Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Savage Collectors Obsolete cartridges hunting thread

Like last year, I'll probably drag an 1899 take down in 38/55 into the woods with me a time or two. Hopefully, I will see something besides does with fawns when it's in my hands.

An 1899 in 25/35 could go instead if there is snow on the ground. I've shot deer with a 25 Remington and had some trouble coming up with the animal as there wasn't a great blood trail and the deer dropped out of sight.

About 2008 I shot a whitetail doe with an original Winchester 1876 in 45/60. Used 10X brand black powder loads that I had picked up in a grab bag several years before buying the gun.

Atta boy Gene! Are those cartridges head stamped 44 Evans? Long?

I was really disappointed when I got home and my gun case was empty.

I have an old beat up 99 in 250-3000 with a stith mount and an old J 2.5X Weaver on it.
I'm planning on dragging that out for Mule Deer and Whitetail this year. Got a nice Muley Buck and a Whitetail Doe last year with a 99 in 300 Sav with a Stith and 2.5 Lyman Alaskan last year
I'm really wanting a nice old 99 in 38-55. I just can't seem to find a good one with a good bore that is even close to reasonably priced!
My eyes are too old and tired for open sights any more....
This is a real cool thread Roy!
Thanks
Ed

Again not trying to hijack the tread but to answer a few inquiries. As I stated I cant swear there is much difference between 180 and 200 grain Partions. It is just a feeling. One response was about Partion construction. I have found they expand as fast and violently as most, just looking at a sectioned Partion and the very thin jacket on the front half , then fold back and work like a solid. Many swear they don't expand because of the small exit wound size. I have used them successfully on antelope size game. What was "strange" is why some people cant catch a bullet and I have far more than I should have. I shot a @2# groundhog that was standing looking at me. Punched him dead center in the chest at 30' with a 357 magnum loaded hot with a Hornady 110 grain hollow point. I recovered the expanded bullet after @1" penetration. That 357 should have penetrated 5 or more of those small animals. As I said strange.

I've shot a bunch of whitetails with Partitions in 243 and 300 Savage. I don't think I've ever had one not exit even when hitting the front shoulders. I don't think I've ever shot the hips with one, so I can understand where that might stop it.

Oh.. wait.. one Partition didn't exit. When the forkhorn charged me years ago and I shot it in the mouth with a 180gr Partition the bullet traveled the full length of the body and did not exit. Ended up in a hindquarter somewhere.

My Pedersoli 45-70 Double Hammer Rifle has risen to the top of the heap for this year.

It shoots a 3 inch group with both barrels at 50 yards with iron sights.

Also, there is a preserve near me that has a 1 day hunt that you have to enter a lottery to get in, If I draw I'm going to use my AH Fox Super Fox HE with paper hulls. It is a 00 Buck only shoot and I've done well there over the years.

The best I can remember the 180 partitions in my 300 Weatherby never exit. I know the bullet didn't exit from the bull I shot at about 60 yards. I swear by that bullet even though it was designed when I was a little kid.

Step up to a 200 and you'll never look at another 180...

100 grain 250 in the left eye does the trick on pigs, or maybe it was the big hole under the right eye? Either way, he didn’t twitch an ear before he was down.

I agree with Wyo1985 and Joe Martin.

I have owned several 300 mags in my life including the Weatherby. The 200 and the 220 grain Partitions make it work like I want it to.

The 180s are good and kill well, but at any range from 200 back, they seldom exit a bull. (they do about 2/3 of the time from a 30-06 however) The 220s and the 200s do, at least the ones I have used. Most of them in the 308 Norma and the 300H&H, and a 2 from a 300 Winchester, but I am pretty sure the Weatherby will be the same.

The 180s just don't get through the hide on the other side from the various 300s I have used. Maybe they would at longer ranges when they slow down some and act more like as 30-06, but from those hunts I have been on and those I have guided, what I have seen is mostly just like what Wyo1895 said.

200s and 220s are my friends.

But to the subject posted, I guess the most "obsolete" cartridge used in a rifle I own now is my 6.5X54 Mannlicher. Or maybe my 9.3X57 Mausers (I have 2 of them)
The most "obsolete" guns I own and kill game with are my flintlocks however. No cartridge at all. Just powder, patch and ball.

