just a general band of scraping around the bottom of the pellet skirt. After cleaning, however, the rifling marks were sharp and well-defined. I confirmed that the barrel is rifled with 12 lands and grooves. The lands are very wide compared to the grooves, but they are also quite low. The bore is tight, which should lend itself to good accuracy.
Firing behavior
The single-stage trigger breaks crisply. How it will be after a few thousand shots, I can't say; but it's fine as it comes from the box. A pull weight of 4 lbs., 12 oz. means it's a sporting trigger rather than a match unit; but as crisply as it breaks, you'll probably underestimate the pull weight by a pound.
When the gun fires, it has a sudden impulse with very little vibration. There's a small forward jump of recoil, but certainly nothing equal to what is expected at this level of power.
Velocity
I tested velocity after testing accuracy to put a few more shots on the powerplant. RWS Hobbys weigh 7 grains and iave an average velocity of 919 f.p.s., with an extreme spread from 912 up to 927. Crosman Premier 7.9-grain pellets average 839 f.p.s., but range from a low of 794 to a high of 881. Perhaps, that's the reason they string their groups vertically into 2" at 30 yards!
JSB Exact pellets weighing 10.2 grains average 746 f.p.s. and range only from 742 to 752. When a pellet holds that tight a spread, it means the rifle is well-suited to it. Tech Force Match wadcutters weigh 8.2 grains and average 819 f.p.s. They span a spread from 813 to 830 f.p.s.
Accuracy
The day was as perfect as a shooting day can get. There was no breeze at all, and the light was diffuse from fog burning off. I couldn't ask for better conditions.
Crosman Premiers wanted to group well, but as I noted, they strung out vertically at 30 yards. That was probably due to their large velocity variation, which may be due to a loose fit in the bore, though I didn't notice it during loading. The other pellets I tried (Beeman Kodiaks, Tech Force Match wadcutters and RWS Hobbys) went into more open 2.5-3" groups at the same distance. And, then there were the JSB Exacts.
JSB Exact domed pellets shot groups of less than an inch, with the best going into 0.844". I could tell right away that this was the right pellet, because they were all flying to the same point. When you couple that with the extremely tight velocity spread I got, I think the handwriting is on the wall. This rifle clearly wants to shoot JSB Exacts!
With JSB Exact domed pellets, the Premier 99 came alive! This best group at 30 yards measures 0.844", center-to-center.
With this kind of solid performance, the 99 Premier is going to be attractive to spring gun users who are looking for a big rifle that delivers hunting accuracy and power. It comes with a nice set of open sights, so you can put it to immediate use. The scope rails are built in along with the scope stop; so when you're ready to upgrade, your rifle is, too.
You'll love the solid feel when the gun fires. It's like a fine European rifle that's been tuned by an expert. Use the right pellets and get familiar with your 99 Premier; it's the kind of airgun that will grow with you as you shoot it more and more.
