.303 Savage M1899

[26Charlie]

Have been slowly getting stuff together to work with this carbine, made in 1921. Sights are bead front and aperture rear.

I have about 1000 .30-30 brass, so have been making cases by Robertbank's method of sleeving the base with a cutoff .40 S&W case, then sizing & fireforming. It is more work than sizing and trimming .220 Swift cases, of which I made one, but I cannot bring myself to use up expensive Swift brass of which I have only a limited supply. I ordered some new .303 brass form Buffalo Arms, but it has been on backorder for several months.

Lyman 311291 175 gr. and 12.0 gr. 800-X worked well and gave me a useful plinking load s well as formed brass. I thought to use a RCBS 150 gr. bullet and jack up the load to 14.0 gr. 800-x, which formed the brass OK but did not group as well. I got a 9" 10-shot group at 100 yards and a 6" 28-shot group at 50 yards. Now to put together some loads with the formed brass.

I've been getting really interested in these intermediate thirty-calibers - .303 Savage, .30-30, and .30 Remington Rimless.
I shot a group at 50 yards with the .30-30 Marlin M36, using a small game load of the RCBS 32-98-FP pistol bullet and 3.3 gr. Bullseye. Four went into 1 inch, with a shot out at 2 1/2 " to the right. Aperture rear/bead front sights.

The .30 Remington in a M8 semiauto (can I put this in the levergun forum?) responded OK to a load of 16.0 gr. 2400 behind a RNGC 162 gr. design from a mould I recently picked ip - it is a Cramer 49A, three cavity. Gave me a 9-shot group at 100 yards of 4 7/8", sights being large bead front and aperture rear. The 10th shot? I'm not counting it because I flinched it and knew it at the time. The load functions the action OK and drops the empties right next to the gun on the bench.

[9.3X62AL]

As a user of some hard-to-find handgun calibers, I share your concerns about finding brass for the 303 Savage and 30 Remington. Starline has been a godsend for my 30 Mauser/7.62 x 25, and their list of calibers grows as time goes on. Dunno if they will get to the 303 Savage or 30 Remington, though.

[NVcurmudgeon]

Charlie, Last time I checked Huntington's in Oroville, CA had plenty of Remington .30 Rem. brass, available in increments of 50, 100, on up to 1000.

[Bret4207]

Expensive Swift brass compared to 303 brass? Buffalos 303 is $53.00 per hundred, 220 Swift is $30.00 per hundred at Midway. Buffalo has Jameson brass which I think is converted 30-30 and will be a bit small. The Swift brass is a bit thicker than too so should last forever. Just my 2 cents. The Swift brass just requires 1 pass through a 303 die, I used a cheap Lee die, and trimming.

Yup, gotta love the '99 and the 303 type cartridges. Fun, useful, inexpensive. Can't beat 'em with a stick!

[Shepherd2]

I don't know if Graf's has it in stock but they have .303 Savage listed at $34.99/100 in the wholesale catalog. Don't know what the retail price would be. I've been keeping that in mind in case I run into a deal on a 99 in .303.

[woody1]

Buffalo Arms has 30 Remington listed at $30/100. Regards, Woody

[26Charlie]

Grafs .303 Savage brass is 44.99/100, but both it and the ammo are showing out of stock. Buffalo Arms still on back order. The new .220 Swift route is looking better and better.

I've been cutting up and splitting a big downed birch in my spare moments, salvaging some firewood for next winter, sort of a geriatric exercise program, but I'll get out to the shop this weekend and put some loads together. I already found out the best of my .30 moulds for the .30-30 etc. RCBS 30-180-FP casting 190 grains, has too wide a meplat for the .303 - it hangs up coming out of the magazine against the edge of the chamber. A SAECO #304 (175 gr.) is more tapered up front, and works fine. It's meplat is smaller. Haven't tried 311041 yet.

[jtaylor1960]

I load 303 Savage ammo for a friend .I made some from 220 Swift.That isn't real easy.Between trimming, neck turning and expanding there is a lot of time invloved.I finally got from both GRAF'S and Buffalo Arms.Some were from Jamison and some were 30/40 Krag with the rim turned and resized.The 30/40 seemed to be of better quality,but time will tell.Either way you should be able to find brass to get that Savage shooting.Good luck, Jeff Taylor.

[Bret4207]

I've not yet had to do any neck turnong, but then my 303 may havea more generous neck than others. I just belled the case mouth after trimming and chamfering and fire formed with the RCBS 180FN and about 10 gr unique IIRC. No issues at all. BTW- It was recently reported here that another poster had feeding issues with the RCBS 180FN in the 303 Savage. I fiddled a bit with OAL till mine fed right. I think I had to go a bit shorter than recommended, but at any rate it works well in mine.

[JDL]

Tpr.Bret, I've also found in my .300 that I must use a slightly shorter OAL than the reccomended 2.6" for reliable feeding with flat nose boolits. -JDL

[plasma]

As a 303 Savage shooter for a longggg time I'll add my 2 cents. I have a lot of 303 brass but also have made it from 220 swift and 303 brit. Using the 220 swift is the hard way. The 303 brit (or 30-40 krag) is not too bad. Handloader magazine has an article on this and when I find it I'll tell you which issue.
What I do is:
remove the decap pin from the 303 savage resizing die.
run the 303 brit case most of the way into the die (too long for all the way)
trim the case to a bit over the required 303 savage length
rim diameter is a bit large so by placing a steel rod in the case mouth a hand held drill can be used to turn the case against a file to reduce the rim diameter.
the base of the case will need thinning some in the same manner (gently)
now full lenght size the case and trim to length.

[26Charlie]

Using the .303 cases made from .30-30's with a sleeved base, I put the 311291 175 gr. GC ahead of 22.0 gr Scot 4197 (like 4198). Grouped 5 in 4" at 100 yds, four of those in 2 3/8" . Point of impact is almost the same as the fireforming load of 12.0 gr. 800-X.
As mentioned, rifle is a M1899 take-down carbine, made in 1921, peep rear and bead front sights.