Anyone reload for the .300 Savage?

[vafish]

I received a Remington 722 in .300 Savage from a friend a couple of years ago. Her dad had re-stocked it, did a beautiful job and it fits me perfectly. When I picked up the rifle and looked through the scope I knew it had to be mine. No one in her family hunts and I thought it would be a suitable honor of her father to use it deer hunting.

Since .300 Savage ammo is pretty expensive and I'm already set up to reload .30-06 I picked up a set of dies for it.

My old reloading manual listed a charge of .40 grs of 4064 as max with a 150 gr bullet. I worked up to that, recoil was very mild, accuracy was about 1 1/2" at 100 yards. I made up about 50 rounds and have shot a few on occasion.

I only take the rifle out on real nice days. Yesterday was a beautiful day for hunting, it's the tail end of our season and we can only shoot doe now. As it was almost getting dark I shot a small doe with it, range about 80 yards. At the sound of the shot she took off running and ran out of sight. I waited a few minutes and got down from the stand to look for blood. About 15 minutes later my hunting partner showed up. He found the first small spot of blood. Very little blood for about 50 yards, then a real good blood trail for about another 75 yards and we found her. Perfect heart shot. I've never had a deer run that far with that little blood and that good of shot placement.

Looking at some load data online and a recent American Rifleman article on handloading the .300 Savage and I'm seeing max charges as high as 44 grains of 4064.

I'm thinking the combination of a little slower velocity from a light load and the 150 gr bullet probably made more for .30-06 velocities inhibited expansion a bit.

Just wondering if any of you out there handload the .300 Savage for deer hunting and what bullet/load combination works well for you.

[Brass Nazi]

My father hunts with a 300 Savage. I reload for a 250 Savage.

The 300 will chunk bullets very close but slightly slower than a 308WIN. I would normally want to use a 165gr bullet for deer when using a 30-06 but I would opt for 150s with the Savage.

You took the deer's heart out. It would not matter if you were using a 30/30, 300 savage, 308Win, 30-06, or a 300 WIN. That deer would have gone just as far. I do not know why but sometimes you take both lungs and a piece of heart out and the deer will not take another step. Sometimes you make the same shot and the deer goes through 50 yards of briers before laying down. Some deer are more determined to live than others. If you take the heart out the deer may have enough oxygen in their muscles to move for a few seconds. A deer can go a long way in a few seconds.

[vafish]

My father hunts with a 300 Savage. I reload for a 250 Savage.

The 300 will chunk bullets very close but slightly slower than a 308WIN. I would normally want to use a 165gr bullet for deer when using a 30-06 but I would opt for 150s with the Savage.

You took the deer's heart out. It would not matter if you were using a 30/30, 300 savage, 308Win, 30-06, or a 300 WIN. That deer would have gone just as far. I do not know why but sometimes you take both lungs and a piece of heart out and the deer will not take another step. Sometimes you make the same shot and the deer goes through 50 yards of briers before laying down. Some deer are more determined to live than others. If you take the heart out the deer may have enough oxygen in their muscles to move for a few seconds. A deer can go a long way in a few seconds.

I think I need to borrow a chrono and see how fast it was actually throwing the 150 gr bullets. I'll also start bumping the powder charge up a bit and see what happens.

[tjpet]

I've owned a pre-War Savage 99 takedown and a late 1950s Remington 722 in .300 Savage. Both were sweet shooting rifles and I fed them 150grn. Nosler partitions w/40grns. Win. 748 primarily because I always had a ton on hand for my .223s. A good, accurate, soft shooting load it killed antelope/deer/the odd elk with equal aplomb. I should have hung on to both but eventually sold off both over the years.

[euclid]

I use IMR 4064 or 3031 for reloads for my Savage M99. I chronoed the "max" loads and the velocities were not even close to what were posted in the book. I CAREFULLY bumped up the powder charge and was able to push 150 grain bullets to ~2650 fps. That was good enough for me. It's a great round.

[vtbluegrass]

Deer run sometimes and we need to get over that they don't all drop.

[vafish]

Deer run sometimes and we need to get over that they don't all drop.


I've been hunting deer for a long time. I've killed deer with rifles, shotguns, bow, crossbows, and handguns. Never seen one run this far with a similar hit.

A little extra velocity would probably increase the expansion of the bullet.

I got one source (my reloading manual) telling me 40 grs of 4064 is max and I have other sources telling me 44 grs is max.

Like I said I think I need to shoot this load over a chrono and see how fast they are actually going.

[Brass Nazi]

What condition was the heart in? Did you get a lung? What kind of bullet did you use?