Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Savage Collectors Loaded 250-3000 in my .308

At the range yesterday I took four of my 99's to do some shooting. Among them was a 99A in 250-3000 and also a 99A in .308. I grabbed what I thought was the 250 and stuffed four cartridges in the rotary magazine. I laid the rifle on the bench rest and chambered a round. I looked in the scope and right away realized my mistake. My 250 has a 2-7 Leupold with a duplex and the 308 has a Lyman 2.5 with a post. What would have happened if I'd fired the gun? Has anyone else made a mistake like that?

I recall I was with my Dad one time and he was sighting in his Winchester M100 in .308 and his Remington M742 in .30/06. He got the cartridges mixed up and loaded the M742 clip with .308 cartridges. We don't notice anything at first except that the accuracy dropped off. He was wondering why his group opened up! I happened to look down at the empty casings and noted that that there were some VERY odd looking what should have been .30/06 shell casing. The .308 were completely fireformed to a straight wall case. They looked like extremely long .45 ACP cases! The crazy thing is the gun fired and cycled all four rounds fine and had he been shooting at a deer, he probably would have nailed it (we were woods hunting). Now, it helps in this scenario that both the .308 and the .30/06 shoot the same diameter bullet. And, I certainly don't recommend the practice. I think I still have the shell casing as they were so darn interesting!

Ron would they even chamber? I dont have 250 so not sure but its sure kind of scary, one time had 45-70 ruger singleshot wounded a runnig buck reached in pocket put a 9.2x62 shell in ruger, touched her off deer went down shot in neck, sounded like a 22, felt gas in face, looked for shell could not see it, stuck in barrel had to use a ramrod to punch it out, got the 6point scared the hell out of me. Glad it was a ruger No.1 strong action. ill never carry diffrent shell on me again. John

My brother shot a 270 cartridges out of a 7mm Mag once (bolt action). Doctor was able to pull all of the brass out of his eyeball with no lasting effects.

Effects can range from just bad groups and trashed brass, to brass/powder flying back, to rifle flying apart.

Glad you caught it.

I have an article around some place from about 1955. Writers wanted to know what would happen if a 300 Savage cartridge was accidently chambered/fired in a 308 WCF.
They started with a Remington rifle tied down to a tire. Eventually they were firing from the shoulder with no ill effects.
The conclusion of the article was that the 300 Savage cartridge when fired was more accurate than the 308 WCF cartridge that was supposed to be fired from the rifle.
Still wouldn't recommend it!
BillR

There are a number of variables in these scenarios and some of them don't always end up as major accidents. As I recall, last year there was incident where a 308 win was fired in a 270 win rifle --- and there was no ill effects to the rifle or shooter. Amazing, as the 30 cal bullet had to be swaged down to 277 to exit the barrel!

Best case scenerio:
Nothing "bad" would happen IF the brass cartridge case expanded quickly enough to perform rearward "opturation" (sp?), I.E., expand fast enough against the chamber's walls (without splitting) to "seal" the hot powder gases IN the chamber and eliminate them from coming back into the shooter's face.

Worst case scenario:
The hot powder gases split the case enough that the hot powder gases together brass splinters from the cartridge case are NOT sealed in the chamber and come back in the shooter's face, blinding him in both eyes with the larger pieces of brass pierciing his skull and his brain.

Obviously NOT a good thing... <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" />


Strength & Honor...

Ron T.

Rack up another save for my Guardian Angel. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/shocked.gif" alt="" />

Ron_T, so what would you consider the odds of brass coming back into your face just enough to be embedded in the outer layer of the eye without doing any damage. In fact, wasn't removed for 3 days until the scratchy feeling got to him..

My brother definitely has somebody looking out for him.

Calhoun........

I'd say our friend (as well as your brother) was just plain $#@^@$#@ LUCKY! Makes a good case for wearing "shooting glasses", doesn't it?!?

Of course, that great big block of steel Savage calls a "breech block" may have saved the man's eyesight and possibly his life. But the FACT he ended up with brass shavings in his eyes is SCARY enough for me.

Yet ANOTHER reason to love these Model 99s, eh, compadre?!? <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />


Strength & Honor...

Ron T.

Intriging Win M70 pre-war without the usual caliber marking on barrel but with very small marking for .22-3000 R2 over chamber area up near receiver. Found at gunshow and had to buy it. Attractive price and in overall excellent condition, me being a M70 buff I felt the need to have it.

Boned up on the .22-3000 R2 cartridge, ordered dies and sought brass finding three unopened boxes of Griffen & Howe unfired brass. Paid big bucks for the brass.

Loaded up a round and went out behind the house to test fire. Bang.....lots of smoke in my face from the receiver. Opened the bolt and found a not so nicely fireformed rimmed .222Rem with a big split down the middle. Bottom line was that some knuckle-head had rechambered the rifle to .222Rem and never marked the barrel. Probably should have done a chamber cast but had to learn the hard way.

The good news is that the rifle shot well with .222Rem ammo.

You can never be certain about anything when you buy a used gun.