Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Savage Collectors Proud New Owner: Model 99 .300 Savage

Have you clocked those loads?

On Friday night, pulled all the furniture off, cleaned her up, and re-assembled. Ended up flushing the action with the BC scrubber mentioned before, then followed up with CLP. Sure takes alot of time rotating that clip and cleaning all the numbers in the side port.

Went to the firing range this afternoon and tossed some rounds down field. Was shooting about 6" left, but adjusted easily.

Won't talk about expert grouping or such, had a bit of a time keeping the rifle steady due to continuously breaking out in a smile. Disrupted my concentation.

These sure are beauties.

Lots of good misc info here you should read: https://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbth...ber/535525/gonew/1/Misc_Good_Info#UNREAD

LDT - Went through that earlier, and did see the forearm washer post, but didn't really read it closely. I'll keep this in mind, I did seem to have a high % of flyers, but so far just chalking that up to the shooter. heh.

Easier thing to try before the washer solution that involves some drilling of wood is a simple rubber O-ring.

I can see where the washer trick is a better long term solution. Don't know what's going to happen to that O-ring if it sits in the forearm for 50 years, but a stainless washer ain't going to hurt anything.

Well, have had a chance to bring her out to the range a few times after getting setup with dies and components. Unfortunately, don't have my notes here to share exact load data (will add later). But, started out with the 165 grain Hornady Interlock SST over IMR 4064. Using Lee pacesetter dies with the factory crimp.

Haven't loaded much for rifle, but have loaded about 1K rounds with the .45. I can tell loading for rifle versus pistol is going to really be much more interesting.

Started loading from the min recommended grains then increased up to the load right under max. Initially started with 5 rounds per load, inspected the brass, and decided to focus the two suggested grain weights, right below max and about middle.

Loaded 10 of each at mid to one level below max, zeroed in perfect @ 100 yards for the middle grain weight. Ended up with about 1.5" grouping.

Next load up, was shooting a bit high and to the right. Grouping seemed to open up to 2-2.5 inches.

Couple of questions (and I realize I should be putting exact grain weights here):

1: I've heard that every rifle has it's sweet spot for the bullet weight, powder type, and load. Does the 300 savage with 99's typically favor moderate loads?

2: I can understand that one needs to re-zero after each step up in load weight. If I was not perfectly centered with a mid load, hypothetically shooting a tad high and right, then does it make sense that if I stepped up a notch on the load it would exaggerate that, and shoot higher and further right? (logically, this makes sense, just tossing the ? out there).

Thanks!
Stephen

Not neccessarilly I've had loads that shoot one direction, change the powder charge and it shoot entirely different. I've also had two rifles of the same kind that like two completely different bullets and powder. Most of the time though you can find a similar load that will work in several guns.

Kachad, I've found my .300 Savage 99s to be some of the least finicky rifles to reload for that I own. Just keep in mind they are not bolt guns and as such loading for them isn't an exercise in wringing out max velocities. What's wrong with the load that gave you the 1.5" groups? Do you know the velocity? In regards to the where bullets impact the target as the load is stepped up, there's no rule of thumb on that. They could go any direction or even stay the same.

I've got rifles in 300 Savage that favor heavier 180gr bullets, and others which are fine with 150gr. They're all unique.

I don't even try to zero it while doing load development. As long as it's on paper I'm fine. And yes, it makes sense that a slightly different load will change point of impact.. maybe higher and more to the right, or anywhere else.

Thanks for all the feedback, always nice to have resources like you guys here.

The two weights were 38.4gr and 39.9gr I didn't check velocities, you bet a chronograph is on the toy list. I'm a'thinking that I'll work with those for awhile, and probably call it this season's deer load.

Appreciate it!

A light application of Howard's furniture restorer on the cleaned wood has worked well for me on old Winchester stocks. It has bees wax in it and does not seem to add any finish, just rejuvenate what is there.