Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Muzzleloaders Savage shooters: need some smokeless load suggestions for a 250 grain Precision Rifle bullet

I picked up a bunch of PR 250's. These are the PR's Precision Elite HP and come with sabots. I may try them this weekend depending on weather. Has anyone ran this bullet out of a Savage or a similar grain weight? Interested in powder and charge weight. Thanks!

try dougs message boards. type that into google and then go to loads. I found some really good info on that site. haven't shot that bullet weight yet so I don't have any personal information. I am shooting a barnes 385 spitfire with sabot. kills deer great.

Try this

Hey Ricky,
I run hornady 300xtp's mmp short black sabots with AA 5744, 44gr charge or lee dipper 3.4cc shaken level. It's a pretty standard load for savages and I can see why. It's kept me in pepperetts and steaks for a few years now.

I had a spectacular kill last season with this load. Our crew got set up early on a island of bush and I blocked one side. After awhile I hear a truck easing up a gravel road behind me a couple hundered yards. Looked around the ancient hydro pole I was leaning on and yep lots of orange in there. Pressures on now looks like I got an audiance. Just then the sound of twigs snappen in front of me. Three does bust out wide open. Got on the last one swinging a lead about the base of her neck and letter hang. Deer went up in the air did a complete somersault landed on her back stone dead not even a twitch! On the 60 paces to her I got some fist pumping thumbs up from the peanut gallery, at least I think thats what it was. They may have been flippin' me off for being there first.
Bullet hit behind shoulder destoyed lungs, broke spine removing the bottom of some vertabre and lodge on off side hide. It wieghed 209gr impact velocity 2000fps I would guess, and doe wieghed 120#. Not bad for a pistol bullet. The enerergy transfer on deer is ammazing. I'm actually marinating on of her shoulders right now

If I were to run 250's I would start with this powder and charge and work up a bit maybe to play around with accuracy. A friend uses it the 3.4cc lee dipper and my AA5744 (buy your own Trav) with a 250gr bullet in his savage and it's worked well for him.

AA5744 measures easy, ignites easy is all around very forgiving double based powder. It has a 20% nitroglycerin content which gives it a glazed look. This glazing makes this powder less hydroscopic than say imr 4759 or n110. Good for those rainy hunts.

I have not tried n110 but I've heard it can shine with 250's.

I was just on the Precision Bullets web site by the way those look like great bullets. www.prbullets.com Look under Gun smithing services under M77 and 700..... very interesting.

Thanks for the replys. I took the Savage out Saturday with some N110 and Lil Gun. I didn't have enough time but did get it sighted in for the 250's and produced a three shot clover leaf with 42 grains of N110. That appears to be a fairly light load with 48 grains as a max, so I may see what a grain or two more will do next time out. I hope to give Lil Gun a try too, but what I have heard on the heat from it's burn may give problems for the sabots. Anyone use Lil Gun?

I don't own a Savage smokeless, but I have helped a couple of buddies get theirs set up. The AA5744 was the most forgiving powder, even though it might not always give the best accuracy or velocity. We never got bad results from it with 250 or 300 grain bullets.

Shooting smokeless in warm/hot weather caused some sabot problems. Not all sabots are designed to perform at the velocity of the Savage. Combine that with the higher temps from somkeless powder and you can melt the sabots and foul the bore quickly with accuracy going to pot quickly. We wound up shooting the top of the line MMPs and the Harvester Crush Rib sabots.

Don't bother with the LilGun.

Its shoots at high pressure and EATS vent liners.

Much better choices:

4759, N110, 5744, H4198, 10x, N120, etc.

See Doug's board for load data page:

http://dougsmessageboards.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=loads&action=display&thread=586

The MMP is the ONLY sabot reccommended for use with SMOKELESS powder in the Savage. I use a 250 grain XTP over 45 grains of IMR4227 and get 2050FPS for an average. It shoots quite well too.