What round came first the .30-30 Winchester or the .303 Savage?
I believe the .303 Savage round first appeared in the Model 1895 Savage rifle, and later the Model 1899 Savage, or better known as the Savage Model 99.
As a little guy back in the 1950’s I would ride along with my Dad, and his hunting partner who had a Savage 99 in .303 Savage. At the time my Dad had a Winchester Model 64 in .32 Winchester Special. Admittedly both killed deer, Dad with 170-grain bullets and the hunting partner with 190-grain bullets. I am sure there were discussions about the killing power of each rifle. I was impressed with the 190-grain bullets because they were bigger.
By the time I was old enough to buy my first deer tag, Dad had traded his .32 Special off for a .300 Savage with a scope. The hunting partner had bought the first on-the-block Winchester Model 88 in .308 Winchester. Still a believer in the big bullet he used 180-grain Silvertip ammunition.
A neighbor quickly offered up a M94 Winchester in 25-35 to hunt deer with. While I appreciated the use of the rifle I was not impressed, nor was Dad’s hunting partner. The .303 Savage was offered up and I quickly accepted.
A feature I liked about the rifle was it’s smooth rotary magazine, and shell counter. Being able to look at the counter and see how many rounds the rifle held was reassuring. The rear sight on the rifle was a big old buckhorn sight. A feature I did not like was the safety, which also locked the lever. At 0600 with frozen fingers it was tough to operate when wearing cheap gloves.
Years later when our friend passed away I did not get a chance to make an offer on the rifle. I regret not stepping forward in making an offer, but the timing was not good, or appropriate.
I have always taken an interest in the cartridge and have never come across any reliable data for load it to velocities approaching the .308 Winchester. I have at least three manuals in my library that have data for the .303 Savage. Basically the data duplicates or slightly exceeds the 30-30 Winchester. The data I have recommends using .308 diameter bullets.
Having no reliable data for Hot Rod .303 Savage loads I would approach the loading for it with respect, considering the age of the rifle, and the case. The ability to use pointed bullets is nice, but most of them are designed to work at velocities high then those produced by the .303 Savage. Most bullets designed for the 30-30 Winchester, do a great job in the .303 Savage, and .30 Remington.
A bullet that might prove better then the flat tip 30-30 bullets is the Hornaday 150-grain round nose. I have never loaded it in the .303 Savage but obtained very accuracy loading it in the 30-30 Winchester case using IMR4320. I mention IMR4320 because in my research of the .303 Savage case it appeared to give to velocity with heavier bullets.
Lyman’s 46th Edition shows the .303 Savage pushing the Remington 150-grain soft point C-L at 2444 using IMR4320.
There are other 150-grain bullets that are ballisticly superior to the C-L.
Now days the .303 Savage is a reloader's cartridge, currently Huntington is advertising .303 Savage cases made by Norma. What round came first the .30-30 Winchester or the .303 Savage?
http://www.huntingtons.com/cases_norma.html#303Savage**After WWII when Savage started loading the .308 Winchester family the frame of the rifle grew a little. I have no idea if the metallurgy was up graded for the higher cartridges.
