The effective range of the 300 savage would be 400 yds +. The real question is how far can you shoot accurately with the iron sights. There is lots of close-cover shooting for whitetail deer in the forest fring zones and if you are hunting the coulees or mixed farming areas there are lots of opportunities for shots at mulies, whitetail, Elk and Moose at close to moderate ranges.
I live in West-central Sask and have shot very few game animals at ranges further than 150 - 200 yards with most being in the 100 yard range.
I often use a scoped 99F in .300 savage for deer hunting and have never felt under-gunned.
As I started this post, the real question is what is your maximum comfortable range with the iron sights--you may have to pick up another 99 that is scoped and have the best of both worlds.
FWIW, LawMan
