Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Savage Collectors Mule Deer and .303

Hi guys, been a while since I've posted but I thought you might get a kick outa this deer I lucked into the other day while packin' the old 1899 B in 303. 80 yard shot at dusk with the flip up Lyman and 170 grain Speer flat point. This was a really big bodied deer, easily pushing 300 lbs. Found him in a burn area in eastern Montana.

That is really cool. Someday I would to get a muley. Congrats.

fantastic Deer!! .. but you're missing the powder and weight of charge.

How does one manage a 300lb deer back to the truck? ... or even up into the truck?

I had enough trouble with 140lbs

That is one fine specimen! Great job and with my favorite '.303' bullet to boot!!

You do know they breakdown pretty easy with a knife, right?


Nice deer.

Beautiful buck taken with a great old rifle.

Pushing the envelope with iron sights. Wish I could. That's scope country for bad eyes.

WOW! For Savage Toad of the year;you my friend; are hands down the frontrunner! Thanks for sharing. What about the antlers? How does that bruiser tape. I gotta admit with deer of that caliber around, unless it was stormy and scope fogging weather, I wouldn't have had the resolve to use iron sights. Once again very nice deer. Congrats and happy thanksgiving. P. S. with your first post showing such a toad and a nice rifle I don't know how you are gonna be able to continue posting. LOL

Wow 406.

Terrific!

Good going

Angus, actually I've been a member here for 3 or 4 years as mw406 but I contracted a computer virus last winter and had to change my user name to get back on the forum. Just took a while to get around to it.

I've been hunting with the peep sighted 1899s in 303, 300, .22 HP and 250-3000 for years. That's all I use for big game and most of my coyote hunting. Never really found peep sights to be all that much of a disadvantage since most of my game has always been taken at well under 200 yds. I'm a big fan of getting close and a little luck now and then doesn't hurt.

Good show, Matt!

Thanks Gary, thought I'd post another photo to give you guys an idea of the terrain I hunt. This photo taken at sun rise the morning I found the deer. Long shots are easily do-able, but the ground is rough enough to make getting in 303 Savage range possible. When I was a younger man I used to spot and stalk muleys with a recurve bow. My max range was about 20 yards so getting to within 50 or 100 yards with a lever gun with metallic sites has never seemed like that big a deal to me.

JeffG, away from my load data and can't remember how many grains of powder I use but I'm a big fan of IMR4320 in the 303. Consistently the most accurate powder in all 3 of my 303s, 1899s in A, B and C.

What a nice big Buck!! and done with Grand old cartiage, also been hunting with my 303, but no luck yet!

How many have you taken with the 170 grain speer? Do you use it consistently in the .303?

Very cool. I remember your old post from a few years back with the Mule deer buck and then the coyote with the 1899 .303. Great stuff!

Lightfoot, Ive been fortunate to get three very nice mule deer in the last 5 or so years with 170 Speers in the 303. I really like that bullet and it seems to shoot a bit better for me than some of the others. That 303 B has been my go to rifle for mule deer. I've used a .300 G quite a bit for elk, occasionally for deer, and for a nice bighorn ram a couple years back. This year I was considering using one of my .250-3000 perch bellies for deer but I just couldn't leave the old B behind.