Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Savage Collectors Reloading 303 savage

I’m new to the forum, but wish I had found this years ago! I only have 2 99 savages, but my family has been hunting with 99s since my great grandfather. My dad has 12 of them and my uncle has at least 10. Im going to start reloading 303 and was hoping someone knew of a 180-200 grain bullet that works well. So far all I have found is 170 grain bullets for a 30-30. I will be shooting them in a 1909 model A short rifle, and my dads 1900 model A. Mine has a peep and his is open sights, 100 yards max.

I loaded some 170 gr. Win. Silvertips for mine (pulled from some factory 30/30 rounds) Used new PPU brass, and IMR 3031. It shot amazingly good. Rifle is a 1907 model C with a Lightfoot mount and old Weaver K4. I have a box of Sierra 170 gr flat nose 30/30's that I will try next.

Any bullet designed for the 30-30 should work well. I use the 170gr Hornady 30-30 bullet. You can use beginning 30-30 load data to start with.

Load it just like a 30-30 and never look back.

I believe the .303 Savage was originally loaded with 190 grain bullets. I was never able to find those for reloading but did sell some Winch ammo a few months ago that had 190 grain bullets. Most of my reloading was with 170 grain 30-30 bullets. I recently sold my .303 and still have the dies, a few new primed brass, and more than 100 Nosler Partition 170 grain bullets for a 30-30. Those shot well in my .303. I'm also in NH and would be glad to sell you some of that stuff at about half retail. Please let me know if you're interested.

Sierra and Hornady sell 180 grain round nose bullets.

I have to agree with the crowd that says use the 170 grain .30-30 bullets. I use the Speer bullets in mine and they are accurate. I regret not taking a deer with one while I was living in Texas.

I think those 180's have a thicker skin and are made for higher velocity rounds...less or little expansion from a .303S.

You might look into cast bullets if you want heaver weight.

Hawk 190gr Flatpoint

I shoot both 150 and 170 out of mine, hunt with the 150gr. I love the old guns, but the ballistics of a 150gr far outweigh the nostalgia factor of the 190 when hunting (to me).

I haven't looked at those before. I see they also list a 180 and 200 gr. round tip in that same jacket weight (.030").

I have often looked longingly at those 190 Hawks, but at $38/50 it ain't gonna happen.

Remington made a lot of their .303 ammo with 180's, but 190's seem to have been the hands-down most common configuration for everybody else.

I agree with Rick in that current 180 RN's are probably too stout for .303 velocities. Just go with 170 .30-30 bullets, or 150's if you must.

Personally, if I were to resort back to using jacketed bullets it would be with 170's, but that ain't likely to happen either. The 190 grain flat nosed design mold and the ton of lead I own will keep me in the "proper" bullets for the .303 for a loooooong time, at virtually zero cost but for the labor. I can load it at factory velocity, with zero leading, in an alloy soft enough to guarantee devilish expansion. It works a treat in .30-30, .30-40, .30-06 too.



Edit: It works. Period.

Guess you don't shoot many Nosler partition,s or any other premium bullets.Funny the money guy's spend on rifle's but balk on buying bullet's to see what the rifle like's.Different stroke's for different folk's.

Never. Except in .22 CF's. I like 50 and 53 grain TSX's in the .223 for serious work (and 55 Hornadys for bulk loading). But even in the Hornet I shoot cast stuff exclusively, and mostly so in the .22HP's. 98% of my shooting is at the range where I don't feel the need for premo bullets for making holes in paper, plus I'm addicted to the challenge of making small groups with bullets I make myself. 99% of my hunting is short range stuff in Eastern woods where the deer haven't grown the Kevlar hides and steel bones found in critters out west, or so it would seem. I hedge my bets sometimes and load 165 Sierras in .30-06 if I think I might get caught in a cross-pasture situation. I got caught like that one day last year when my cousin surprised me with a day on a farm where I could have used a long range rig and all I had with me was a peep-sighted 99T .300- not much good (for me) as the only shootable buck showed himself at a tad over 400 lasered yards and absolutely no cover to hide behind for a stalk. I really really wished I had the '06 which was setting in the rack 40 miles away. But that was one instance during the last 20 years of my hunting- it won't change my attitude towards personal gear. (Although I made my cuz promise me a head's up if he contemplates doing that again when I'm a guest at his camp!)

It's not the money. I probably have as much invested in bullet making equipment- molds, furnaces, lubrisizers, lead, gas checks, dies, etc. as what most guys have spent for premo jacketed bullets- and probably more.

You guys know you can get a hollow pointer for your trimmer that allows you to change the dynamic a little bit on a bullet. Kinda fun to play with.

Nothing wrong with being a cast bullet guy.I'm one too.Being new to handloading,I think it's easier for the fellow to try a jacketed bullet that's out there.

Yeah, I fooled with one of them once, too. The drill bit that cuts the hollow point gets gummed up with lead and becomes a mild PIA, so it is now buried somewhere in my junk. Hollow point molds are viable- I have a couple of them in among the 40+ .30 molds I own.

What else ya got to do between sips of lager than dig lead outa a drill bit?

It seem's reloading is a lot of strenuous work for some people.

Yes, I agree. I'll also plead guilty of driving the topic off into the weeds. I did think though that the OP's question was well and truly answered in the first few replies. I will say also that my bullet casting started hand-in-hand with my intro to handloading back 50 years ago now, with a Lyman mold and a .30-40 Krag and more questions than answers- which my 15 year old self mostly learned the hard way.