300 Savage Mod. 99 is only a 100 yrd gun

[Bingo]

  I have a friend who is a well known Archer and business owner. The area we hunt deer in makes it easy to shoot well over 300 yrds with the possibility of 500yrds. plus.
  My friend looked at my Sons "OLD" Savage and said Why did you bring that gun, It's only good for a hundred to a hundred and fifty yrds.
   While sitting in a stand looking out over a long narrow field, my Son spotted a deer at the edge of the pines. He brought the old Savage to sholder, took aim and squeezed the trigger. The deer he shot ran about twenty feet and piled up.
   280 yrds. Not bad for a 16 year old kid with an "OLD Savage" That was no suprise to me though. I saw my Brother take the same shot with the same gun a few years back. The only difference was that my Brother took a head shot on a 9 point buck and droped it in it's tracks.
   

[Singleshotsam]

Any given gun is able to make a certain distance shot bases on it's accuracy and stopping power.  For anyone to say this gun is only a 100 yard gun, or that gun is only good for 50 or 60 yards just proves they're ignorant.

I'll go out on a limb and say that your friend who said that is unable to judge an unkown distance and actually put rounds on various targets, and unkown distances out to  500 yards.

Grats on your sons kill btw!

[Ron T.]

CONGRATS to your son for a fine shot which was well within the range of his Model 99 in .300 Savage caliber.

I use a 1953 Model 99 in .300 Savage as my "go-to" deer rifle, but limit my shots to 250 yards or less due to my 76 year old eyes... even with a 3-9x scope.

I also hand-load my ammo for my .300 Savage.  I've been reloading for the past 50+ years and your business-owning, archer friend should stick to shooting arrows because he obviously doesn't know very much about the .300 Savage cartridge or the Model 99 Savage rifle which is "THE" most accurate lever action rifle ever made.  It is NOT uncommon for a Model 99 to shoot 3-shot groups at 100 yards into LESS than one inch.  My Model 99 routinely shoots my hand-loaded hunting loads into 3-shot groups that measure 3/4ths of an inch at 100 yards.  This kind of fine accuracy is commonplace with Model 99 Savage rifles.

Depending on your son's rifle's "zero", it would and could take deer out to as much as 500-600 yards or more.  However, at those extremely long ranges (for a sporting rifle), it takes a great deal of practice to be able to accurately put your rounds into a deer's kill zone.  However, both the Model 99 and the .300 Savage cartridge are capable of killing deer at those extreme ranges.

My own handloads parallel the supposed factory loaded round's muzzle velocity which is 2630 fps using a 150 grain bullet.  My handloads chronographed at 2635 fps with a standard deviation of only ± 3 fps (+1 fps/-2 fps).  I use 40.8 grains of Hodgdon's H4895 rifle powder which is one of their "EXTREME" powders meaning the velocity it produces is NOT... repeat, "NOT" temperature sensitive. 

Therefore, while I might "zero" my rifle on an 80º day at my club's rifle range, if I take a shot at a deer when the temperature is only 15º above zero, the point of bullet impact should be the same as it was on the 80º day... i.e., 2.75 inches high at 100 yards, dead "on" at 210 yards and about 3 inches low at 260 yards.  As you can see, using Hodgdon's EXTREME powder giving the SAME point of impact is a decided advantage over cartridges loaded with other, temperature sensitive powders... and most rifle powders ARE "temperature sensitive"!!!!

Normally, I never recommend attempting to shoot live game animals at extreme ranges simply because most hunters are not capable of shooting accurately at such extreme ranges, but NOT because the rifle and caliber won't get the job done at longer ranges!

Jus' my 2¢ plus 50 some years of big game hunting experience...   


Strength & Honor...

Ron T.

[T.R.]

My Dad (1922 -2004) hunted his entire adult life with his 300 Savage lever action rifle.  He took every big game animal Wyoming has to offer including so-called long range animals such as big horn sheep and antelope.  Dad toppled more mulies and elk than I'll ever hunt.  All these animals died and none got away. 
 
In my opinion, 300 Savage, .308, and 30-06 all hit the same out to approx 175 yards.  Same trajectory and performance.  Beyond this distance, the faster cartridges shoot flatter yet not necessarily hitting harder.  I've witnessed first hand what a 180 grain bullet fired from 300 Savage does to an elk's chest organs at 225 yards or so.  I've also witnessed nearly same shot at bull elk fired from .308 and 30-06.  The bullets produce ghastly wounds.
 
Good hunting to you in 2012!!
 
TR

[alleyyooper]

Not sure if the expert ment the 300 savage round or the 99 action made it a 100 yard gun. I only know my wifes grand father had a old savage 99 in 300 savage that my father in law was sure had a rotory mag. It killed many Michigan deer in its day many shooting across hay fields as the deer steped out of the woods.
My own experince was with my sisters 99c in 308.  She could shoot very good groups at the family shooting range on dads farm out to 250 yards. In fact you would be hard pressed to say which target came from my Remington 700 308 , dads Model 88 winchester in 308 or sis's 99 in 308.
When my sister passed away her  nephew got the rifle and loves it.
 
    Al

[Savage .250]

What other "gems" does your friend freely give out?        

[Bingo]

   The old 300 Savage 99 was grand dads gun. I just got it cleaned up for the kid and had a good scope put on it. A little shooting and a few hand loads, I'll put that Boy and his rifle up against the best of them.

[sidewinder319]

The .300 Savage Ctg. was tested and considered to replace the 30-06 as our primary round for the M 14.  It was modified and became the .308.  A hand loader can load to .308 ballistics in the 99 action.  Like Studebaker cars the 99 Savage was way ahead of its time.   

[Singleshotsam]

@ Sidewinder,

I never knew that the .300 savage was the oringinal concept behind the 7.62x51 NATO.  It's nice to learn something new everyday. 

[336SC]

I'm so fond of the .300 Savage that I own four of them.  A 1953 Savage Model 99EG, a 1949 Remington Model 722, a Remington Model 700 from 2003, and a Remington Model 7600 pump from 2003.  I've killed deer with the .300 Savage, .308 Win, 30-06, and if their is a difference in killing power, I have not detected it to date.  I handload for my .300 Savages using mostly 150gr bullets.  With the now discontinued Alliant RL-12 powder, I easily achieve 2700fps with superb accuracy!  My Model 99 is my most accurate .300 Savage by far.  I have shot it with 150gr Nosler Ballistic Tip bullets at 200yds and the drop was identical to my .270 Winchester shooting the 130gr Ballistic Tip.  Both sighted 1" high at 100yds produced a drop of 3" for both.  This is not "book" ballistics but real world shooting.  The .270 produced smaller groups at 200yds probably due to the 4.5x14x40 VXIII scope as opposed to the 2x7x32
VXII on the model 99.  I would not hesitate to take a shot at a deer with a solid shooting position at 200yds with my model 99.  Long
live the .300 Savage cartridge!!!
336SC
 
 
 

[Rangr44]

Some shooters can turn ANY rifle into a 100yd (or a 50yd) gun.  .   .
 
.