[spindlehead]

Hello,

I was recently given a .300 Savage Model 99f and I would like to hear some opinions on this rifle and whether it will be effective at 100+ yards. I will be using it this November for White tail in Central Missouri, it's a long way to travel with the wrong gun.

Thanks,

Chris

p.s. it has a rather unique magazine...it's rotary and holds 5+1in the chamber. There is a small "window on the left where the number of shells is shown. Pretty cool I guess.

 

[andy]

with good softpoints, and you doing

your part, it will be fine to 300 yds, if scoped, 200 yds if iron sighted, given a fully exposed deer, sideways to you. If, however, all you have to shoot at is a small hole in the brush, to reach the dear, you have to scale back the ranges accordingly. That's if, of course, benchrest firing on paper target shows that you don't have a bent barrel, bad bedding, dinged muzzle crown, etc, and if you aren't firing in haste, from offhand. Wear electronic earmuffs while hunting. or at least, Norton's "Sonic" earvalves ($20 so that you are a lot less likely to flinch at the muzzle blast. The muffs let you hear small sounds better than just your ears can, but they "shut out' loud sounds. The earvalves aren't as good at shutting out sound, but they are handier in the field. They "whistle" in the wind, tho. There used to be (still is?) some outfit that sells a kit for you to make a casting of your ear canals, and then they make a plastic ear plug that custom fits your ear. It has a tiny hole in it, which suffices to keep out loud blasts.

Avoid the shoulder bones, and unless very close and using Nosler Partitions or some such premium bullet, avoid rear angle shots. Many softpoint wont exit with such shots, meaning no blood trail,a nd possibly, a lost animal.

 

[spindlehead]

Wow...to be honest I understood about 5 words of your post! LOL
I don't know too awful much beyond how to shoot them. If it can kill to 300yds. I'd say that's great. Most areas we hunt down there don't have many 200+ yrd. shots anyway. Most everyone I hunt with use 30 .06's but they seem like overkill most of the time. Unless you get a big deer that is. I had been using a 30-30 and I figured for free I couldn't go wrong. Thanks(I'll try to pay attention and learn as I go)

Chris

 

[andy]

300 Savage has2000 ft lbs at the muzzle

Many states permit the use of 357 revolvers on deer, with 500 or so ft lbs of energy. The Savage still has that much power left at 500 yds, if you load it with a boatailed bullet, which is a taper at the bullet's base, to help it slip thru the wind better. The problem is, softpoing big gamebullets can't be expected to "mushroom' in flesh below 1800 fps, and the 150 gr bullet thats probably your best bet, only starts with about 2500 fps at the muzzle of the Savage. Air resistance will slow that boattailed softpoint to 1800 fps by the time it travels 300 yds.

Also, under field conditions, on a movable target,with wind, mirage, and no bench rest, a300 yd shot, at a typical deer, with a savage, even scoped, is a very long shot, definitely for a real marksman, from prone with a rest for the riflle's forend. Lots and lots of guys talk about shooting far better, but believe me, 90+ % of trhem are full of it.

 

[John in AR]

For reference, the following .30-caliber cartridges and energy levels, using regular ammo:


.30-30 - 1500-1900 ft/lbs

7.62x39 (AK-47 / SKS round) - 1400-1500 ft/lbs

.300 Savage - 2200-2300 ft/lbs (I had to look this one up in the Shooters Bible.)

.308 Winchester - 2400-2800 ft/lbs

.30-06 - 2500-2900 ft/lbs


So you can see, your gun's around one-and-a-half times more powerful than a .30-30, which has been the deer-rifle standard for decades now. It's really more in the same class as the .308. IMO, looking at these numbers, a deer wouldn' know the difference between the .308, .300 Savage, and .30-06 out to several hundred yards.

One caution I'd offer is that once you pick a load you like for the rifle, pick up some extra shells. It's not a caliber you're likely to find at every store, and it would be frustrating to want to go hunting and not be able to find ammo at the last second.

Regarding the gun itself, I've never heard a bad thing about a Savage 99. Iron sights will work out to a couple hundred yards if you do your part. As said above, a 200-yard whitetail shot is a very long shot under hunting conditions. A GOOD scope (if it doesn't have one now) will make it a VERY versatile rifle, capable of even more.

That's a long way of saying, unless there's something mechanically wrong with it, you've got a very good rifle in a very capable caliber.

:beer:

 

[andy]

I just lost a whole PAGE of post to this

guy,and I WAS logged in, 15 minutes ago. I am going to QUIT posting here, if this is not corrected. It's happened MANY times already, and I'm tired of it. CHANGE the automatci logout time to something decent, like hours, instead of 10 minutes, or whatever you've got it set at.

 

[John in AR]

Don't know. I haven't had any problems with timeout or logout.

My above post probably took more than 10 minutes from start to finish, just because I had to dig out the shooters bible in the middle of it, and I also took time to microwave a cup of coffee as well. Hasn't logged me out yet.

 

[spindlehead]

Shells

I am using Remington 180gr. core-lokt soft points. Would you recommend these or is there a better ammunition? Thanks for the replies...my scope is a 3x9 power, it is pretty small and it's mounted so that I can't use the iron sights. Are there mounting hardware so that I can use them? If I use different mounting rings(if there are some) will that mean that I have to sight it in again?

I shot it yesterday at a rifle range and it is very smooth action and it shoots pretty straight. I am really happy with it so far, I can't wait to sight in on a white tail!

I am usually just a bow hunter but now I'm look foreward to rifle season as well..

Thanks

 

[41mag]

223fan?Maybe it's a hint....

 

[andy]

yeah, right, so the site can go back to

being moribund.

The Corelokt is supposedly a good bullet, but I have no personal experience with factory round(in almost no calibers, actually) I've always reloaded for max performance, myself. I dont trust ammomakers to not change things about a load, based upon aspects that are important to THEM (like cutting costs)

 

[andy]

change ANYTHING about rifle or sights,

u DO have to check the zero of the sights. In fact,just having the rifle ride around in a case, ina vehicle, or having a wood stock absorb or lose moisture (for a few weeks) can change your POI. That's why first, glass bedding of the stocks became deriguer, and then fiberglass stocks beame popular.

 

[andy]

See thru mounts are available for some

rifles, but I dunno about the Savage. Do a search for Brownell's Supply, and PachMayr (sp?) gunsmithing, maybe email their technicions. Pachmayr used to offer a scope mount that let you swing aside the scope, and use the irons. Dunno if it was worth a hoot, or if they still make it or not.

High mounted scopes tend to slow you down for a sighted shot, and/or make you add a cheekpiece to the rifle's comb. They make you hold your head .5"-1" higher, ya see, in order to look thru the glass, and that can mean that your cheek comes off of the stock. Depends upon your facial contours, and upon the rifle.