quote:

Originally posted by lee440:
I have had a few Savage 99's through the years and they are really neat guns. I just rebarrelled one of my takedowns with a new Savage barrel that I snagged off of EBay. The original barrel was a featherweight in 22 HiPower that had been rebored and rechambered by P.O. Ackley to 6mm 30/30AI. I got tired of the hassels of forming brass and I am not a big 6mm fan, so when a new, unused 303 barrel came up, I got it($225) screwed it in, and, amazingly, it indexed and headspaced. Now that I have a new toy, I got to thinking about how to modernize it just a bit. I had a 303S previously and still had several boxes of Silvertip 190 grain loads. These were quite effective on whitetails, but the B.C. of that punkin ball silvertip has to be about like 45acp ball, it is that blunt! Since Savage never made a tubular fed rifle, you have to wonder why they never used a spitzer bullet, but in 1895 and being in competition with the 30/30, I guess it was to be expected. The old 303 190gr. was well respected for its deep penetration on larger game. I am certainly not going to magnumize it in any way, but bullet technology has come a long way since then. To try to duplicate the penetration abilities of the original load, since 190 gr. cup/core
bullets are not readily available, the Nosler 170 partition would seem to be the better replacement choice. The other thought would be to drop down to a 150 gr, spitzer partition with its superior B.C. and approximately 200 fps advantage which might balance penetration and extend the working range out to 200yds or a bit more. This is not a need to project, just trying to see what could have been possible if Savage had ever tried to update the ballistic effectivness of the old cartridge. Should be fun!

quote:

Originally posted by Bill/Oregon:
Great thread gentlemen. I am stuck with a 99 in .300 Savage as well, but always wanted an old .303, preferably with octagon barrel.

quote:

Originally posted by lee440:
I may, at some time try a cast bullet in this rifle. Gnoahh, which mold are you using and is it a gas check? As to modern bullets, the 170 gr.partition is designed for the 30/30 so no issues there. The idea of trying the 150 gr. partition is based on that the front of partitions are generally more fragile and should set up some at the lower velocities within the range limitations of the 303 while the rear of the bullet would give it the legendary penetration, that is my theory anyway! While I have no intention of hot loading the cartridge, the rifle has a 24" barrel and I believe it would be possible to attain 23-2400 fps with the 150 gr in a reasonable load. I had hoped that others on here were using these old guns and would give some feedback like is happening! You have to admit, if you show up in deer camp with a 303S you will be the only one. I have found the first problem is limited magazine length, which also limits spitzers to lighter and preferably, flat base bullets for their shorter length. I bought some PRVI brass from Graffs which appears to be good brass at a reasonable enough price for an obsolete chambering. I am starting out with H4895 but would love to find some Hodgon Leverevolution as it was formulated for lever guns with gains of over 100 fps over traditional powders. Any suggestions appreciated!