What bullet for heavy 308 subs in a savage 99?

[Radarsonwheels]

Howdy Fellas!

I am waiting on a tax stamp for a can and playing with my lathe. I have a beat up savage 99 that I got with a nice 1980s scope, beat up ugly wood, and a chamber that loves start loads of varget under 150gn sierra gamekings but ejects sticky with full power loads. It’s not even a cool 99 with the brass counter on it so while I really enjoy it there’s no great loss cutting it up.

In preparation for a can in the future I want to work up a subsonic handcast powdercoated load in 308.

I can slug it for diameter but what kind of weight and shape can a savage 99 stabilize at like 900-1000fps? I don’t even know what twist the barrel has. Any mold recommendations? I like MP SAECO LYMAN but right now I want to spend LEE money!

Thanks!

Radar

[Cosmic_Charlie]

You can use 9 or 10 grains of Unique and stay subsonic with 150 grain boolits. Get a gas checked design and you can use soft alloy and get some mushrooming.

[Elmer Fudd]

Check your twist. I don't recall Savage's standard, but I've never seen a factory 308 slower than 1:12. That will stabilize most, if not all, pulldown bullets, which I have shot lots of successfully. Don't feel like you have do go nuts on bullet weight. The penetration gain from a 150 pointy bullet up to a 200+ pointy bullet is negligible, in my experience. The best gain I ever got was a 220 Sierra MK, which will often tumble with wonderful results, but sometimes not. Using soft alloy or just lead cast bullets, it won't really matter for trajectory or expansion how heavy the bullet is, but the nose shape has huge differences. I prefer flatter noses like LBT has, as opposed to pointy or round bullets, whether I expect them to expand or not.
Don't get your hopes up for a subsonic 30 cal to be good killer. It isn't. But it's tremendously fun and cheap to shoot.

[Radarsonwheels]

Yeah it’s just gonna be a plinker load for hopefully hollywood quiet fun lever action shooting. And if I’m powdercoating and sizing a little big like 309 or 310 depending on slugging the barrel I won’t be messing with alloy or gaschecks just coating sizing shooting.

[Radarsonwheels]

Oh and many thanks for the responses!

It’s 1:12 twist