Best bullet in 303 Savage

mike shickele

mike shickele

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Here's the dilemma; my buddy bought a Savage model 99 in 303 Savage, and he's not a reloader...........I'll have to load a large batch for him. I've been thinking about what bullet to get him to buy, and the best that I can come up with is the .308 Barnes TTSX 110gr bullet. I'm thinking that with this bullet, Varget will be the best powder. He's hoping to be able to hunt deer to moose with it.
At the velocities that he'll be getting with this cartridge, would there be a better bullet?
I'm looking for some honest input; if anyone has firsthand experience with spitzer bullets in the 30-30 (an almost equal cartridge) I'd like to hear it.
Mike
 
The classic bullet in 30-30 and 303 Savage is 170 grains. Lighter isn't bad but if it was me I would be looking at the 130 or 150 grain Barnes. I use the 130 TSX BT in a 308 at 3200fps. It is qwuite a bit faster than the Savage or 30-30 and the bullet performs great on everything from deer to bear, moose and elk.

In the Savage I would seriously look at the Hornady 150 SP Interlock. At the lower velcoities these bullets will mushroom much better than the Barnes. You do know the Savage uses a 311 or 312 diameter bullet at about 2100fps, not a .308 like the 30-30 or 308 Winchester?
 
You do know that the .303 SAVAGE uses .308" diameter bullets, don't you?
The .303 BRITISH uses the larger .311 (or larger) diameter bullets.
As for bullet choice, the 110 is probably not good for a bunch of reasons, including expansion (unknown, it might work), as well as the fact that the rifle sights probably won't work with this lighter bullet. The rifle would have been set up for the factory standard bullet weight, and one that is radically different might not land anywhere near where aimed. A 170 grain designed for .30-30 would be the best compromise, as heavier 180 or 190 grain roundnose are not easy to find.
Of note, from a bit of research:

"The .303 was the first to be developed by Savage, being initially manufactured by UMC in 1895. They were stamped "S.R.A. CO." with "303". These early Savage brand cartridges were loaded with a 190 grain softpoint bullet and their own smokeless powders. Their claim was 2000 fps, which, with the heavier bullet, gave it more energy that the 30-30. Apparently later, the 180 grain bullet as well as others became more common. Later stamps on Savage cartridges were "S.A. CO." with "303" and, as shown above, "S.A. CORP." with "303 SAV".
The caliber itself is kind of a misnomer. The barrels are standard .30 caliber. The cartridges were loaded with .311 inch bullets rather than the standard .308 inch 30 cali-
ber bullets. The theory was the tighter fit would increase pressures and therefore velocity. Savage produced a number of different components for loading including the 180 grain nickel plated softpoints shown on the right. Later, this caliber was loaded with .308 inch bullets.
(http:// www.savage99.com/ammo.htm)
 
303 Savage

First of all the BORE SIZE for 303 SAVAGE is ".308" and the bullet used is ".308 Dia". DO NOT use .311 dia bullets. I have a few boxes of the original loadings and they are loaded with .308 dia bullets, 190gr. Handloading ammo for deer and moose use 150-180 grain bullets such as Hornady or Speer you do not need a controlled expansion bullet at these velocities.
 
Yeh, your probably right; I was hoping to flatten the trajectory out a wee bit with the lighter bullet, but the sights will be all off. He has 20 factory loads with 170gr bullets on board, maybe I'll just tell him to buy a bunch of 170gr flat points.
Kind of a shame with a mag that will take spitzer bullets though.
Mike
 
"...Kind of a shame..." Why wouldn't you? A 165 would do nicely too. Sierra makes a Gameking. Hornady makes a couple.
 
b72471 said:
First of all the BORE SIZE for 303 SAVAGE is ".308" and the bullet used is ".308 Dia". DO NOT use .311 dia bullets. I have a few boxes of the original loadings and they are loaded with .308 dia bullets, 190gr. Handloading ammo for deer and moose use 150-180 grain bullets such as Hornady or Speer you do not need a controlled expansion bullet at these velocities.
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You guys need to check your loading manuals. You can of course shoot .308 in this gun, does not make it the right bullet for the application. Check ,load manuals, SAMMi etc, the right bulet is .311. 3 thou howver is unlikely to make the critical differnece but it well may afect groups.
 
I have been fooling with the 303 Savage for quite a few years now, and I really wanted to find a spitzer that would work well in the 99's magazine. I am still looking. The Savage magazine is sized very close to OAL with out room to spare. You end up having to seat the spitzer way in and leave a gap between the bullet and the case neck, ogive is just too long. May shoot okay I can't say as the way they looked just bugged me so I gave up. Ended up using mainly 170 grain bullets that were designed for 3030's, work well.

A couple years ago some one put me on to the Sierra 125 flat nose bullets and I tried those. Used Varget and pushed them out at about 2400 fps, made an excellent deer hunting load.

If you want a 190 grain bullet, I believe that Woodleigh bullets (TradeEx) makes one for use in the 3030. I haven't tried their product yet myself so don't know how they work.
 
Originally the .303 savage was considered a better killer on game then the 30/30 because it came with a 190 gr. bullet vs. the 170gr. of the 30/30. Some .303 Savage chambers/bores require .311" bullets or wider.
 
ben hunchak said:
Originally the .303 savage was considered a better killer on game then the 30/30 because it came with a 190 gr. bullet vs. the 170gr. of the 30/30. Some .303 Savage chambers/bores require .311" bullets or wider.
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Barnes "Cartridges of the world" lists bullet size as .308/.311 with the same ammount of variation on rim thickness (well, slightly less on the rim thickness), and if one reads the paragraph on this cartridge carefully, the origonal diameter was .308, though there was a lot of variation. The current SAAMI spec is in fact .311.
I tend to think that you could possibly get away with firing a .311 bullet in a .308 dia bore with absolutely no issues, and also reverse this with the same results.
The origonal bore diameter was listed as .308 though, so until the bore is slugged on an individual rifle I think that it would be safe to assume that it is in fact a .308.
This is not to say that I couldn't think of using bullets developed for the 303 British, in fact, this might be a wise decision, as those bullets would be designed to expand at lower velocities than .308 bullets.
Dang! This is why I personally have always stuck with the common calibers! My buddy can't afford for me to do 100's of rounds of load development. Keep bouncing stuff around so I can hopefully build a reasonably accurate, and reliable on game load for him.
Mike
 
How hard would it be to slug the barrel, just to be sure?

Oversize, i.e. .311" are routinely used by guys who shoot (gasp!) cast bullets with appropriate materials to avoid/reduce barrel leading. More for cowboy action though, not many hunters would go for that!
 
.303 Savage rifles have .308 bores! I have loaded rounds for a buddy of mine with an original take down model. R-15 seemed to work the best.
35gr. R-15, 170gr .308 Speer flat point, 2200f.p.s., C.O.L.= 2.535"
This load hit exactly where the factory loads hit. I went with the 170 flat point because it is designed to work at this velocity. The difference that a spitzer would make at a realistic maximum range for this caliber is negligible.
 
rombat said:
.303 Savage rifles have .308 bores! I have loaded rounds for a buddy of mine with an original take down model. R-15 seemed to work the best.
35gr. R-15, 170gr .308 Speer flat point, 2200f.p.s., C.O.L.= 2.535"
This load hit exactly where the factory loads hit. I went with the 170 flat point because it is designed to work at this velocity. The difference that a spitzer would make at a realistic maximum range for this caliber is negligible.
Click to expand...

I think you may have pegged it.
Mike
 
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