Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Savage Collectors Loading .300

I'm planning on limiting my reloading of .300 Savage to one powder with 150gr bullets and R15 gets good reviews wherever I've seen it tried. I started off with 40gr for the first time out with the rifle, shooting up some factory Remington 150gr rounds as well. The 40-gr rounds went bang so I loaded up 41, 42, 43 and 44gr. Bullets are Speer Grand Slams, the later version with single-alloy cores. I hadn't chrono'd the first time out but found with these they ranged from 2443fps avg at the bottom and 2638fps avg at the 44gr level. Each loading shot into 1" to 1.5" at 100 yards, I'd only constructed 2 of the 44gr though since I figured that might be the top end (data I found for 165gr bullets listed 44gr as max). Shooting 3 more of the factory Remingtons the group was 1.1" but velocity only 2444fps. This is a 24" bbl 99R, I expected the factory stuff to top (even if barely) 2500fps. No doubt it'd work just fine for deer hunting, I am a little surprised though.

The only other bullet I plan on trying is Sierra's 125gr Pro Hunter, data I have found includes RL7 and H4895 of the powders I have on hand. Anyone else reloading that weight of bullet or approx.?

Kirk

I'm a big fan of Re15. I load 42.0 grains for my EG with 150 grain corelokts. That runs about 2560 fps with good accuracy. Deer hate it.

The last factory ammo I chronied ran at 2650 fps in the EG. That was 150 grain corelokts from the green box.

Once upon a time I loaded 130 grain Hornadys with 4320. Shot well but didn't do a lot of it.

Each rifle is a law unto itself. So many variations due to manufacturing tolerances make it so. Given that I've so far had the best results with IMR 4064 and 3031 with 150 gr bullets. The data for Accurate 2025 with 150s looks promising. I'll be experimenting with that as soon as things settle down and I can buy some.

I've had good luck with IMR4064 and 150grn corelokts also.

Lee

I use Reloader 15 and Speer 150 HotCors when deer hunting with a .300 Savage. I substitute in a 165 Partition for elk.

After exhausive testing using up to maximum "book" loads of 5 different rifle powders, I've settle on a hunting load for my 1953 Model 99 (EG w/24" barrel). This load is very accurate (1"@ 100 yards) and averages a chronographed muzzle velocity of 2635 fps � 3 fps (+1 fps/-2 fps). The load consists of:

150 grain Nosler Ballistic Tip, boat-tailed bullet
40.8 grains of H4895 (maximum book load = 40.9 grains)
Standard Winchester large rifle primer
Winchester cases
Over-all cartridge length = 2.60 inches

I hope this helps...


Strength & Honor...

Ron T.

I met up with a friend at the range on that last trip, he told me his son had found him a 99EG up in Alaska that was heavily treated with cosmoline. When Chuck got the gun his wife claimed it and he was forbidden to bring it to the range until she'd shot it first. So this past weekend they made it out and got some chronograph readings--Federal blue box 150s were just a handful of FPS over listed 2630, his reloads with 150gr hornady bullets over IMR4064 were right in that same neighborhood. I've got some of those same Federal factory rounds as well as Winchester Power points and to break away from current production there's a box of Winchester Open Point Expanding in Super-X wrapping. Just gotta chrono those and see what they're doing. Whichever is most accurate will likely be the first to carry for deer.

Back to the lighter bullets, I've read of guys using the 130gr Hornady with satisfactory results on deer and the 125gr Sierra is supposed to be a good one as well. I'm more interested to see just how well I can get it shoot with what I've got on hand, but if it turns out to be a good one I might take it out for coyotes.

Hello Ron T do you have any data with h4895 and 165 or 180 grain bullets? Thanks a lot.

Heyyyyyy Angus...

No data on the heavier bullets, but one caution. Due to the shorter cartridge case, the 180 grain bullet sticks down into the powder chamber too far and limits the amount of powder one can put in the loaded cartridge.

Your best bet for a heavier than 150 grain bullet is the 165 Nosler Partition Bullet which is designed to open fast (the half in front of the bullet's partition) and drive deep (the rear half) as well.

My experience with Nosler Partitions I've recovered from game shows that they will maintain over 70% of their original bullet weight.


Strength & Honor...

Ron T.

I tried 42 gr. of R 15 with 150 grain Sierra's and only got mid 2400 fps out of my 22" barreled F. How Many grains were you loading and what was the velocity. Ron's load with H4895 looks interesting.

I've had good luck with IMR4895 and 165gr Partitions. My EG likes heavy bullets like the 180gr, but finally found it likes this combo as well.

Wow nice buck Rory! What's the story on that one?!

