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#17875476 12/06/22
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I bought a Savage 99 chambered in 250-3000 here on the fire.

I picked it up from my FFL yesterday. I measured the twist 1 in 14". Last night I looked at Nosler, Hornady, Lyman, New Nosler and first addition Nosler manuals, Ken Waters, Gun Gack #1 and on the internet. It seemed some feel that 100 grain bullets wouldn't stabilize in a 1 in 14" twist. I looked at all the sources where I buy bullets including a couple gun shops in Sioux Falls and a half a dozen sites on the internet. I found some SPEER bullets 87 and 100 grain Hot Cores, I ordered them. I found a supplier that had 117 RN bullets, but they wanted 50% higher prices than others, albeit he had them in stock - I thought I'd wait for the next run.

I looked at my supply of 257 caliber bullets, I had various boxes of bullets under 100 grains, but the manufactures said they were all varmint bullets. Then I noticed that Ken Waters' loads showed that a 100 grain Gardiner bullet with 30 grains 30-31 was his most accurate load in his 14' twist 99. I have no Gardiner bullets. But I had several boxes of plain base 100 grain Bullets - Interlocks and Partitions. I saw also that Hornady technicians wrote that the 99 - 1 in 14" twist rifle stabilized all their bullets up to 117 rn, but not their 120 grain HP. They didn't mention the other 117 grain bullets. I thought I'd give the 100 grain Interlocks a try. It wasn't pleasant weather out, but I could shoot at targets 60 yards away off my deck. I didn't want to stretch cases and I didn't care if I got top velocity. I used 33.5 grains of Reloader 15, 9 1/2 primers and RP brass. I loaded a cartridge quite long and it chambered. I decided to load cartridges short enough to feed reliably from the magazine. Hornady said the top load in their 99 250-300 was 34.7 grains of RE 15. I fired a couple with 33.5 grains and they seemed to be fine pressure wise.

I shot off my deck and for some reason and my bore sighter was off about 4" to the right, hmmm - more on this later. I sighted it in. I was using a compact M8-6x scope.

All the holes were touching at 1" high at 60 yards. I ran the 100 grain Interlock at 2800 FPS through my ap. The scope is 1.66" high BTW.

My ap says it will be .2" high at 200 yards and 2.9 " low at 250 yards.

I'm going back white tail hunting this next weekend. I'll be taking this rifle and this load out.

1 in 14" twist works fine on 100 grain bullets. at least plain base 100 grain Hornady Interlock. I hope Hornady didn't abandon those bullets! If they did SPEER and Nosler here I come.

Last edited by Bugger; 12/06/22.

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Forget the 100 grain Noslers***, they're longer than the flat base Hornady and their length is the problem with the slow twist.

***I was thinking about Ballistic Tips, which I use in a 10" twist.

Last edited by mathman; 12/06/22. Reason: added text
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never got noslers to work in my 250-3000 1-14 they are too long.


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Originally Posted by deerstalker
never got noslers to work in my 250-3000 1-14 they are too long.

Partitions?

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Cool stuff Bugger. I’ve got a 250 Savage but in a Ruger bolt gun.

Haven’t spent much time with it but I need to, be a fun rifle to carry around on nice days. Hope you get a chance at a deer with your new rifle.


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Originally Posted by mathman
Originally Posted by deerstalker
never got noslers to work in my 250-3000 1-14 they are too long.

Partitions?

Are the 100 grain PTs the same length as the old Hornadys?


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I don't have any of those Partitions to measure.

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Nosler shows 1.035” on their site.


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Originally Posted by Bugger
I bought a Savage 99 chambered in 250-3000 here on the fire.

I picked it up from my FFL yesterday. I measured the twist 1 in 14". Last night I looked at Nosler, Hornady, Lyman, New Nosler and first addition Nosler manuals, Ken Waters, Gun Gack #1 and on the internet. It seemed some feel that 100 grain bullets wouldn't stabilize in a 1 in 14" twist. I looked at all the sources where I buy bullets including a couple gun shops in Sioux Falls and a half a dozen sites on the internet. I found some SPEER bullets 87 and 100 grain Hot Cores, I ordered them. I found a supplier that had 117 RN bullets, but they wanted 50% higher prices than others, albeit he had them in stock - I thought I'd wait for the next run.

