Let's shoot the 300 Savage. Let's do lots of shooting...

[earlmck]

If you have a good hammer then everything looks like a nail, or so it has been said.

When you have lots of 300 Savage brass then you need to do a bunch of 300 Savage shooting, right?

So a couple of months ago fellow levergunner JD2 advertised quite a batch of 300 Savage brass for sale. Now I already had a modest amount, but thought I should add to the stash and so I purchased another couple hundred from JD2. So now I need to take advantage of this and get a good plinking load going with the Savage 99/300 Savage. First try at cast bullets didn't look real promising -- sort of a scatter rather than a group.

So last week end I loaded up a variety of bullets with my old stand-by powder charge of 10 grains of Green Dot. Tuesday I shot these for group over the chronograph and I now have ideas for doing some 300 Savage shooting. Levergunner Bill in Oregon was supposed to come along and I was hoping to have him do some of this load testing because my eyes are not seeing the sights like I am used to them doing and I have lost confidence in my peep-sight shooting. But Bill is having a real session with a bulging disk and a sciatic nerve and he opted out of this expedition.

First, here is the rifle that is doing the shooting: Just a good old '99 with peep sight (these are not photobuckets so you need to click on the pic to see full size)

300Savage.jpg

Here's what I got at this range session: Lyman 309467, 180 grain gc, 1410 +/- 15 fps, 5 in about 4" (4" meaning 4 minute of angle, as the shooting was actually done at 50 yards rather than 100)

300Sav180Group.jpg

Lyman 30941, 173 grain gc, 1375 +/- 10 fps, 5 in about 3.5"

300 Sav173grainGroup.jpg

Lee .311/120 grain gc, 1630 +/- 15 fps, 6 in about 3.5"

300 Sav120Group.jpg

And the Ranch Dog .314/117 grain gc, 1660 +/- 40 fps, 6 in abut 3"

300Sav117group.jpg

So let us note here that every one of these loads has at least the gas check and for the longer bullets at least one grease groove back in the powder space. Which I used to think was an absolute deal breaker for achieving accuracy with cast bullets.

I have a nice 150 grain plain-base bullet that I really want to use with the Savage. But I was getting 100 fps more velocity than I expected with this load and I figured there was no use shooting that particular bullet at the 1500 fps it was going to produce. I'll pull those bullets and drop her down to 9 grains and give that a try one of these days.

And I also have to admit that my eyes are now giving me enough problems that I'm not sure I can shoot better than a 3" group even with a perfectly precise weapon, using peep sights. So I am ready to declare all of these "probably acceptable". And I have loaded up 100 rounds using the Ranch Dog bullet and that Green Dot powder for use in the near future ventilating tin cans in ye ole gravel pit. A large factor in this decision is that I have this fine 6-cavity mold for this bullet which turns them out in a hurry -- another consideration when you think you need to do "lots of shooting".

300SavRDloads.jpg

Yes, I can hear you thinking: "he took a 308 Win class weapon and turned it into a 32/20". So isn't it nice to have a 32/20 in a Savage 99? and the larger brass is easier to find in the dirt and grass than those little 32/20's. And I'm a leetle short of 32/20 brass at the moment, though I did find it at Midway yesterday and got an order going...

[pwl44m]

Regarding Ur short supply of 32-20 brass, there is 500 rounds of Remington unprimed in boxes of 50 for $250. This is the second listing . I have plenty or I would buy it just because.
auction # is 420367143
Perry

[AJMD429]

Yes, I can hear you thinking: "he took a 308 Win class weapon and turned it into a 32/20". So isn't it nice to have a 32/20 in a Savage 99? and the larger brass is easier to find in the dirt and grass than those little 32/20's.

Nothing wrong with that.

[Bill in Oregon]

Earl, sorry I had to beg off on the shooting. You got a lot of work done! I like the looks of that Ranch Dog boolit, and would very much hate to be a jackrabbit out in the sage just thinking about his sins when you showed up with that rifle and load!

[ollogger]

Earl that's a neat report on the old 300!! I shoot the little Lee in one 30-30 if im on that day it will cut holes at 50 yd. the others just scatter them? how ever I have a double barrel 30-06 that likes
them real well at hot rod 32-20 speed



ollogger

[J35]

Nice report as usual Earl.

I found out a long time ago that if a person likes to target shoot a lot, full power loads are hard on brass, guns, shoulder's and powder inventory .

I have had good luck with the RCBS 150 PB in 32-20 TC and 30-30 in the 12 to 1400 fps range.


------------J

[Nath]

Very nice Earl....I use Green dot too and Herco in my 357, I like these powders from Alliant.

[earlmck]

Ouch! I should have done more shooting before I gave my report. Went back out to ye ole gravel pit today, 300 Savage in hand and lots of those loads with the 117 grain Ranch Dog bullet.

It turns out that, in my particular rifle at least, that bullet allows feeding problems to develop. Appears that the very short COAL of that load allows the shells to slide forward in that great little rotary magazine and they then don't want to chamber without an occasional little "thumb-assist". Not what you want to happen in the heat of a gun battle, and even slightly distracting when fighting a horde of slowly advancing tin cans.

Back to the drawing board.

Oh yeah, once chambered they did a good job on said cans, out to the 100 to 110 yard range which our gravel pit allows.

The super-light 243 loads and the jdad 32/20 (both previously reported on here) were a big hit with a granddaughter-in-law who had prefaced the expedition with the statement that "I love pistols but I don't like shooting rifles at all".