Shawnee
member
Today the .300 Savage is thought of by many or most as an "obselete" cartridge.
But it was close to being the .300 Win. Mag. of its' day. It was brought out to be close in performance to the .30 Springfield with 150gr. bullets but what made it special was that it was brought out in a popular sporting rifle (the lever-action Savage 99 as opposed to the less-than-handy military Springfields and the Krag) thus enabling sportsmen to have pointy bullets in a powerful cartridge in a classic and popular rifle design. The .300 H&H magnum came out a couple years later but was strictly an expensive custom proposition for its' first 15 years or so.
The .300 Savage was a big step above the .30/30 and old .303 Savage and, if one looks closely, it is still shoulder to shoulder with the much newer and much-ballyhooed .308 Win. And yet the .300 Savage (like the .308) can be downloaded (Gee, what a novel idea) to 30/30 levels (more or less) which is a real "plus".
I don't claim to be a fan of .30 calibers (except the .30/30) but I think I've met three people who were using 99s in the .300 Savage and I don't recall any of their rifles being for sale.
But it was close to being the .300 Win. Mag. of its' day. It was brought out to be close in performance to the .30 Springfield with 150gr. bullets but what made it special was that it was brought out in a popular sporting rifle (the lever-action Savage 99 as opposed to the less-than-handy military Springfields and the Krag) thus enabling sportsmen to have pointy bullets in a powerful cartridge in a classic and popular rifle design. The .300 H&H magnum came out a couple years later but was strictly an expensive custom proposition for its' first 15 years or so.
The .300 Savage was a big step above the .30/30 and old .303 Savage and, if one looks closely, it is still shoulder to shoulder with the much newer and much-ballyhooed .308 Win. And yet the .300 Savage (like the .308) can be downloaded (Gee, what a novel idea) to 30/30 levels (more or less) which is a real "plus".
I don't claim to be a fan of .30 calibers (except the .30/30) but I think I've met three people who were using 99s in the .300 Savage and I don't recall any of their rifles being for sale.