Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Savage Collectors The "Other" Savages

i had a remington model 8 collection and one was a 300 shotgun. never could get it to hit close to where i was shooting let alone where i was aiming. got a 99 in 300 and learned what it could do and sold the m8.

Last years buck with the Ruger, 100 Hornady Interlock over Ramshot Big Game

I have .300 Savages in a Rem 760 and 722 as well as an 1894 Mauser. I do also have a Savage 99.

I really like the 760's pump action, it is open sight only and makes a great truck gun due to the removable magazine. The 722 is drilled and tapped but I shoot it open sight. Without a scope it's a nice lightweight rifle.

The Mauser wears a repurposed Springfield 1903 barrel. It too is open sight only. All three of the above are plenty accurate as-is and just plain fun to shoot. But the 99 with a receiver sight never ceases to amaze me with how well it shoots.

I see why it's one of your favorites, dang nice buck!


Lee

Every now and then I see an Arisaka Type 99 that has been rechambered to 300 Savage, most of them arent pretty, but I understand it was a pretty popular conversion on Japanese rifles after WWII ended.

Yes, because a bazillion of the things were brought home as souvenirs and there was zero/none/nada ammo for them. The 7.7 Japs got re-chambered to .300 Savage (remember, there was no such thing as a .308 yet) because the .30-06 was too long for the magazine. Never mind the fact that the .311 bores were a tad oversize for .308 bullets, by all accounts they shot ok. Likewise a lot of the 6.5 Japs got re-chambered to .257 Roberts, but those didn't fare too well for obvious reasons. (The average Marine/GI in theater always referred to those rifles as .25 Jap rifles as 6.5mm was a foreign concept to Americans, and the Basement Bubba gunsmiths back home doing the re-chambering weren't exactly guiding lights in the world of precision machining either.)

The total lack of Japanese ammo forced those orphan rifles to disappear into closets and cellars everywhere (those that weren't altered to use American ammo), and became the cheapest milsurps to be found anywhere for a long time thereafter. Then entrepreneurs started importing piles of Jap ammo from rotting supply dumps in the South Pacific and the guns got a lease on life. Poor deer hunters everywhere began filing the tips off of FMJ surplus ammo to create hunting rounds for the Arisakas they "sporterized" on the potting benches out in the garage, with decidedly poor results. That did nothing to help the by then poor reputation of what was actually a rather well built strong rifle.

My personal exposure to that phenomenon was a neighborhood older teenager who drilled out the tips on FMJ ammo (with a hand drill no less) to create hollowpoint hunting ammo for the 6.5 carbine his father brought home from some Pacific hell hole or another. To the rest of us kids who were lucky to have a motley selection of .22's he was like the One Eyed King in the Land of the Blind.

I guess filing the tips off surplus ammo, including the 06, was the thing to do right after WWII as hunting ammo was nowhere to be found. I imagine its performance was a bit erratic but still within "minute of deer." Ever hear anyone mention how it performed?

I've owned a fair number of "other" Savages, the 300 has been a favorite for a long time.

I currently own a Rem 700 Classic, a Rem 760 and a handful of Rem 81s in 300 Sav and a rebarreled Savage M 10 in 250 Sav.

The 700 is my main deer rifle though it will probably sit out this year in favore of the 250. I've had this rifle since it came out. It has been free floated, action bedded, and the trigger cleaned up. It is quite accurate if the barrel is left a little dirty- it doesn't like being squeaky clean or too dirty.

The 760 is my second one, the first one was sold to a WI relative who wanted more than I did. Both are older models and shot very well. I have a 3-9x Bushnell on it now as the old 4x Lyman gave up to ghost and is off being rebuilt.

The 81s I have been gathering for years. They range from one of the earliest serial numbers to one of the last in this chambering. My favorite is a Krieger conversion with the detachable magazine. They are all accurate enough for deer in the woods and I have shot several deer with mine though the only one that was drilled and tapped for a scope is the least accurate of them all. It might be the 3x Weaver as the open sights are at least as accurate as with a scope.

The M 10 is new to me, I just rebarreled it. It is obstensively for our grandkids to use but I like it a lot too. I'll know better after this season hopefully.

I have owned other rifles for Savage cartridges. Two Rem 722s have passed through my hands before I owned the 700. They were good guns and I kind of wish I would have kept the one with the peep sight. I also had one each of the converted Arisakas, i finagled with the dies a bit so I could use 150 gr .311/.312" and 120 gr .264" bullets in the respective guns. I never shot a deer with one but a smallish black bear fell to the 99. I was notched a fan of peep sights which these had and especially the safety which was hard to use unnoticed in the field so they went down the road at some point.

Some where in the family a Winchester M70 in 300 Savage is floating around. It was my great uncle's gun and was near new when I saw it last. I lost track of it when my great uncle died but I'm sure one of his grandkids has it.

It was more economics rather than availability that caused many to use modified military ammo. I have receipts of surplus ammo running 2-5 cents a round as late as 1952 for Brit 30/06 ammo which beats any factory ammo of the time by a considerable margin. Stories of Hosea Sarber and other government agents working in Alaska and other places regularly used surplus ammo as they could get it for free rather than paying for it out of their salaries.

I heard very mixed results as to the effectiveness ranging from not opening to shedding the jacket almost immediately and nearly disintegrating. I tried this for myself by grinding the noses off a handful of Greek surplus and shooting them into some newspaper. None of them had classic mushrooms but none "blew up" either. One looked like it riveted while the others tended to shear down one side or the other as if it glanced off something hard. I think plain old FMJ would have worked just as well with the benefit of less work.

Much to my dismay, when Savage introduced the model 14 American Classic it was not offered in 300 Savage. Remington offered their Model 700 Classic in 300 Savage about the same time, so I purchased it instead. Savage finally decided it might be a good idea to offer their classic rifle in their classic calibers a few years later, so I ordered a model 14 American Classic in 250 Savage. I also have the 50th anniversary model 10 in 300 Savage. I tried to buy a Ruger 77 RSI IN 250 Savage at an auction several years ago but could not keep up with the other bidders.

I have only seen one Savage 14 Classic in 250 Savage and that was less than a month ago, I have never seen a 300, I guess they didnt sell very well?

No, they didn't. It was more of a historical interest chambering that Coburn did rather than any great marketing idea. I should have bought them.

Actually, you still can get one. Just need to find a FFL to order one through and have him call up the Savage custom shop. They'll do a model 14 in 250 or 300, just be a bit more than a standard 14.

Hmmm. I wonder if the Custom Shop would take a ratty 99 and re-barrel it...

I didn't know Savage had a custom shop.

I built a 722 into a switch barrel 22-250/300 Savage by fitting an LVSF barrel to it and putting them in a 700 ADL stock. Both are very accurate, killed a lot of coyotes with the 22-250 but haven't been deer hunting since I built it.

Last I knew, no workie on things that aren't currently being manufactured. They'll sell new stuff with odd chamberings or some mix of features, but not work on old stuff unless it's warranty. Might have changed, can always call and ask.

You guys see that 22 hp go over Gunbroker recently that had a Westfield barrel?

No, what happened?

Now he tells us!

I'm lazy - give me a link if you please.