Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Question for the 300 Savage crowd

What bullet you guys using in the 300 Savage for deer size critters and how is expansion at 200 or under?

TomM1,

I routinely use 150 grain GCCB for our small but very numerous WT deer & 180 grain factory loads for BIG game.

yours, tex

125 Nosler BT...never recovered one. Daughter's doe last year didn't move.

I load 150 GameKings for a friend. He brags on them!

I have shot 150 grain Hornadys for decades through a variety of different rifles.....

talking about reloading? basically any 150-168 g softpoint at 2500ish. 4895 or 3031 powder. easy peasy.

Yes for reloading reduced loads in 30-06. Already have a 150 interlock load w/ RL 15 that is right at 300 Savage velocities, was just wondering what folks who actually use a 300 Savage might choose for bullets. The 125 BT is an interesting one. I have some Sierra 125’s on hand already that I was thinking about.

Remington 170 grain 30-30 component bullets.

I've sworn by 150 Gamekings since Christ was a Corporal. When the current stash of them runs out I plan to explore 130 TSX's having heard too much good stuff about them for .300 Savage use.

I use 170 Nosler Partitions in my 308 subsonic rounds at 1150 fps. They kill hell out of pigs, should be real good at 300 Savage velocities

I have taken some whitetails with 150 gr Partitions in recent years. Due to some horrible weather, I used the same bullet to take, cleanly, a Newfie bull moose in late September. I can't think of a good reason to look any further.
I trialed many bullets in the Savage, it shot most of them pretty well. Don't think it much matters what you use on whitetails. However, my confidence in Partitions could not be much higher.

Has anyone tried the Hornady 150 SST - 300 Savage (#30303)?

125 Nosler BT and expansion is great out to 350+ yards. Tough little bullet and we haven't managed to recover one on Whitetail, Mule or Pronghorn. Blows right through shoulders leaving quarter to half dollar sized exits. For elk I loaded up the 130 grain TTSX, just haven't connected with an elk yet.

I use about any 150 grain cup and core bullet, usually Sierras. Nosler Ballistic Tips and Hornady Spires work fine, too. Most accurate loads are 40 grains of IMR 4064 or 4895. 42 grains of WW-748 is also a winner load with 150s. I have tried 125 grain Ballistic Tips but didn't get good accuracy, at least in my Model 99F. For woods hunting I like 41 grains of WW-748 under a 180 grain round nose bullet. That is a hotter load than the others, so work up to it. It gives me no problems in any of the three Savage 99s I own chambered for the 300 Savage.

Regarding using the Hornady 150 grain SST made for the 300 Savage, yes, I have tried them. I didn't get any better results than with regular 150 grain bullets. However, I didn't put a lot of effort into making them shoot. My best results were with Sierras and IMR 4064 or WW-748.

I have used 165 Rem psp with a stout load of R-15 in a Rem 722. This load has taken a few big bodied northern Mn. bucks. I have also loaded Sierra 150 pro hunters but not used them on game.

150 grand slam (old style). I have only recovered one, from an end to end shot on a mule deer at roughly 100 yards.

It expanded to about 3/4 inch, and is a picture perfect mushroom.

My 300 (in a 99) loves 165gr Speer Deep Curls.

It's quite forgiving of bullets, since it's not driving them super-fast. Any quality 150gr bullet works well. The biggest exit wound I've ever seen on a deer was a 150 Core-Lokt, launched from Rem factory ammo.

Any powder that works in a .308 will also work well in the .300. Reloader 15, and Varget are excellent. I tend to load a little conservative for solid frame 99's, more so for take downs, and not so much for bolt actions.

I have not used a 300 Savage in about 50 years now, but back when I was a boy we (my Dad, My Mom and myself) used mostly 150 grain Remington and Hornady. The Hornady bullets were round noses. I don't even know if they are still made.

But they did fine on Big Nevada Mule Deer out to about 300 yards, so I am sure they would do fine for your white tails too. I do not remember if we ever recovered one. We also used 180 grain bullets now and then, but favored the 150s for deer because they kicked less and still killed extremely well.

To All,

Any 150grain near maximum load in a .300SAV rifle is essentially the SAME killing-power as the "old school" .30-06 factory loads. - That's WHY the .300SAV was designed = TO EQUAL the .30-06 in a short receiver & it does..

yours, tex