Mold for 300 Savage

[webradbury]

Does anyone know which mold(s) is are available now for casting the 300 Savage boolit? My father found a nice Savage 99 today and bought it after may years of wanting one. He also ordered (because he could not find any locally) two boxes of ammunition to the tune of $33 per box + $10 to ship which is absolutely absurd!!! When he told me what he paid for the ammo, I asked him to abstain from any further ammo ordering and let me look into loading him some rounds.

I know that the case has a short neck and read from past posts here that the Ideal 311414 was made for this cartridge. I checked te Ideal website but could not find this mold. Is the mold discontinued? If so, is there an alternative. I know I could always get with Accurate Molds for a custom if all else fails. Thanks, Will

[RickinTN]

The short neck would be something to contend with. I have a 300 Savage but have yet to try any cast in it. I really don't know what mold to suggest but I can say that if you decide to go with an Accurate mold it will be to the dimensions you designate. I have my third one on the way from Tom now and am anxious to get it. Another option I'm sure you've considered would be j-words which is very straight forward in the 300.
Good Luck,
Rick

[webradbury]

Very helpful, thanks!

[CENTEX BILL]

Try the NOE mold 311 155gr FN. This bullet was derrived from the 7.62x39 bullets but should work well in the 300 Savage. Check Swede's website www.noebulletmolds.com. He has several in stock.

Bill

[451whitworth]

i use the RCBS 30-150-FN in my 99G. IMO it's a perfect match for the cartridge.

[Hardcast416taylor]

The old Ideal #311466 Loverin design that weighed in the 150 gr. range worked very well in the short necked .300 Sav. The cartridge seems to really shine with 150 gr. "J" bullet ammo. Before the .308 came along the .300 Sav. was called the "baby .30-06" because the 150 gr. load for it was nipping on the heels of the 180 gr. .30-06 loads. The U.S. miltary for awhile was considering adopting it before the .308 with its longer neck came along, the shorter neck .300 didn`t work well in full auto weapons.Robert

[stocker]

My Savage 99/300 likes the RCBS 30/180FNGC which drops at over 190 grains. It does have to seat deeply into the case, well below the neck/shoulder junction. I put a bit of PSB in the case to meet powder and bullet base with light compression. The boolit shoots amazingly well despite the deep seating at about 1900 with unhardened boolits. It also shoots the RCBS 150 grain quite nicely. I size at .310 and use C-Red lube from Lars.

[Shuz]

Lyman's 311291 was the boolit I used when I had a Rem 722 in .300 Savage. It shot very well despite the short neck.

[trixter]

I have been casting the Lee C309-150-F. I use it in my 300 savage (Remington bolt), and my A-3 30-06. Works great. These are gas checked.

[catskinner]

The Lee 311-185-2R for the 303 British has worked surprisingly well for me in a Remington 722 300 Savage.

[CJR]

If you have a standard 300 Savage chamber the cylindrical throat diameter, before the forcing cone, is 0.3095"D, whereas a 308 Win cylindrical throat is 0.310"D. So if the 300 Savage CB is final-sized to a diameter greater than 0.3095"D, there is a possibility of wedging the CB into the cylindrical chamber section when chambering the round. Then, if you decide to extract a live round, there is the possibility of de-bulleting the CB from the case. Just so you know.

Best regards,

CJR

[onceabull]

My choice in the 300 S. has always been Lymans' 311440, or one of the clones...Started using this one after reading somewhat of an endorsement by Paco K...had to buy boolits from Western Cast in Missoula long ways back B4 finding a lyman on e-Bay... also used the Lyman 311407 (another obsolete lyman mould)...enjoy the quest...Onceabull

[webradbury]

Thanks to all! Your knowledge of moulds is outstanding! I think I am going to order some different bullets of the types described above to try out before settling on a mould. Will

[richhodg66]

Lyman's 311291 was the boolit I used when I had a Rem 722 in .300 Savage. It shot very well despite the short neck.

I worked with a 722 I was giving to my brother for about a year and it shot jacketed well, no cast, but lately I have been trying to develop a cast load in my 1950 Vintage 99 and the good ol' Ideal 31141 we all know and love in the .30-30 seems to be doing quite well. In my 99 and my older model 1920, I can seat this bullet way out and it still chambers fine. In fact, my 99 will chamber rounds seated out far enough that they won't cycle through the magazine. I'm beginning to think the old short neck being problematic in the .300 is more hearsay than anything else.

