Mine shoot most any 170gr bullet very well, and H4895 and IMR4895 seem to work fine. Took a 1920 1899SR out hunting with the 30-30 170gr Nosler Partitions a couple years ago, but never got a shot.
I also stick with FN or RN bullets, tried spitzers but hit the same thing that Dave did with spitzers pushing too far into the case. If you want spitzers, you might try a shorter/lighter bullet in the 125gr or 130gr range that won't push so deep.
Over in the Savage Collectors forum we use the same loading data for our 303 Savages as for the 30-30, just work your way up carefully. The few modern published loads for the 303 Savage are unnecessarily lowballed, considering the actions and barrels in the 1899's were identical for 30-30's and 303 Savage, and the 303 Savage has more case capacity. Just use the same .308 bullets for the 303 Savage as you would for a 30-30.
