Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game 300 savage shooters?

All of the deer I killed when I first started hunting deer (way back in the early 60s) were killed with my Dad's Savage 99 in 300 Sav. That changed when I turned 12 and got my own rifle a Winchester M70 in 270. But from about 7 years, old to 12 years old I use the 300. I also killed my 1st elk with that rifle. All of my kills on deer and that 1 elk were with factory ammo. The rifle was an 1899 and was either a 30-30 or a 303 Savage that a Gunsmith in Arizona converted to 300 Savage, and he gave that rifle to my dad as a wedding present when he and my Mom were married. That was in 49.

I actually disliked that rifle because it was very light weight and had a steel curved butt plate on it and it always kicked the crap out of me I was just a skinny country boy and the gun was too long for me and was not comfortable at all..

Today I have a M99 in 300 (not the same one) and I also have a Remington M81 in 300 Savage. I have come full circle and now I really like my 2 300 Savage rifles and I have killed a number of deer and antelope with them. What's a bit odd for me is I remember how much I hated the Savage 99 and now days I find I am in love with them.

My 81 is stock as a rock, and I load 180 grain bullets in it. With the course bead and open rear blade sight I can't shoot it well enough to feel confident with any shot past about 175 yards, so I use it in the brush and thick forests. The best I can do on demand with this rifle and load at 100 yards is about 2.5". I load 180s because that's the one I will take for elk when and if I go after them with a 300 Savage. For deer in the brush it's wonderful and my best day with it was 5 WT deer in 2 hours, and 3 out of the same herd within about 10 seconds. I had 4 doe tags and 1 buck tag and all were filled in that 2 hours. All were shot between 40 and about 90 yards.

My 99 has a peep sight on it and it's very accurate and I can and I have made kills with it on antelope out to about 275 yards a few times and have killed about 15 deer and antelope with it at 150 and closer. I load 150 grain bullets in it. From a solid rest at 100 yards I have shot many groups with the 99 at 1-3/8", and a few a bit tighter. So I load the flatter shooting 150s in it because I can and I have shot it at longer ranges.

My 150 grain load is 40.0 Gr or 4064. Re-worked WW 308 Winchester brass.
My 180 grain load is the same brass with 37.8 grains of 4064.

But I truly love hunting with these 2 rifles and because I enjoy them more I have a tendency to often leave the much more accurate scoped rifles home. I also use other rifles but for the most part of my hunting the common thing among all of them I use for MOST of the seasons is iron sights only.

At least I do until the last week of a season. I confess if I have not filled all my tags by the last week I "cheat" and bring out the 270 or the 375H&H (or sometimes other scoped guns) and it's "no more Mr. Nice Guy".

I love the fun of hunting but I also want to fill the freezers so I do use "better tools" when it seems I actually need to. I am not against the use of scopes and I do all shooting better with a scope then I do with irons, but I just like the use of irons more. I get close enough that I make clean kills when I fire.

If I were to count every kill I have made in the last 20 years or so and divide them between kills made with iron sight and kills made with scopes I bet about 75% of them have been dropped with the use of irons only.

Less throat erosion, don't have to seat the long projectiles below the neck, don't have the problems of thickening brass interfering with the projectile near the neck/shoulder junction, option of greater powder capacity if you want it as you can seat out further. As you know the neck on the 300 Savage is ultra short compared to other cartridges, not even one caliber length. The neck was made very short so that it would fit in the first rifles it was chambered for.

Ok so I’ve posted this in a couple of subforums but here goes again. I love the 300 Savage, mostly because that’s what I grew up with as well. Dad has a 99 that was my go to when I didn’t know anything. This past spring a good friend asked if I knew anyone interested in a 99 as he had three and was looking to thin the herd, tongue in cheek as we’d only been talking about them for a good while prior. I told him I’d oblige. It was pretty rough both metal and wood but figured for a user I couldn’t screw it up. So I worked on it off and on throughout the summer and was bound and determined to use it this fall. Didn’t get a chance to whack an elk with it (another story) but did pack it during deer season. This buck was the end result

Before

I think it's about perfect for whitetail. I've had several Savage 99s and two or three Remington 760s.

