.300 Savage bullet opinions

CoryTheCowboy

CoryTheCowboy

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Hey everyone,

While I'm going to be shooting factory this year, I'm already thinking about what bullet(s) I should try in my .300 Savage. 99% of my hunting would be for deer, but if the need arouse, I'd like it to be well enough constructed to work for a moose.

First bullet I was looking at was the 150 gr. Hornady SST designed for the .300 Savage. I was also told the 150 gr. Speer Hot Core was a good choice as well.

Any thoughts, opinions, information would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Cory
 
I wouldn't call the SST a moose bullet but the Hot core will stay together.Moose aren't hard to kill if hit right,they just stand and take it till they tilt.Reloading would open a whole new world for bullet selection.Like Swift Scirrocco's and Barnes TSXin 150gr.Loads I recommend for the Savage 99 are as follows 42gr Win 748/150gr ............41gr for the 165gr and 40gr for the 180gr.......all on win cases.......they shot 1/2 to 1" groups at 100yards off the bench out of a lever action! Harold
 
The 300 is a lot more power than is needed for deer, but just about perfect for moose.

I have seen a lot of deer shot with 308Win and found that with 150 gr bullets the expansion was great, but it tended to blow up a lot of good meat. Our gang has switched to 180 gr softpoints for our 308s. They kill deer well without all the extra meat loss and also give excellent performance of moose. So one load does both well.

I suggest you try a Hornady 165 and 180 softpoint. The flatbase version is cheaper and will probably shoot more accurately than the boatail version.
 
Hmmm... The 300 starts to lose velocity compared to the 308 when you get into the higher bullet weights - about 150 fps for a 180 gr bullet. This represents about a 12% loss in kinetic energy. However, you're still at 303 velocities - 2500 fps - more than enough to take a moose.
For my 300 S rifles, I play around with the plain ol' Hornady Interlocks, picking whatever bullet weight works best (150 SP, 165SP, 180 RN). Powders are Re15 and IMR4064.
 
I have had good success on deer with the Hornady 165 interlock and speer 150 hot core and Remington 150 Core-locs. Never tried it on moose but if I did I would likely stick with the 165 grain bullets.
 
One of the best bullet weights for my Savage 99 in 300 Savage was 150 grain. The two bullets that realy showed well were the Nosler Accutip and the Speer Hot-Cor HCSP. Great round for deer and for moose as long as you keep the distance realistic. It's not noted for a long range round, but at around 200-250 yards the moose is in serious trouble.
 
I have a bolt action rifle in 300 Savage.
I have a pet load with the 150 Partition, but the same load works just great
with the Speer Hot-Core and the Hornady FBIL.
It is a stout load of Reloder 15, and drives that 150 at over 2800 in a 24" tube.
FWIW, Vihtavuori N540 gives very close to the same performance.
No deer or moose inside of 350 is safe.
Eagleye
 
I would definitely skip anything heavier than 150/155 grain in the 99, they just don't like 'em. The difficulty is that it is light for bigger than deer-sized animals, so it should be a premium bullet for the bigger guys. I would suggest trying Nosler Partitions and Rem corelokts, they might shoot so close that you could substitute the premiums on a moose hunt and not change anything in your sighting setup.
 
I have found that the 300 Savage works the best with a 150 grain in my Savage 99. Anything heavier tended to push out the groups, so I would recommend a 150 bullet, like an Accutip, great out to 300 yards.
 
cosmic said:
Hmmm... The 300 starts to lose velocity compared to the 308 when you get into the higher bullet weights - about 150 fps for a 180 gr bullet. This represents about a 12% loss in kinetic energy. However, you're still at 303 velocities - 2500 fps - more than enough to take a moose.
For my 300 S rifles, I play around with the plain ol' Hornady Interlocks, picking whatever bullet weight works best (150 SP, 165SP, 180 RN). Powders are Re15 and IMR4064.[/
Cartridges are about the best example of marketing success. A 12% loss of energy is a 5.8% loss in velocity. I originally heard it stated that 200 fps was probably never the difference between success and failure hunting. In the 2500 fps range 5.8% is about 137 fps. In real terms read that to mean no difference. I don't have a ballistics calculator on my iPad, but that does not represent a much longer shot in comparison. Just my 2c worth.
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