300 savage question

[wasfuzz]

I have a question for all you reloading guru's in here. I have a friend who would like to shoot his 300 Savage for deer hunting. No one seems to make this ammo anymore and he wants to shoot silver tips. Does anyone make this bullet in silver tip any more, or will any 300 win mag bullet work. I know nothing about reloading yet and thought this would be a good place to get a answer. Thanks guys

[870TC]

Remington Core Lokt in stock at FF Lakeville.... sadly its about the only thing in stock. $30 a box if I recall correctly.

[BU1]

Cabelas in Rogers had some last week. $ 30 approx.

[EJSG19]

I don't personally have anything to benefit you, however I suggest you heed the advice given in the past, by those who know what they are talking about, and unfortunately is true for 1911fan, those who are no longer around to shine light on your situation directly.

http://www.mnguntalk.com/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=11036&st=0&sk=t&sd=a&hilit=300+savage

If I may channel Pete for a second, he might say something like this, "Killing deer is not rocket science, nor is it that difficult. You do not need a 155 Howitzer or the latest super magnum. You need a bullet that can make its way through hide, a rib, and punch through heart or lung, that is all."

There are some grain weights given in the thread I put above. As to bullet type, pick one of the many that will penetrate a bit and then reliably expand. You'll note "ballistic tip" bullets were not well looked upon in threads like the one above.

That should get you started. Wish he were here, he was a big Savage guy. You'll find a lot of posts related to that caliber by him if you use the search function. I know there are a couple other guys here who have been around the caliber a fair bit too.

[crbutler]

The old Winchester silver tip is no more in rifle calibers. Winchester has been selling Nosler ballistic tips with their lubaloy coating as "Ballistic Silvertips" for a while. The bullet is identical to the Nosler ballistic tip. The slivertip was an aluminum skin on the exposed lead of a soft point bullet. My experience (which is limited with silvertips- they were phasing out when I started big game hunting) was that they are softer than most bullets. A 150 grain Ballistic tip in a .300 Savage will be very similar to the old silvertip loads.

The .300 Savage is not a magnum. You don't need 300 win mag bullets for it. It's a bit slower than a .308 when properly loaded.

Any cup and core bullet from a .300 savage in an appropriate weight (150 grains on up) will work just fine on deer. If you want factory ammo any soft point that shoots well is good. If you want to handload for it, any soft point bullet should be fine. This caliber does not need the high end premium bullets, and in fact may well underperform with them due to their stronger construction not opening up. Don't use Barnes TSX or TTSX with this cartridge (except if you want to use the ones designed for the .30-30). They will not only need the higher velocity but as they are copper, they will take up powder space which is a short commodity in the .300 Savage.

[Hoot]

If you want to experiment with some bullets but not buy entire boxes, I have some that fall into the category you are interested in reloading. They are left over from some experimenting I did with a caliber I do not have anymore. They are the following:

16) Hornady 30310 140gr Monoflex
25) Hornady 30311 140gr Monoflex
7) Hornady 30396 160gr FTX

You can have them if you want to play with them. If you don't want to drive up from Mapleton to pick them up, I can throw them into a USPS Small Flat Rate box for $5.15
I have some other short count boxes laying around. Possibly some 150 NBT, 150 HotCor, 150 DeepCurl, etc. When I'm down in the shop, I can root around for them and throw them in as well.

Hoot

[smurfman]

Hornady, Federal, Remington, and Winchester all make 300 Savage ammo with 150 gr bullets, tow of them, Remington and Federal I think, load 180s too. As mentioned, Silvertips are no longer made but Power Points are about the same thing except missing the tin cap. As also mentioned, any standard bullet such as the Power Point, Interlock, Power Piston, GameKing, etc will do fine job at the velocities one sees with the 300 Savage.

The 150s have been my favorite bullet weight in my 300 Savage rifles and is what I load the most. I've used factory 180 gr bullets with good results but I find the 150s to drop deer a bit quicker as well as match the sight ramps of many of my guns. I especially like them in my Remington M-81s as there is slightly less recoil which is good as this cartridge stretches the design characteristics of this gun.

[wasfuzz]

Thanks all for the replies, provided the info I needed. Hoot - look for a PM, I take you up on the offer!



edit for spelling

[Hoot]

Thanks all for the replies, provided the info I needed. Hoot - look for a PM, I take you up on the offer!

edit for spelling

Care package is on the way Donn.

Good Luck

Hoot

[wasfuzz]

Thank You so much, Hoot and everyone else who spoke up with needed info