Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Savage Collectors Good article on the 300 Savage

I'm playing with 150 grain 300 Savage loads in a 1930's F (takedown) with a peep sight and found this excellent article on Savage and his 300. Very comprehensive and informative, especially on the different 30 cal bullets performance and characteristics. Enjoy.

http://www.ballisticstudies.com/Knowledgebase/.300+Savage.html

"Loaded with a 150 grain bullet, the .300 is capable of producing clean killing on light to medium weight game out to 300 yards. Bullet choice has a noticeable effect on terminal performance and generally speaking, soft jacketed bullets produce the fastest kills on light or lean bodied game."

Roy
Tnx for Sharing.
STEVE

Mornin Stever. In my wanderings this morning, it sounds like the 4064 loads are dandies to start with. 2800 fps neighborhood with a 150. Even 2700 is great for me.

I've got 350 unknown brand BTSP bullets burnin a hole in my pocket. Thought I'd play with a peep setup to 300 yards and see what it'll do with a loose nut behind the gun. Also sounds like the newer Leverevolution powder is a winner, but I'll start with 4064.

I think this is a good article. This sight is what I study especially for cup and core bullets. However I believe the monolithic or solid copper bullets are underestimated or perhaps under studied by the author.

I didn't know that Arthur Savage was the inventor of the 300 Savage. I'd like to see his source for that.

Thanks. IMR 4064, as well as IMR 4895, is a "solid" in the .300 as well as with other cartridges.

The author states a 300 won't produce quick kills beyond 50 yards, really ? Be my guess that he doesn't have much field experience.

Back in 1974, I shot a deer at 300 yards, standing out in some short brush, in the middle of a plowed farmers field.
My shot hit a bit high and hit the deer, which was facing me, high in the neck. The deer inverted and did a back-flip from the bullet energy. I feel very comfortable with a 300 Savage round out at 300 yards for deer. Given the comments in reloading manuals about mushrooming problems out past 100 yards though, due to speed, I think the comments about using softer bullets with thinner jackets has merit. Then again, would it be better to have a bullet that does not mushroom as well, but stays together giving better penetration into the vitals?

Any Savage literature that I've seen just says that Savage engineers developed the 300 Savage cartridge about 1920. Arthur Savage was long gone by then.
I shot the elk in my thumbnail pic that shows up on my posts with a bubbaed 1926 vintage 99G in 300 Savage. I hit it in the back above the shoulder at 200 yards, it went down, flopped a time or two and died. The best I can remember it was a 150 Nosler partition with about 39 grains of IMR4895. Shot placement is everything. David

That isn't why.

Shhhh

down loaded artical this morning, thanks

norm

I look at some of these postings about reloading, shake my head and go back to sleep. Copy and pasting makes everyone "look" like a genius, till they have to 'splain themselves. 3031 is your friend and be done with it. Go back to ridin yout Oregonian horse.

don't do all my own reloading son does and if i'am around i help , always looking for suggestions then utilize what i want , just like when i went to horse clinics , take what works for you and yours and shelve the rest for future reference.

norm

You and your 300 yard Savage shoot is what started this little exercise. Having poor luck this morning with 4064. RL15 shoots 1 1/4" at 75 yards with a Lyman peep. Shows promise.

Go take a nap and wake up with a new personality.

You will not reach 2,800 fps with 150 grain bullets. 2,700 will be a stretch. This does not matter until you fire your rifle at game and have the case stick in the chamber. Then it will matter to you! Please note that advertised factory velocities with the 300 Savage and 150 grain bullets have gone from 2,700 to 2,660 to 2,630 to 2,620 fps over the years. There is a reason for this. I will be experimenting with new powders - LeverEvolution and CFE223 in my 300 Savage Model 99s and hope to achieve 2,700 fps. Note the article in Handloader which says the author got 2,700 fps using Varget and RL15 with a 150 Speer RN bullet. This is faster than I have been able to get with my three 99s. Also note that the 308 Marlin Express is almost the same size case as the 300 Savage and both are chambered in lever guns. Actually, the 308 Marlin is about 8% smaller than the 300 Savage. This means you can use the load data for the Marlin in loading for the 300 Savage with then new powders.

To me this is a humerus thread. I don't know if you guys remember but I am the dumb as that got all puffy about hunting elk with a 150 grain bullet and I used this article as evidence to my position. I now have two elk killed over 300 yards one at over 400 with the 160 grain ftx. With 43 grains lever lotion powder I got an average fps of 2645 fps. With a 24 inch barrel. TFF if you ask me.

I never thought of the old style Winchester/Olin Silvertip bullets as being particularly "frangible", quite the opposite actually.

IIRC, Capstick wrote about prying the caps off of Winchester/Olin Silvertip 375 H&H bullets so that they would expand more rapidly when shooting leopards.

Agreed on the old silvertips not being "frangible". Solid bullet type if you ask me.
Also, I have killed 2 elk with 300 Savage in 150 grain. Both fast kills.