250 Sav with a i:14

[gongguy]

Hi folks, new member here, Okay you probably gone through this one before. I picked up a model 1899 Sav in 250. It's a old one (1916) but has a very good bore in the then standard 1 in 14" twist. I'm thinking I'll have to keep bullet wieght under 90grs for stability. Question is what's a good mould for this gun? I'll take load data to if you have a good one that's accurate. Sometimes we pick a gun up that says "buy me" and afterwards we think "now why did I go and do that? This is such a case and with a price of $280 I said "okay." Any help much appreciated.:veryconfu

[303Guy]

Welcome aboard.:drinks:

Now, it's a 250 Savage. That's good. It's a Savage model 99. That's good. And you got it for US$280, so what's the problem? I suspect you may be limited 87gr boolits but what the heck. Actually, cast should be heavier for the same length so a bit heavier would be likely. If you tried paper patching you would likely get some pretty spectacular performance out of it. I would hazard a guess of around 3000fps. Paper patching is quite challenging but a heap of fun. Just a suggestion.

[Lloyd Smale]

dont know about cast as ive never fooled with them in it but ive got a winchester bolt in 250 with a 1-14 twist and it shoots 87 sierras and speers real well and my son has taken quite a few deer with those two bullets.

[Larry Gibson]

A 257420 should do really well to some surprising velocities with the correct powders. Better still would be, if you can find one, a 257463 (75 gr) or a 257464 (89 gr). I would suspect with both of those Lovern designs excellent accuracy could be had up through 2500 fps. Very nice find and buy BTW.

Larry Gibson

[grouch]

Greenhill says you can use boolits up to 0.67" long, whatever they weigh.
Grouch

[rintinglen]

I have just started casting some 257-463's for use in my own m-99. Got the mold at the Orange County gun show for a surprisingly painless $40 for a new-old stock double cavity mold. Right now I am still sizing and gas checking, then I have about 80 empty pieces of brass that I am going get loaded.

My rifle won't shoot anything longer than the 100 grain remington factory bullet with anything resembling accuracy, but this short little fire plug-looking boolit ought to do well. I am off Weds.-Sunday this week, so I hope to get something done and get out to the range for a little testing. I'll give 2400, Rl-7 and maybe Unique a try. WW-748 works best with Jacketed, so I may give it a try as well. If I can get something that shoots around an inch at 50 yards, Ill be happy as a pig in mud.

One thing I have noted is that the smaller the boolit, the greater the number of rejects. I get the best results if I have a huge sprue, spilling over the side and run the pot higher than normal. How those fellows cast those 37 grain 22's is beyond me.

[GREENCOUNTYPETE]

every one else here is looking for a slow twist barrel and your worried about it , forget what they told you about jacketed your in cast land now.

if you look around you will even find many here prefer slower twist barrels in cal like .223 , that 1 in 12 is often desired as it made the bullet conditionally stable , and it had better terminal results

[Stick_man]

I believe Swede Nelson (NOE) has one or two 80gr moulds available from a recent group buy. You may want to check his inventory in the Vendor/Sponsor Sales section.

[303Guy]

I haven't really looked into mold designs but there are designs with large lube grooves. These make a boolit less stable by removing mass from the periphery of the boolit and makes them lighter too. You have the length limitation but with a boolit of higher surface mass you can have a slightly longer and heavier boolit. For shooting paper weight does not matter. For hunting game you want as heavy a boolit as possible, bearing in mind the velocity won't suffer for it.

[dnepr]

don't discount longer j-words or boolits til you try them . I have a 1in 14 twist Savage 99 and it shootsgr hornady j-words quite well , same with the 1in 38 twist in my .444 I was told it would never handle the 300 gr bullets , it does quite well with 300 gr barnes originals , and lee 310 gr cast

[DanLee]

The 1-14" twist will handle cast bullets up to about 115 grains, depending on the length, as was previously stated. I like the RCBS 100-grain bullet, but you pay a premium for the mold as it is a "special," whatever the hell that is.

Dan

[quilbilly]

I used to have a Mod 99 in 250 built in the 1920's. It wouldn't shoot anything over 100 gr but loved anything smaller. It was deadly with 87 gr J-word bullets and with those I took the largest bodied deer I have ever gotten (nearly 375# on the hoof), one shot DRT. Sold the rifle but loved the caliber so much I got T/C Encore in it. You got a heck of a deal on that rifle. I got $700 for mine easily.

[gongguy]

Thanks for all the great info everyone and the heads up on Swede Nelson's moulds Stick_man. Also thanks Larry Gibson and 303guy. All very informantive. I'll post results when I get things happening. This'll be a paper puncher, actually they all are now...I've taken my last whitetail... I miss the act of hunting but not the killing...can't figure out how to do hunt and release.:lovebooli