I looked at my supply of 257 caliber bullets, I had various boxes of bullets under 100 grains, but the manufactures said they were all varmint bullets. Then I noticed that Ken Waters' loads showed that a 100 grain Gardiner bullet with 30 grains 30-31 was his most accurate load in his 14' twist 99. I have no Gardiner bullets. But I had several boxes of plain base 100 grain Bullets - Interlocks and Partitions. I saw also that Hornady technicians wrote that the 99 - 1 in 14" twist rifle stabilized all their bullets up to 117 rn, but not their 120 grain HP. They didn't mention the other 117 grain bullets. I thought I'd give the 100 grain Interlocks a try. It wasn't pleasant weather out, but I could shoot at targets 60 yards away off my deck. I didn't want to stretch cases and I didn't care if I got top velocity. I used 33.5 grains of Reloader 15, 9 1/2 primers and RP brass. I loaded a cartridge quite long and it chambered. I decided to load cartridges short enough to feed reliably from the magazine. Hornady said the top load in their 99 250-300 was 34.7 grains of RE 15. I fired a couple with 33.5 grains and they seemed to be fine pressure wise.

I shot off my deck and for some reason and my bore sighter was off about 4" to the right, hmmm - more on this later. I sighted it in. I was using a compact M8-6x scope.

All the holes were touching at 1" high at 60 yards. I ran the 100 grain Interlock at 2800 FPS through my ap. The scope is 1.66" high BTW.

My ap says it will be .2" high at 200 yards and 2.9 " low at 250 yards.

I'm going back white tail hunting this next weekend. I'll be taking this rifle and this load out.

1 in 14" twist works fine on 100 grain bullets. at least plain base 100 grain Hornady Interlock. I hope Hornady didn't abandon those bullets! If they did SPEER and Nosler here I come.

Hornady has indeed cancelled production of the 100gr IL as well as the 120HP. Better stock up if you can find any!

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100 grain Interlocks = .986" according to my measurement


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Originally Posted by Bugger
100 grain Interlocks = .986" according to my measurement

So probably just enough shorter to work! Seems like you have a winner Bugger! Hope you have plenty to hunt with.


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Hornady has indeed cancelled production of the 100gr IL as well as the 120HP. Better stock up if you can find any!

Hornady Management needs to fire the bean counters that make these decisions if they want to keep their loyal customers. On the other hand, I probably have enough to last my lifetime.

FUQUE Hornady management!

Last edited by Bugger; 12/06/22.

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I'll try Noslers though.


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For guaranteed results in an old slow twist Savage, bullets of .850" in length or shorter are what you want. Anything longer will be a crapshoot, determined by elevation above sea level, humidity/temperature, and whether or not the fella who set up the sine bar rifling machine that day at the Savage plant was hung over or not.


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Originally Posted by gnoahhh
For guaranteed results in an old slow twist Savage, bullets of .850" in length or shorter are what you want. Anything longer will be a crapshoot, determined by elevation above sea level, humidity/temperature, and whether or not the fella who set up the sine bar rifling machine that day at the Savage plant was hung over or not.
That’s what I’ve understood too.
The strange thing about where I live in SD, it is about the lowest point in the state at about 1,000 feet above sea level elevation. Anywhere I’d hunt in this state won’t be any lower and in the Black Hills could easily be over 5,000 feet. The other states I might hunt would be Colorado, Wyoming and New Mexico, the elevation in those mountainous area would be much higher. Going higher in elevation, I believe, would allow longer bullets, right? The measurement I made using tight wad pushed down the barrel looked like right on at 1 in 14”.
I know there’s several sites that a guy could visit to see how stable a bullet would be, I’ll investigate what the calculations say.
There were a couple manuals, Lyman and Hornady I believe, and Ken Waters all had good accuracy with 100 grain bullets. As KW said there’s no need for a heavier bullet in the 250, he didn’t (and me too) think it would be a good elk rifle.

It looks like I’m going to have some fun testing bullets, stability etc. with this rifle. I looked and found 200 each 100 grain Interlocks on my shelves so I can use those for a while. The SPEER bullets are coming. I see that Nosler has a lighter weight partition and if I can find some I’ll be testing them too. I have several boxes of 100 grain partitions and I’ll be sending some of them down range too. Next I’ll be looking for the round nose 117 Hornady bullets.

My younger brother played with a 1 in 14” twist 99. The best grouping he got with his was with 90 grain Sierras as I recall. Maybe I can find some Sierra bullets that are good to go with white tails and 1 in 14” rifling.


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I've always used the 87 gr Hotcor with great results on Virginia size Whitetail

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Originally Posted by blairvt
I've always used the 87 gr Hotcor with great results on Virginia size Whitetail

I have some ordered. I think MD had a load for that bullet in GG for 1 in 14” 99.

Is it just me? It seems Hornady and Nosler bullets are the easiest to find on the Internet. Sierra and SPEER not so much.

When I started loading for my first center fire Sierra and SPEER was mainly what I used.

Last edited by Bugger; 12/07/22.

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Speers have been spotty for a long time. I never used many Sierras until a couple years ago, but they certainly haven't been as plentiful as Hornady in that timeframe.

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I ordered my 87gr Hot Cors direct from Speer, too. Costs more than retail, but a lot of times they have bullets in stock that are sold out elsewhere. Got my last .308 130gr FN direct as well.

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