Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles Another Crack at it,

I'm going to take another crack at the 130 grain TTSX out of my Savage 99 .308 I took this on a year ago and could not do any better than the manufactured Remington Corlok 150 loads.

At the time I did not have any Fed 210, I'm hoping maybe that might bring around some improvement.

I have some Varget, Some Ramshot Big Game, some H414 and some IMR 4064. Of course also some 4350's wich along with the Ramshot I believe are better suited for the 06...but I'm willing to try anything.

Anyone have any real successful recipes?

Thank you.

I haven't loaded that particular bullet, but I can tell you what I'd do with the givens.

Forget 414, Big Game, and 4350.

Even Varget and 4064 are on the slow side for the bullet weight. Both of them result in compressed loads with short, lead cored 130 grain bullets. The TTSX is long for the weight, eating into powder capacity. With Varget having smaller grains and settling in the case better, it's the way I'd go.

Thanks...if you were going to buy a pound just for this effort, what would you go with. The 99 has a 22" barrel, and I'm looking for more accuracy more so than velocity. Even if I only got 2700 out of the 130 grain I would be happy at this point, I'm just looking for something to close up my 2" MOA

Thank you.

2700 wouldn't even be a starting load.

For full power I'd look to something a bit quicker, and having small kernels. 4895, 8208, and TAC come to mind. 748 would be good, but it's an old school ball powder with the attendant temp sensitivity.

Do you have an idea of the runout of your assembled cartridges?

Never heard the term before. I know that for a 99 you are limited lengthwise by the rotary mag, getting nowhere near the lands. I have the OAL as long as the magazine will take it.

TAC clover leafs 130 TTSXs out of my T3. I forget the exact charge right now but I believe it was 47.3 that worked the best for me.

Runout has to do with how straight your cartridges are. It can be checked with a fixture like this:

I've always had the best results with one of the 4895's in my .308 M99 regardless of bullet weight.

I would like to try CFE-223 this summer if I can find the time. It has shown promise in a couple of other calibers.

I did some loads for gophergunner. PM him for the details. I got pretty fancy accuracy out of his 99 in 300 but the velocity was on the low side. The speed was eminently usable, just slower than I'd like. Did I want to balance speed and accuracy, I would be starting out with LeverEvolution and CFE-223 as candidates. If my main objective was accuracy and I could live with less speed I'd be using Varget.

As always with Barnes bullets, the seating depth is very often the critical factor. Out of about fifty rifles now I still cannot see a shortcut to finding OAL either. The best I can do is work up to the smallest evenly distributed groups I can get at a given seating depth and then search for the depth by starting as close to the lands as I can get stepping back .010 per trial. Once I have a good seating depth revisiting charge weight is a good idea. Some rifles will have to be kissing the lands, some need to be back past .150 off. A few just don't much care, but they are not common.

TAC and TAC

The 130's are amazing in my 300 Sav and 308's, in 99's and bolt actions. Except I haven't shot them in a 308 Savage 99, but the 300 Savage 99 loves them as do the bolt 308's and 300's.

I've also had great luck with TAC and 125-130's.

I tried 4064 in my 700VS with 125 Ballistic tips! I couldn't find a bad load! My data said 42 grains to start and 47 max.

all 3 shot groups

42 shot .210
45 shot .295
47 shot .295

I'd love to be able to stock up on both 4064 and the 125 NBT's!

YMMV

Did you clock those loads? Your top load is only one grain above Hodgdon's start load.

No! Never had a chronograph! I've always been an accuracy freak and whatever shot the smallest groups got my attention.

The OP is likely looking for a hunting load, given the choice of the Barnes bullet.

The low end accuracy node is easy to find.
The fact is that even when you find the low end node without knowing velocity you are still just pizzing into the wind. Guessing come ups isn't smart, buy a chronograph.

Excellent advice! I rarely shoot over 200 yards and when I do it's at targets not game. I honestly haven't had much need for one so far. AND the poor slobs I've seen at the public ranges get over run by folks wanting to shoot a few over your chrono and usually hitting the screens! lol Even when they don't shoot his screens the poor guy can't get much testing done!

When I do want to reach out farther, I shoot at that distance to find out the come ups. I sure appreciate the advice though!

No, no, I was speaking metaphorically, speed is not as important to me as accuracy.

I'm not sure I follow you answering my question.

That may be, but hitting trumps "accuracy". Missing with a quarter inch rifle because of not being able to calculate and verify drop or wind drift still can create misses, unless you plan on range limits within a more limited target size.

Also, I've had great results with H322 and 110-130gr bullets in the 308 when best grouping versus pure speed enters the equation.