Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Savage Collectors why do i want/need a 303, convince me

i have 4 30-30's so why do i need a 303?
not trying to denigrate the 303 just trying to get you guys to enable my addiction.

1. 303 is a Savage caliber not a Winchester caliber.

2. How can you complete the "Slam" with 4 30-30's and no 303's?

3. 303 is just WAY cooler than the 30-30.

OK you convinced me! just call me easy!
now to convince the wife "that old thing? i've had it for ages!"
what model should i look for?

Your favorite pre war model.

303's are fairly common in most models and don't bring the premium the 30-30's and 250's do.

If you don't reload ammunition isn't that hard to find if you know where to look for it.

1. 303 is THE original Savage caliber. If you got an 1895 you would have no choice of caliber.

2. 303 case can support the heavy 190 grain bullets. Too bad no one makes a good 190 gr jacketed RN!

3. As 99 guy said, they are common in the early 1899 models, and relatively inexpensive compared to the readily available calibers.

4. It would be hard to collect one each of the 1899 or pre-war 99 models if you did not buy 303's

5. It is easy to load for and obtain components and dies

What's not to love?

Its got the KOOL factor going for it! ask any of the old timers they claim the 190 grain bullets Hit Harder!

over the last 50 years i have established a bass ackward way of buying new guns with chamberings that i don't have.
i find a set of reloading dies for a cartridge/arm i don't have and proceed from there.
today i got a set of 303 savage dies, several boxes of vintage 303 ammo and 5 boxes of fired brass that looks 1x fired.
looks like i am in the market for a 303.

Old timers were convinced the 303 with 190's killed better than the 30-30 with 170's. Heard my grandfather and his older brothers discuss this topic many times when I was comin up. They were guides in the Adirondack camps in the 20's and 30's and saw 100's of deer and bear killed.

Was it true?

Who knows...?

I would get the latest 303 you can find. My 303 hunter is a Spiegel made in 1939. It wears a stith.

I can say with great certainty that it can drop an 8 point buck immediately at 120 yards.

Others here have taken elk.

Do you need any other reason other than that?

You’ll have a legitimate reason to buy the ammo next time you see it.

Look for 99E. Love it. Or an A. Or a B. Or a C. or

Hmmm. So can the .30-30. It's all I've used for deer hunting in .30-30's and .303's since forever it seems. The solution to the problem of no 190 grain bullets for the .303 is to make your own, like this one:



Virtually free- made with scrounged wheelweights- and accurate as any jacketed bullet I ever shot out of a .303 or .30-30, and it's a killer-diller:



My only advise to Deerstalker: get the .303. (And if you do I'll slip you some of these Magic Beans as a reward.)

Gary, appreciate the offer. what is that mold maker and number? i have a mold that throws a bullet looks alot like that but depending on alloy i think its 200g+/-.
i haven't cast any 30's for a few years other then 130's for the 7.62x39. moved a couple years ago and most of my molds are still packed.
what powder does the 303 with the 190's like?
been busy listing a couple guns to fund a 303.

It's an old custom Saeco mold, no number. An old friend of mine, Sid Musselman who was a charter member of the Cast Bullet Association, designed it specifically for his and Frank Marshall's use as a deer/bear bullet in their .30-30's, and Saeco made it for him. (Sid's use was in a Remington M788, Frank's in a Savage 340.) Serendipitously they also found it to be silly accurate in their cast bullet benchrest guns. Shortly before Sid died in 1980 he asked me if I would like to have it. It's weird to assign nostalgic qualities to a bullet mold, but I do this one. It works great in every .30 rifle I've shot it out of, and exceptionally so in more than a couple over the years.

My memory fails me as to Sid's favorite .30-30 hunting load, but I do remember Frank Marshall's hunting load: a case full of Surplus 4831 (pretty much H-4831 today) up to the base of the bullet with a little compression. (It helps me that he wrote often of that load in the journals.) You can't possibly get enough of that powder in the small .30-30/.303 case to get in trouble. Frank killed a train load of Blue Ridge, VA deer with that load and his open sighted 340, and a couple black bears.

"The Load" for me is 28.0 grains 3031, in both .303 and .30-30, a load I settled on in my first round of experiments with it way back then. It's right up there pressure-wise but has proven ok in every rifle I've used it in. Excellent case life and no flattened primers (I know, I know). I have automatically gone straight to that load without working up to it when starting with a new rifle. (But, and it's a big but, they have all been bolt guns and Savage lever guns. I would be a little more cautious if faced with a rattly old half worn out M94 Winchester.) Chronographed velocity, out of a Winchester M54 24" barrel is 2030 fps. I'll guess it would be more like 1900 fps out of a 20" M1899 barrel, which is right in line with the old 190 grain .303 factory load.

makes me want to fire up the pot and burn some flux. i am way behind in my casting. last session was 500 405g 458's. that makes the lead supply shrink fast.

Ha ha, sure does!

Also, you could go with a 170-grain Lyman 311041 flat nose or round nose 311291 bullet.

...what you really need is a 300 Savage, that solves all the ballistic debates. Or just trade one of the 30-30's for a 303, that saves the marriage.

If you want it, that means you need it!!!!

I have several and my favorite is my 1926 T/D, with a lightfoot mount and weaver K4.