Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Reduced load/moderate loads for 300 Savage

I want to work up some deer rounds for my friends 12 year old sons 300 Savage Savage 99. The rifle was given to his son by his father in law so it has some sentimental value and he liked to take a deef with it but being somewhat of a cool but oddball caliber I'm not sure where to start. Being reduced loads and a light for caliber soft bullet seems like a good starting point and that shots will be be between 50 to 150 yards tops at MI deer. I'd like a mv around 2300-2400 fps. I'm thinking a 150 gr Grand Slam, Balistic Tip, or Speer btsp. Ive also considered 130 Barnes or 125 Balistic Tip at slighty higher speeds. Any ideas on a good bullet that will open up reliably at moderate to low impact velocity and leave an exit hole?

Why not use a bullet intended for the .30/30? That's the velocity range you are talking about.

I never considered that but that sounds like a good idea. Most of the deer I have shot have been with a 270, 7x57, or 30-06 with full power rounds inside of a 100 yards which makes ammo selection straight forward and mostly full proof. I'd rather load a spitzer type bullet but a 30/30 round or flat nose makes sense.

Speer # 14 has reduced loads for 110, 150 and 165 grain bullets using SR 4759 powder and for 180 and 200 grain bullets using H4198. I personally have not used them but they are published. I generally use low to mid range loads with either Varget or IMR 4895.

For a 300 Savage with SR 4759, the following load data is from IMR's Brown Sheet Load Data..

150 grain....23.5 grains....2095 fps...45500CUP

180 grain.... 22.5 grains...1910 fps....45500 CUP...

For 4198: ( either Hodgdon or IMRs are the same for all practical purposes)

150 grain....30 grains....2365 fps... 44100 CUP

180 grain...29.5 grains....2190 fps....45200 CUP

30/30 bullets, or a ballistic tip are both GOOD choices...

Hodgdon advises that loads with H-4895 can be safely reduced below book starting loads to create low-recoil loads like you are looking for.

The 125 gr Ballistic Tip has a good reputation on antelope and deer. I would use this bullet with 34 grs. of H-4895 for a velocity of around 2075 fps. If you want to increase the load somewhat to get more velocity, you may, but you don't need to, and you will be raising the recoil.

I bet that would be a very pleasant and effective load in a Savage 99, at the ranges you are planning for.

Last Lemming, it is good of you to help your friend get a young shooter/hunter off to a good start.

The Speer BTSP is a relatively soft bullet, so it should be good in this application.

I'm looking at my 5th ed. Nosler manual. They used Winchester brass and primers. In the section for 150 grain bullets they show IMR4895 as the most accurate powder tested, and 36.0 grains as the most accurate charge. It's four full grains below their listed max, and it produced 2320 fps. This seems tailor made for what you want to accomplish.

If it was me, and it was only I loaded them in a 30-06, I'd use the 125 ballistic tips and 4198. I'd start at about 30 grains and top out at about 33 depending on accuracy and velocity I wanted. There's lots of other powders that'd work too such as 3031, 37 grains for about 2500fps; 40 grains of 4895 for about 2600fps; 4064, 40 grains for about 2500fps. These are published starting loads except they're for 130 grain bullets which by-the-way some of which would be a good option also. Regards, Woody

I'd look into the 170gr or 150gr flatnose bullets and Hodgdon H4895 reduced loads. Easy and cheap components that kill deer just fine at common deer hunting distances. Actually, the minimum loads for a 150gr will be around 2100fps so that might be all you need.

With so many good bullets today, there is no reason to stick with traditional weights when you are trying to produce a noticeable reduction in recoil. Not going to a lighter-weight bullet is defeating your purpose. The very first thing the factories do to produce a light-recoil load is go to a lighter bullet.

For a young beginner the more you can reduce the recoil and muzzle blast the better. Once they gain a little experience and confidence moving up in weight and power comes easy.

There is another advantage to using a lighter bullet for reduced power loads that no one has mentioned. Lighter bullets have a higher point of impact on the target than heavier bullets. Reducing the velocity of the load lowers the point of impact.

