300 savage reloading question

[dale1386]

I'm fairly new to reloading rifle ammo and I've got a question for the 300 savage guru's out there. This is what I'm trying to load......Hornady 150gr. RN bullets with 39.0 grains of IMR 4064 powder. I've checked the lands in my lever action 99 takedown and it's 2.640 give a thou or 2. and I had loaded a round with an OAL of 2.550 and noticed that there seem to be a lot of exposed bullet because I had my cases trimmed to the per Lyman 48th edition 1.865". I made my cases from 308 brass and trimmed to the Lyman spec so my question is would it hurt anything to just trim the re-formed 308 brass to say 1.950" so i could have more case neck on the bullet? I would still be well off the barrel lands. or would it be a pressure risk.
Thanks

 

[RT2506]

No your max case length for the 300 Savage is 1.871 and you should trim them to 1.860 like you have. Your chamber length does not include the throat length. The throat is smaller in diameter than the neck portion of your chamber. Pay attention to if your COAL will work through your magazine when loading the bullet out long. From my experience never load a bullet closer than 10 thousands of the lands for a hunting round. Recoil can make rounds in the magazine move forward or you can make a slight mistake when seating the bullet etc. and end up sticking a bullet in the bore and pouring the action full of powder and not having a cleaning rod to poke the bullet out of the bore when you are out in the woods if you load the rifle up and walk to a tree stand, cross a fence etc. and have to unload the rifle. It can ruin a days hunt. Don't ask me how I know this. By the way the 125 gr Nosler ballistic tip makes a great deer size game bullet out of the 300 Savage.

 

[dale1386]

Thanks.......right now I'm .090" off the lands I was just hoping to get a little more neck on the round nose bullet without causing a safety problem for me or the gun.

 

[RT2506]

I always try to have at least a calibers depth of bullet in the case. Measure your bullets length from base to tip. Seat the bullet so you know that you have .308 inch of the bullet in the case neck and you will have enough bullet in the case to get a good grip on it. Most hunting bullets like Sierra's will shoot great with quite a bit of jump to the lands. I have a rifle that is a wildcat based on the 300 Savage case that has the shoulder pushed back 10 thousands inch but the OAL of the case is left alone. It makes the powder capacity a little less but makes the case neck longer. It is called a 30x47. It was used as a hunter class bench rest rifle. I use it mainly for deer hunting. I shoot a 125 Nolser ballistic tip at 2850 fps and it SMOKES deer and it is bug hole accurate. I use IMR 4895 but a max charge of your IMR 4064 should be just as accurate and deadly out of your rifle. Recoil is lighter than with 150 gr bullets and the ballistic tip really kills deer quick. I use the 125 ballistic tip in all my 30 cal. deer guns. As long as you keep your impact velocity under 3000 fps it really does a GREAT job. I have killed we will say 50+ deer with this bullet and I can't remember of having one ever go over about 3 jumps after taking one. Usually they are bang flop.

 

[dale1386]

Thanks for the info.....I'll do some bullet measuring. This is strictly a deer hunting load and I've always been a corelokt fan but can't find them no more so the Hornady 150gr RN was the closest to the corelokt. I was surprised there's hardly any load data out there for 300 savage using 150 gr RN bullets. I have the 300 case that I've split the neck to allow the bullet to move to check the lands and i took that case and adjusted a bullet to my OAL of 2.550" and it looks to have bullet right down to about where the shoulders starts but it just seems to have a lot of bullet sticking out. From the top of the case neck it's .100" up to the knurled ring on the RN bullet.

 

[dale1386]

Thanks for the info.....I'll do some bullet measuring. This is strictly a deer hunting load and I've always been a corelokt fan but can't find them no more so the Hornady 150gr RN was the closest to the corelokt. I was surprised there's hardly any load data out there for 300 savage using 150 gr RN bullets. I have the 300 case that I've split the neck to allow the bullet to move to check the lands and i took that case and adjusted a bullet to my OAL of 2.550" and it looks to have bullet right down to about where the shoulders starts but it just seems to have a lot of bullet sticking out. From the top of the case neck it's .100" up to the knurled ring on the RN bullet.