2010, think it was the first year I used the 165gr Partitions rather than the 180gr. Hunted all day Saturday with a 99T in 300 but 5 different bucks wouldn't come across the fence onto my land - but did get a nice doe. Took the lucky EG out Sunday and within 15 minutes had this guy jump the fence and got him at 100 yards. Only 3.5 years old, good genes up there!

Tasted great, too.

Sounds like you need a well-trained dog to properly motivate those deer the right direction!

Concerning my tests using IMR3031 and IMR4064 with my Model 99 (EG) with a 24" barrel... I fired these tests using 150 grain Nosler Ballistic Tip bullets, Winchester cases and primers which are a very accurate combination in my rifle and found that the maximum or near maximum "book" loads of each powder were as accurate as lighter loads and gave MVs in the 2660 fps range, but both powders always produced one "flier" out of each 3 shot group. The other 2 shots were always very close together in or very near the bullseyej, but the "flier" was 1� inches or so out of the group.

Since I shot several 3-shot groups with each powder, I don't believe the "flier" was me... and I measured the powder out to the individual granule of powder by trickling the last 1/10th of a grain (weight-wise) into each cartridge case so as to be as accurate as possible in the amount of powder in each cartridge case.

Yes... it is somewhat tedious reloading, but that's how I do it when I'm testing new loads and loading my hunting or accuracy loads.

When testing loads, I use a heavy aluminum Lyman rifle rest with a sandbag under the rifle's forearm plus 3 sandbags under the toe of the stock with the butt-plate tight against my shoulder and I try to shoot between heart-beats... that is the ONLY way to be SURE any inaccuracy is due to the load and not to the shooter or the amount of powder in the cartridge.

See what 50+ years of reloading does to a fella? Hahaha...


Strength & Honor...

Ron T.

Have you done a blind test of weighed vs. thrown charges for a pet load?

A couple of weeks ago I tested some 150 gr. Remington factory ammo in four rifles chambered for 300 Savage. Three of the rifles I hadn't fired factory ammo in before. The rifles were a 99R and 99E with 24" barrels, and a 99F and Remington 760 with 22" barrels.

The similarity in velocity between the rifles greatly surpassed my expectation. The 99R was 2610 fps, the 99E was 2600 fps, the 760 was 2560 fps, and the 99F 2550 fps. Another big surprise was the accuracy. I had always considered the 99F as the least accurate, and the 760 as the most, but the ten shot groups reversed this.

The handloads I've chronographed in these rifles showed much greater differences between the rifles. The only one I recall had the 99E 130 fps faster than the 99F and 80 fps faster than the 760.

99E with a 24" barrel as in the 1960 model??? My best accuracy has been with 99F's as well.

42gr Varget and the Hornady 150gr gives me 2600fps. Out of a 24" EG. I have shot many Old Remington 150gr over the chronograph. Very consistent load. 2641fps average. If I was not a reloader, The Remington 150gr is all I would shoot.

Either I got a bad batch of CoreLokts or something was going on with my Chronograph on the day of 2444fps. Probably not the latter, since the reloads wound up pretty close to expectations. Yesterday I took along Federal and Winchester factory 150s and they showed 2655 and 2592 for averages, 3 shots from each just under 1.5", I have no doubt any of these would work fine. Extreme spread for the 3 Federal rounds was 11fps.

Reloads of 125gr Sierra ProHunter bullets and Reloder 7 powder were pretty close followers of data from Nosler with their 125gr BT. They showed 36, 38 and 40 grains of RL7, those are what I loaded and my rifle was within 60fps at each of their listed speeds. Accuracy did not come around until the book max with 3 shots just under .9" and speed of 2962fps. ES kept narrowing as well, from 39fps to 16fps to only 6fps at the top. That 40gr is also where they found best accuracy, I don't recall any previous reloading of mine matching up with a given book's most accurate but coincidentally there it was for my 99R.

The 125s impact higher than the 150s, am now wanting to try out Speer TNTs in the .300 to see if they happen to shoot to a similar zero. Could make for a nice versatility.

I have found a limit to the fun with the steel buttplate. Maybe 3 trips to the range within a week or so, plus 3 rounds of skeet, are too much for me. Current weather dicatates t-shirts for shooting, but maybe common sense is indicating it's time to buy a PAST recoil shield or something for bench testing steel buttplates? I was also going to test 3 different bullet seating depths for the 44/R15 load of Grand Slam 150s, but after the first shot decided we'd better wait on that one. That round showed 2647fps to match up with the 2638fps avg of the first two rounds last week, still has me wondering about those Remingtons.

Any fans of Speer's TNT in your .300 M99?? I have a good load for the 87gr TNT in my .250AI (it's a M700, SICO--Savage in Caliber Only) but yesterday found a nice load for the newer Sierra 70gr Blitzking giving me two different weight varmint goodies for that rifle.