Perfect for the PA hardwoods I regularly hunt.

Would like to come across a nice looking bolt action sometime for a good price.

Maybe I'll get lucky.


But it's plenty for deer and bear. A pleasure to shoot. And not something you see regularly. I've used 150s and 180 round nose.

A .30cal 150gr at 2600fps isn't lacking anything at common deer ranges. I just started messing with 130grs but haven't keeled anything yet with those. I expect they'll do fine.


-Jake

In progress

^^^^

That's gonna be nice!

Finished. I left the steel tube Weaver on it too. Not the clearest glass but it tracked perfectly and held zero.

The 160 ftx in 308 marlin express crimp

Lever lotion powder

Magnum primer

Kinda like
“ Sooner Magic”

As Barry Switzer would say.

Or the Vi Queens latest performance.

I like it, like it , yes I do!

Thanks to all. A mild load of h4895 gets me right there in an '06 case.

I've killed coyotes at 325 yards, deer and 20 and hogs at 50. It's an impressively efficient cartridge.

I've owned quite a few rifles chambered in 300 SAV, but have only hunted with it a little, mostly with a couple of Savage 99s and a Remington 760 when I lived in NH. Several people who I hunted with back then shot Remington 81s, Savage 99EGs, and 99Fs. Savage 99EGs in 300 SAV were very popular in ME/NH/VT back then.

When I was hunting with the 760, I loaded 170 grain Remington 30-30 RNCL bullets in the 300 SAV thinking that they would expend more quickly at 300 SAV velocities than they do at 30-30 velocities. I don't recall ever catching one of them, so it remains an unproven experiment.

A few years back I put together a couple of Remington 7 parts guns in 250-3000 and 300 SAV using Remington 700 Classic barrels cut back to 20", the idea being that they would be sort of modern versions of the early Savage 1920s.

The 300 SAV is a fine cartridge that lost its market niche to the 308 WIN, just like the 250-3000 did to the 243 WIN. New and improved sparks buyers' interest, even if the improvements are more "sizzle" than "steak". IIRC, John Wootters replaced a perfectly good Savage 99EG in 300 SAV with a Winchester 88 in 308 WIN to hunt the same game at the same ranges in the same way. Sizzle.

My 1920's or 30's take down mod 99 will shoot groups that any modern bolt gun would be jealous of with regularity and no load development to speak of.

Killed one doe with factory loads that were probably going .30-30 speeds shot through her, ran 20 yards and piled up.

Love the cartridge not abusive, easy to load for, just about perfect!

Mike

Well, I load for a 300 Savage in a Remington 700 short action which allows for cartridges of 2.8" length. One favorite load uses a long seated 168 grain Berger VLD. If you open a caliper to 2.8" and place a piece of 300 Savage brass and a 168 VLD in there, you'll quickly see that all a longer neck would do is cover more of the bullet shank. It would not affect where the base of the bullet is in relation to the base of the neck or the main part of the case body. So, there can be no increase in the powder capacity for this bullet, nor any difference about the "dreaded donut" issue which I'm yet to run into with this cartridge anyway.

With its modest powder consumption and 30 degree shoulder the little 300 isn't too rough on throats.

A lot of hunting can be done well with such an easy going combination.

Interesting combination. What velocities are you getting?

Depending on powder 2550 to 2600 fps.

With the Remington 700 short action you can easily extend the mag length to approx. 3.1". With longer throating of the chamber, you can seat the longer projectiles out further and get more powder capacity. With a longer neck this allows you to also seat the shorter bullets out further so the jump to the lands isn't as great for them. Sure the 30 degree shoulder and modest case capacity and wide bore gives good barrel life, but if you are shooting 168 VLD's then you are probably shooting a lot of them regularly. If that is true, then a longer neck should help even more with throat erosion.

If I'm playing with a 3.1" magazine I'll press the easy button and go straight 308.

You still run into the same problem but to a lesser extent with the .308. The neck should be longer. Throat and seat the 185's near the lands at 2.9" and the 150 boat-tails have too much jump. An extra .050" neck would help a lot.