Reloading .303 Savage

[RockinRam96]

Long story short, I have re-acquired one of my great grandfather Savage Model 99 chambered in .303 Savage. I have been on the look out for ammo but in a shortage, and the age of the round it is hard to come by. I do reload and have been able to find most of the components I need.

As for bullets, I have found some lead 152 grain spitzer bullets. No I am on the look out for copper gas checks. I have a couple questions about gas checks.

1. I have been told the .303 Savage shoots .308 diameter projectiles, modern pointed bullets will work but, I have been told they take up to much case volume. The lead bullets I have found are .311 diameter, which I assume then would take a .308 gas check?

2. I have found “30 caliber” gas checks. Will they work or do I need .308 or .311 specific gas checks?

I have found some reloading data on this round, but I do not have a book of my own. This is the first time I have dealt with lead projectiles. Just looking to get shooting!

Thanks in advance.







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[Delloro]

Long story short, I have re-acquired one of my great grandfather Savage Model 99 chambered in .303 Savage. I have been on the look out for ammo but in a shortage, and the age of the round it is hard to come by. I do reload and have been able to find most of the components I need.

As for bullets, I have found some lead 152 grain spitzer bullets. No I am on the look out for copper gas checks. I have a couple questions about gas checks.

1. I have been told the .303 Savage shoots .308 diameter projectiles, modern pointed bullets will work but, I have been told they take up to much case volume. The lead bullets I have found are .311 diameter, which I assume then would take a .308 gas check?

2. I have found “30 caliber” gas checks. Will they work or do I need .308 or .311 specific gas checks?

I have found some reloading data on this round, but I do not have a book of my own. This is the first time I have dealt with lead projectiles. Just looking to get shooting!

Thanks in advance.

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Beautiful rifles.

I wouldn't worry about pointed bullets taking up too much room, I didn't notice any compressed loads in the data you posted.

 

[RockinRam96]

Beautiful rifles.

I wouldn't worry about pointed bullets taking up too much room, I didn't notice any compressed loads in the data you posted.

Thanks.

The rifle in the left is a .300 Savage my dad has had for about 20 years now. The rifle in the right is the .303 Savage in a takedown model. When my great grandfather passed away, it was sold to a friend of my grandfathers. I was able to track it down and finally buy it back over the weekend!


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[RockinRam96]

Got some components today to load a few rounds. I have some Winchester 748 powder to use. I found a .30-30 load with 150 grain bullets that I used as a base line. Loaded one group with 32 grains of powder and the other with 35.4 grains. The 35.4 grains of powdered seemed to fill a bit of the neck. Both fired well and after inspecting the cases, didn’t seem to have any pressure issues.

One thing I did notice was on the 32 grain loads I got a lot of powered burn on the neck of the case. The 35.4 did not.

Using 152 grain lead flat nose bullets. Need to get ahold of some gas checks.

I would love to get ahold of some round nose jacketed billets. Similar to a Core-lok.



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[RockinRam96]

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[Superkodiak38]

I have the same rifle, I believe, mine has a half octagonal barrel. Unfortunately the stock cracked about 30 years ago and she's a safe queen now. Neat old rifle none the least.

 

[RockinRam96]

I have the same rifle, I believe, mine has a half octagonal barrel. Unfortunately the stock cracked about 30 years ago and she's a safe queen now. Neat old rifle none the least.

Ah that's too bad. Boyd's Gunstocks make a stock for these rifles. You can get them in almost any color too!

They are pretty neat rifles. Fun and easy to shoot. Its the sentiment behind these guns for me. My great grandfather hunted with them. He even stamped his initials in the receivers.