Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Savage Collectors Deer hunting '07 with my .300 Savage "G". 1923 meets 2007

According to the serial number on my Savage 99, it was made back in 1923. As many of you know, I bought this rifle in February of this year...as I have always wanted a Savage 99. Little did I know what I was actually getting.

The barrel no longer has any blueing and the walnut stock is nicked and scratched. The rounded metal receiver is slightly off color where a person's palm would have carried this old treasure on many a hunting trip.

I took this rifle hunting with me yesterday...save for a tang peep sight that I added...totally original...scratches and all.

Yesterday....I spotted a doe that had just walked into view on a field just past a creek bed I was watching. The deer was a good 100 yards away and a bit further than I had ever shot with open sights. I simply placed the post on the deer's shoulders and squeezed. Bang! Flop. A demolition team could not have dropped her any more perfectly.

Tack driver? Maybe. Without a doubt it is THE most accurate lever action rifle I have ever seen or used. I can tell you that it out-shoots my other deer rifle...and the other one is a modern with a 3-9 scope.

Who knows how many other deer this rifle was used to harvest over the last 84 years. The ultra-light .30 caliber barrel and the long, slender 24" tube was totally impressive yesterday.

Seriously....I am beginning to wonder: Bolt action rifles? Scope sights? Ultra-Magnums? For where I hunt and with what I hunt with...they are all highly overrated.

Scope sight's? Give that opinion when you hit 50.My first couple of buck's were shot with open sight's,now I can't read a newspaper without my seeing eye dog's

P.D., Congrats! It is a great feeling to make a clean kill with a new to you gun. You're continuing a long history with that rifle. Hope to do the same over the next few weeks.

Congrats! THIS is why you'll never see me run down any functional Savage 99. Gray rat, wood rat, they mostly can still do the job when ya get them out in the field.

Thanks for the post.. but where's the pics????

That's great, a classic rifle providing fresh meat, congratulations!! Wish my eyes were 30 years younger.
My 1930 G had been d&t for scope when I got it in 1977 and we've been on many memorable hunts together, the last this morning. I had the drop on a doe at about 15 yards but, decided to hold my fire and let one of the grandkids "make meat",should they want to.

Nothing that a pair of prescription glasses can't fix.

That Ole' "G" is money.

If your 1930 "G" has already been d&t then going the whole nine yards and getting it refinished might not be a bad thing to do.

What caliber is your "G" in?

Glasses help but, no cigar.

No refinishing....I like the stories it tells.

It too, is .300, IMHO the best deer cartridge ever made. Not too much, not too little, just right.

The shot I made on my deer was a perfect shoulder shot. Bullet was a 150 grn psp. I believe the bullet may have broken her neck as well.

Bang-flop and then a few twitches.

My only concern is that the bullet did not mushroom very much. Of course the bullet was never recovered as it fully penetrated the deer...but the exit hole was not very large....less than half an inch (no, didn't measure it). A deer I shot a few years ago with a .30-06 and a 150 grn psp nearly blew a fist sized hole.

Anyway.....just glad it was a quick, clean and sure kill.

The accuracy of this rifle is uncanny.

Well, exit holes don't always tell the full story. What did the interior look like? If it mushed everything that supplied life, that's all that counts. The .30'06 having 200-300 fps edge on the .300 is the cause of the bigger exit hole but, it wasn't any deadlier, just more bloodshot meat, huh. With results like that, I wouldn't change a thing. Were you shooting factory or handloads?

If it was a shoulder shot you may have had the "petals" of the mushroom peeled off and only the metal core punch through. This would explain the smallish exit hole. Don't know the construction of the psp, but the large exit wounds I've seen often have less to do with a mushroomed bullet and more to do with a fragmenting bullet. The higher speed / energy of the 30-06 may have caused that bullet to fragment with a similar hit.

My Nosler Partitions have ALWAYS on all animals from antelope to elk had a small (inch or less) exit wound.

Either way, good shot, good hunt and good eating!

Yep, the heart/lung was mush and I am sure both shoulders and perhaps the neck was broken.

The deer more fell down rather than was "knocked down".

The .30-06 I used a few years ago with the 150 grn psp did go to pieces and I'll agree....on a larger, tougher animal like an elk...this bullet would have failed.

The .300 Savage round I used had been loaded by the factory. I believe that you might be correct...the petals might have broken off with the core punching through.

Regardless....the shot was so perfectly placed that the round used could have been a full metal jacket with immediate results.

Awesome!

Congrats on the deer. Don't you just love those old 300 Sav. calibered 99's? Great rifle.........

Yeah, sometime ago I was looking for a new barrel for my "other" deer rifle, that being a Thompson/Encore. I decided on the .260 Remington but was seriously considering a .300 Savage as my need was for a medium powered, relatively flat shooting cartridge that was not one of the run of the mill (everybody has one) type cartridges. Clearly, there are very few rounds quite as popular and effective as the .270 Winchester. The .308 Winchester is a fabulous round yet "everybody has one".

The .300 Savage is the "original" .308 Winchester. Manufacturers simply made the neck slightly longer for the .308 Win.

So.....I end up getting my .300 Savage and honestly, I could not have been happier. I don't believe the .300 Savage would be my first choice if I ever get the chance for an elk hunt but for whitetail deer hunting farm land in Missouri....you simply can't find a better cartridge/rifle combo which would offer much more than what I already have.

No doubt....at 100 yards, a Winchester model 94 with a 30-30 Win would have done the trick but I consider my Savage 99 to be the most accurate lever gun I have ever experienced.

Don't bet your farm land in Missouri that the .300 won't make plenty of elk steaks to eat.

If my elk hunt involved getting to my hunting spot via horseback and or was certain that the longest likely shot would not exceed 200 yards, then sure...load up a good 180 grn bullet for your .300 Savage and sight it in 3" high at 100 yards and you are in business!

I'd sooner find a good .358 Winchester at a minimum with my preference for a 35 Whelen. If you get that once in a lifetime hunt....you certainly don't want to miss your chance because you didn't bring enough gun.