Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Savage Collectors never had a 308 Winchester

Just got one in a 99-f via Gunbroker.

I rate it a really nice hunter.

I'd appreciate any handloads you might suggest. Will use for 100 -140# whitetails in NY woods.

Thanks,

Al

39 grains of 3031 under a 165/168 is an easy going load that has been quite accurate in every rifle I've tried. Can't see why it wouldn't work in a '99.

I use basically the same load. Mine is 39.2 gr 3031 with Hornady 165 grain spire or a Speer 165 gr round nose.

Varget = .308

did I say Varget

I was happy shooting mine with a 150 & a starting load of Varget. Never got around to 3031, hmmmm.

I haven't hand loaded for the 308 but Ken Waters is always my "go to" place for figuring out what works best. The older Lyman manuals also have data for "accuracy loads", though they will date to powders that were available in the 1960s and early 70s. But there's nothing wrong with the old stand-by IMRs and their brethren.

Thanks gents

150 gr. Sierra and 48.0 gr. W748 is what my 99F 308 prefers.

Years ago when I was prone to doing such things I weighed each bullet in a box of 150-grain Sierra Spitzers and found out that they were very consistent from bullet to bullet and you could damn near use one as a 150-grain test weight for your scale. They were all dead on - and I mean dead on. I did it because I had a bag of bulk-packed 165-grain Remington Corelokts I bought at Huntingtons (RCBS) that just didn't want to behave. I weighed a bunch of them and they were all over the map with some actually coming in at their specified weight. I did manage to get good enough performance in the 300 Savage and kind of came to the conclusion that the Corelokts didn't like being pushed much faster than about 2500 to 2600 FPS. I also tried some bulk-packed Corelokts in a 6.5x55 Swede and they hit about a foot higher at 100-yards than factory loaded ammo. I didn't understand it as the Corelokt does has a pretty good reputation in factory loads. Perhaps the bulk packs were seconds. Go figure?

I've used a lot of 150 gr. 30 cal. corelokts. I don't know why, but I never could get them to shoot well in .300 Savage nor .308 Winchester. My .30-'06 rifles shoot them just fine though.

As I said -"go figure."

My go to load that shoots consistently well in all of my Savage 99's and M14's is 44 grains of 4064 with a 150 grain Nosler Ballistic Tip. Been using this load for over 20 years and I load for my relatives and friends who use it also. Consistently a Whitetail dropper and very accurate.

Friends swear by 3031 and Varget, I have not had as good as luck with it as 4064. Everyone's mileage may vary so you may have to experiment a bit. Pretty sure you can't go wrong with the above load as a starting point.

The one I had ( lastest magazine fed model) didn't like 180's or 165's as well as lighter/ shorter bullets. If I had it back today I might be inclined to try 110 TSX bullets.

Varget and Sierra’s 150gr Spitzers.