I'm planning to get my deer this year with my 30-40 Krag...

Pfffft. Partitions, rifles, pistols, etc., etc.

Ya wanna impress the girls, and the guys down at the feed store, unlimber an atlatl for this year's hunting trip. Now there's obsolete for ya.

Me, I'm gonna just strangle them with my teeth like I always do.

My 300 Wby only shoots 180's accurately. I tried 200's before I went on a moose hunt and accuracy was poor. I shot the moose with a 180 at 120 yards as he was standing up. He went over backwards and buried his antlers in the dirt. I think a lot of the reason he went over backwards was that he finished stiffening his legs when the bullet hit him at almost 4000 foot pounds of energy.
I've had the Wby since 1999 and have tried 150's, 165's and 200's in it. Accuracy is poor with anything but 180's.
We got off the thread a little there. I'll be hunting mule deer in eastern Wyoming with my 99K in 300 in October. Eagle Mountain Man will be hunting with a 99F in 300. Still not obsolete enough but my 25-35, 32-40 are too rare and in too good a shape to take hunting. Just don't have time to develop a load for the 38-55 and scope it. maybe next year. I have a drilling in some obsolete caliber so maybe I'll use it someday.

Now with all you looking at what you could use this year I had to take a look to see what might be a good

old one to wake after a long sleep so a High Wall in 38-55 might wake up or a 1910 Winchester

auto in 401 or the 71 Winchester in 33 will have to dig out some other stuff

Wyo1895, is your Weatherby a German made one?

I ask because some of the Weatherby's made in Germany had 1-12" twists, and it's been said they would not shoot 200s well, but the 220 grain R.N. bullets would stabilize. The 200 and 220 grain spitzers would not because they were too long. From what I can surmise, the very oldest Weatherby's (made on Mauser actions) has the slower twists, but it's been said some of the early Mk5s did too.

I am curious as to the truth of the rumors about 1-12" twisted 300 Weatherby's. I have not personally seen any bad accuracy in 1-12" twists, but my old 300 Weatherby had a 1-10, so I have no experience with the 1-12s myself. Maybe you can shed some light on this for us?

Always had a hankering for a 1910 Winchester .401. Strikes me as a swell woods thumper.

Fug, you have one of the M71’s that were chambered for the .33 WCF?

Really like this thread, like traveling the road of the past. It's the only way to time travel. I retired in May, my house got hailed on hard in early may and again on 6/4.Took out the roof ,windows skylights and siding. At 65 I still figure I can do whatever I set my mind too. The prospect of saving all the labor money by doing it myself was too tempting. About a week into the west side of the roof the weatherman said rain so I took the day off ,ran errands and hit the LGS I frequent. The owner was in the process of buying an estate collection some modern stuff but mostly old winchesters. Down at the end of that laid out row was a original Sharps 74 Business 45 2.1". I immediately gravitated to it. Cost wise they are out my league but still love looking them over and handling them. Plenty of patina and rust but the bore didn't look bad though, most collectors don't care about that , more the gun and it's provenance but I shoot guns I buy not just look at them. The owner asked me what model it was and I gave him a run down as far as I could tell. He shot the estate executor a price, who took it, paid him then the guy left. I asked if I could clean the barrel and got an ok ,it looked as nice as I've ever seen. I asked about a price and he didn't have one for me. I went back the next week,figured it was all ready gone more than a few high rollers that can pull that 4 and 5 figure money out of their left frt pocket for what the want and never miss it. They owner saw me and offered the 74 to me for just part of what the labor on the roof would have cost if I had contracted it out... I wrote him a check and took it home, I couldn't stop looking at it for over a half hour finally set it down and put up a target on my 50 yard butt. 5 518 gr ppb's went in under 2.5" at 50 with 4 under 1.5". I drank a Dos equis XX amber to celibrate. This rifle was invoiced from Sharps in Oct of 1876 to Ben Kittredge of Cinn . OHIO and it moved west . The estate of a guy who past last spring ,he bought it off a ranch estate here in the Black Hills of SD. The "B" gun will be heard again this fall in the hills and prairie of SD. Yeah , I'm going to make some meat with it. MB