One problem is seating them out that far leaves exposed lube. I need to figure out a way to deal with that, but this '99 is gonna get hunted with cast this deer season.

[Larry Gibson]

Lots of advise on moulds.........

Let me add; .300 Savage cases are easily formed from .308W cases, especially Winchester cases which are readily available. Simply FL size in the 300 Savage FL die and trim.

Larry Gibson

[richhodg66]

Larry, I tried reforming a .308 case once to see if I could do it. It worked, but I managed to put together enough brass for it in the WTB forum here that I'm not worried. It isn't real rare, and I don't want to trim cases that much.

The ranchdog 165 worked real well in my .308 Model '99. I haven't tried it in my .300 Model '99, but I'm encouraged by how well the 31141 worked that I'm going to try it. I'm really thinking there will be now difference between those two in terms of terminal performance, so it'll come down to which one functions and shoots best.

[DeanWinchester]

Lee's .312-155 for 7,62x39 should work great. It's a great design for short necks.

[trixter]

Thanks Larry that was something I didn't know and now I do and I appreciate it

[lotech]

In my experience with only one rifle (about twenty-five years ago), using reformed .308 brass required turning the case necks. I don't recall whether I used Remington or Winchester brass.

[358 Win]

As lotech metioned, my reformed .308 Win brass sized to .300 Savage needed the necks turned also. Just for SAG I even made .300 brass from 30-06/270 cases albeit they should have been annealed but I did not load them, just made the .300 cases that way to see if it could be done. My favorite cast bullet mold for my four .300 Savages has been the old Lyman 31141 @ 178 grains fully dressed with lube and gas check attached. I seated them in the crimp groove on the bullet. I knew full well that the bullet would protrude below the case neck into the powder space. I just wanted to see if they would shoot as loaded that way having read the cast bullet should never protrude into the powder space causing hot powder gases to do damage to the sides of the bullets, yada yada yada. Well guess what, as loaded with 16 grains of Alliant 2400 powder and a FederaL 215 primer, my 50 yard groups have three shots almost touching and I get no leading. The velocity was 1688fps and made an economical, pleasant shooting, low noise load as shot from my 1956 Savage Model 99 which feeds them from the spool magazine perfectly!
358 Win

[lotech]

Bullets cast from the RCBS 30-180 FN mould using an alloy that approximated Lyman #2 alloy provided good accuracy in my .300 Savage at about 1,900 fps using 2230 powder. Bullets from this mould are similar to the Lyman #311041, just longer and heavier, about 180-190 grains depending on alloy - an excellent .30 cal. bullet for the .30-30 through .30-06, usually sized at .310". It goes well below the case neck in the .300 Savage. Like 358 Win, I never found this to be a disadvantage. Another fine bullet for the .300 Savage is the NEI 311.155 GC. I think this was a C.E. Harris design for the 7.62x39 and weighed about 155-160 grains. If I recall correctly, it has a fat nose and also requires deep seating. Like the 30-180 FN, this bullet shot well with 2230 up to about 1900 fps or so, using the Lyman #2 approximation. Lee came out with a copy of this bullet; may still be in production.

[DEVERS454]

Lee's .312-155 for 7,62x39 should work great. It's a great design for short necks.

This is the mold I am using right now and I size it down to .309 for the time being.

I seat it to 2.54" OAL and use regular Lyman Ideal lube. I am using Hornady gas checks. I size to .311 then down to .309"

I am just getting started with this arrangement and using 18gr of 2400 in reformed 30-06 brass as well as new Hornady cases. ($35 per 50, you can see why I work up a load in reformed cases first)

I water quench my Lee bullets before sizing, so they are plenty hard coming from Lyman #2 alloy. I am keeping my loads to under 1900fps for the time.

[trixter]

Lots of advise on moulds.........

Let me add; .300 Savage cases are easily formed from .308W cases, especially Winchester cases which are readily available. Simply FL size in the 300 Savage FL die and trim.

Larry Gibson

I read this post with great interest, but really; is that all there is to it? I have an old RCBS 'A2' press, will I need that much of a press to do this? I don't suppose that you have some before and after photos??? If not that is OK. I have just never tried anything like this before.

Thanks for your help.