Military Headstamps: Sometime in the 1960’s my Dad bought a few boxes of Winchester 300 Savage ammunition in brown boxes with a generic label. The cases had a military head stamp. They were loaded with a FMJ bullet. Unfortunately # 2 brother tossed the boxes and the empty cases.
I would not be surprised that this ammunition was loaded at the time the U.S. Military was developing the 7.62 round for the M14 rifle. I have read many articles that claim the 300 Savage case was the father of the 7.62 NATO case.
I agree with Doug B that the amount of case trimming is a pain. For a long time I was using my original Forster case trimmer with a hand crank to trim the cases but that gets old real fast. In the long past when many of our members were in diapers that bulk brass was not available to the reloader. There was a time that I was happy to buy new brass in boxes of 20 cases. But Midway changed that and I was able to buy bulk brass in boxes of 100 cases.
My Remington 722 has a 24-inch barrel and that extra two inches translates into higher velocities than many 308 loads out of a 22-inch barrel. Using a lot of caution I have built my load up to 41.4 grains of IMR4064 and a 165 grain bullet. That is the maximum charge recommend in three (3) of my Hornady reloading manuals. I use a long drop tube when loading it.
Yes, I have exceeded the recommend maximum charge with test rounds without a problem. But I share cwlongshot concerns regarding the ammunition falling into another’s hands. I am happy with the rifle as is, but I have thought about re-chambering it in the distant pass.
One option I have looked at is the 30-284 Winchester. Of course this requires re-chambering the rifle and reforming sometimes hard to find 284 Winchester cases.
http://www.loaddata.com/members/search_detail.cfm?MetallicID=1431&caliber=.30&caliberid=12&header=.30%20Caliber%20Reloading%20DataAnother option is re-chambering to the 308 Winchester case. I considered this option back before the bulk 300 Savage cases were available. This would have made a lot of properly head stamped cases available, and take out the labor required to reform and trim cases. A review of the load data in three Hornady manuals indicates that such a change does not upgrade velocity and to reach the velocity obtained in my .300 Savage loads in a 308 chambered rifle requires two or three additional grains of powder. Admittedly I am comparing my rifle with a 24-inch barrel with a test 308 with a 22-inch barrel.
If I understand correctly IMR4320 was the powder in Remington-Peters loads. I started out developing loads using IMR4320 and IMR4064. I settled on IMR4064 and after getting a Chrony some years later I tested the loads using 4064 and was pleased with the results. I found the velocity of factory ammunition did not match published data.
Brother #2 gave me a jug of AA2015BR. This powder produced very accurate loads; maybe that is why BR stands for Bench Rest. When the brother obtained a Remington Model 760 in 300 Savage I advised him of the results with AA2015. He has been very happy with the results using AA2015. The maximum published load appears to be very mild and the listed pressures fall below the maximum pressure of 46,000 cup.
Both the Model 760 and the 722 which are of much later manufacture then the early Model 99 Savages and handle our loads without any issues. I was interested at what point my brother’s 760 would suffer extraction problems, because he loads full throttle at times. He has had no problems with functioning in the 760.
I believe the Short, Fat .300 Savage case leans towards accuracy. I have not fired recently loaded factory ammunition in many years, but it has been my experience that my handloads have improved the accuracy of my rifle.
I think the 165-grain bullets are the ideal weight for the 300 Savage when deer hunting. I have some good 150-grain loads giving slight over a thousand pounds of energy at 400-yards. The 165-grain bullets launched at a slow 2670 fps product over a 1000 pounds of energy at 600 yards.
Exit hole caused by a 165-grain Nosler PT from my 722 Remington in .300 Savage. Bullet entered the front of the right shoulder, traveled up the neck and exited on the right side.
