Hello all, I am brand new to this website and my purpose for being here is because I just received my vintage savage model 99 303. I have reloaded in the past for two or three of my hunting rifles. RCBS is my reloader, and I am looking for a good load using 150 grain Barnes bullet. I have located a set of two dies on eBay but they are pretty pricey. $120. Any information that you could give me will be muchly appreciated. My brief story is that in 1955,when I was 12 years old, I shot my first deer with a 303 savage. It was a borrowed gun And my dad returned it to its owner. I have not held one in my hands for all these years, until now. I'm pretty excited. Thanks for your help.
Tellumnothing

Keep your eyes peeled for a set of used dies. They turn up on eBay and aren't expensive. As for data, just use .30-30 data and all will be well.

Just pick up some Lee dies, they're around $35 or so online at a number of places.

You should be well armed for adventure. Frank Buck's rifle.

Ditto on the Lee dies. Try FS reloading.

The Lee dies work great for me. I prefer them to the RCBS even (blasphemy, I know).

As gnoahh said, use .308 bullets and the 30-30 load data - starting from minimum loads - and you should be fine. I've taken a couple of deer and it works great.

I would not recommend Barnes bullets for use at 303 savage velocities. I tried them in my savage 99 308 but the copper fouling turned me off to them. Good hunting.

Even the 190 grain? Maybe in the .308 it was due to the velocity.

I found a set of RCBS dies used for a good price, and use 33.5 gr. of W748 with the 170 gr. Speer load that I also use in my .30-30s. One nice point about this load is that it was also published in an early 90's Winchester handbook for the 303 Savage.

Those old 99s are neat. Especially the .303. I have one and it's a keeper. Very accurate if you feed it what it likes. I think besides the problem with the expansion of the Barnes bullet that you are going to find the magazine length is your greatest limitation. Those are long bullets. I suppose you could single load them but that would take out all the fun. I am a Lee fan also - for everything. After much experimentation with my .303, I found it was happiest with flat point .30-30 bullets, either 150 or 170 gr. and a good charge of 3031. That's just like every lever action .30-30 i've ever shot. Not much difference exept the nostalgia and trying something new. Good luck.

Well, although this thread is almost 2 years old, my preferred load for my 99H carbine is the RCBS 30-180 FN ( 189 grains) and 30 grains of IMR-4320 which gives a little over 1800 fps. Second choice is Lyman 311407 (186 grains) and 34 grains of H-414 going slightly less than 1800 fps. Love to load the .303 Savage with it's long neck!