The reduced power lighter-bullet load will usually hit very close to the same point of impact as the full-power heavier bullet load. Sometimes a little tweaking of the lighter load is necessary to bring the impact points together at the yardage desired.

It is great to be able to switch loads without having to re-sight in, or change the scope, or try to remember the proper hold-off.

I shoot a lot of ground squirrels. I enjoy practicing with my deer rifles on squirrels for familiarity and confidence. I don't care to waste Partitions and AcuBonds on squirrels, and the sight-in of 2 or 3 inches high at 100 yards means holding low off the critter for many shots leading to more misses.

Instead, I work up a light, varmint-bullet load that hits no more than 1 inch high at 100 yards, with no change to the scope settings established for the deer load. While the final velocity of the lighter bullet is usually much less than their full potential, it is still usually around 3,000 fps, which is perfectly adequate out to about 250 yards, which encompasses almost all my shooting.

Just one more idea to throw into the pot.

38.5 gr. IMR4895/150 gr. Sierra SPT works well for me as a reduced load.

Might look at Trail Boss too.
The bullets for the 30-30 will fill the ticket real good.

Trail Boss will give you good practice or small game loads, but not enough velocity for deer; probably not over maybe 1500fps. The Hodgdon site has instructions for determining loads for any cartridge, but basically it's 70-100% of a caseful to the base of the bullet. Don't compress it.

H4895 is the stuff you want. Again, Hodgdon has a formula for reducing the load. Actually the site gives a starting load of 39.5gr H4895 under a Hornady 130gr SP bullet for 2324fps in your .300.

The cartridges in the annual manuals vary from year to year, but data for most cartridges is on the website.

I forgot to mention that Terry Wieland has an article on the .300 in the 99 in this month's Handloader. He ended up using Speer 150gr roundnoses because the 99 only allows a 2.6 inch OAL. Whatever you decide, check for function through the magazine before you load a bunch!

You might want to pick up the magazine.

Hodgdon also shows 23.5gr of SR4759 under a 150 Partition for 2095fps, OAL 2.520.
4759 will be discontinued after this year, so if this is your load, better get some.

My 99 loves 150gr Hornady Spire Point Interlocks. Can't imagine a much better bullet for deer in that cartridge. I load them with Varget. Just seat them where they need to be seated to cycle through the magazine and forget about "bullets protruding into powder space." That's a bunch of hoo-hah anyway. So what it protrudes into powder space. It means absolutely nothing to the effectiveness of the round. There is waaaaay too much emphasis on that. Forget about it and be happy that you have a great classic rifle in a classic cartridge. Take it hunting and take home the venison.

By the way, the 300 Savage used to be commonly loaded with 180 grain bullets.

Edited to add: Reduced loads can easily be done in the 300 Savage with just about any of the faster burning rifle powders, such as 4198, 3031, and 322. Don't make this any more complicated than it has to be.

4759 being phased out is an internet rumor.. according to Ben Ammonette at Alliant... based on my call to him upon hearing that earlier this year...and after I had bought 16 lbs of it...

never can have enough SR 4759, 4198 and a batch of other good powders...

Actually, I read that in a magazine, in a piece by Wieland, I believe.

As it's an IMR powder, I'm not sure what a guy from Alliant would know about it

Wieland's article makes a big deal about the powder space intrusion thing. He neglects to mention that it's pretty much standard practice for the short mags with no apparent ill effects. It IS apparently a big no-no for cast slugs.

I like Wieland's writing in general, and especially when he teams up with Bob Haley on loading obsolete rounds, but I've caught him in a few factual errors on occasion. What can I say- he's Canadian!

Some folks worry a bit about the very short neck on the 300 Savage cartridge and appreciate the extra confidence of being able to crimp their hunting loads into a cannelure, just like factory rounds.

A good 150 gr. bullet for the 300 Savage is the Hornady SST. Crimping into the cannelure gives an OAL right at the book max of 2.600", which is also very close to the max length that the Model 99 rotary magazine can handle.

I have gotten very good accuracy with this bullet in my M-99 and my Rem. 700.

The worry about the short neck is needless.