whatnickname
Member
A friend of mine has a very nice 40’s vintage Savage Model 99 in 300 Savage that he loaned me to see what I thought of his rifle. Couldn’t resist reloading for the rifle and did quite a bit of research on reloading the round. I love the Savage 99 and always regretted trading my 1967 (detachable magazine) away but that’s another story. Flat base bullets seem to be in order due to the rather short length of the case and the need not to shove the bullet down too far inside the case. I used 150 grain Hornady Interlock flat base bullets. IMR 4064 has gotten good press in quite a few of the articles I’ve read so I went with this for my powder and Federal #210 primers. This rifle has quite a bit of free bore in it so the magazine will not accommodate a bullet seated 25/1000” or so off the lands. My seating depth was therefore 2.600” or SAAMI maximum COL.
The controversy in the articles I’ve read seems to be the pressures that the Savage 99 can tolerate. The 10th edition of the Hornady Reloading manual shows 42.8 grains of IMR 4064 as the maximum load with a velocity of 2600 fps. Ken Waters’ book, Pet Loads, warns emphatically that a charge of 40 grains of IMR4064 is hot and that 41 grains is the absolute maximum. The 49th edition of Lyman’s Reloading Handbook shows 42.2 grains of IMR4064 as max. Other reloading manuals seem to take a more conservative approach to IMR4064 and the 300 Savage. Do you suppose that IMR4064 was a hotter powder in 1976 when Ken published his article?. I’ve decided to go with 40 grains of IMR4064 for my starting load. Several folks have mentioned this load as preferred based on what I’ve seen on line. Pressure wise this charge seems to appear well within safe limits based on everything I’ve read. It should produce a velocity around 2400fps...maybe a bit over the 2400fps mark. While the Savage 99 is a good rifle that action locks up from the rear and is a bit “springy”. Reaching for an extra 100fps or so in that fine, old rifle just doesn’t seem worth the risk. It’s not a 30-06 or a .308 and I see no reason to try to make it one for that matter. What it is, based on all that I’ve read, is a darn better mouse trap than the 30-30. I would be interested in hearing your thoughts on this subject.
The controversy in the articles I’ve read seems to be the pressures that the Savage 99 can tolerate. The 10th edition of the Hornady Reloading manual shows 42.8 grains of IMR 4064 as the maximum load with a velocity of 2600 fps. Ken Waters’ book, Pet Loads, warns emphatically that a charge of 40 grains of IMR4064 is hot and that 41 grains is the absolute maximum. The 49th edition of Lyman’s Reloading Handbook shows 42.2 grains of IMR4064 as max. Other reloading manuals seem to take a more conservative approach to IMR4064 and the 300 Savage. Do you suppose that IMR4064 was a hotter powder in 1976 when Ken published his article?. I’ve decided to go with 40 grains of IMR4064 for my starting load. Several folks have mentioned this load as preferred based on what I’ve seen on line. Pressure wise this charge seems to appear well within safe limits based on everything I’ve read. It should produce a velocity around 2400fps...maybe a bit over the 2400fps mark. While the Savage 99 is a good rifle that action locks up from the rear and is a bit “springy”. Reaching for an extra 100fps or so in that fine, old rifle just doesn’t seem worth the risk. It’s not a 30-06 or a .308 and I see no reason to try to make it one for that matter. What it is, based on all that I’ve read, is a darn better mouse trap than the 30-30. I would be interested in hearing your thoughts on this subject.