Savage 99 restification project

[Ian]

Due to the nose shape they get marked pretty well by the lands when pc'd and seated so the front band is nearly to the chamfer at the end of the chamber (the part that passes for a throat with a SAAMI-spec reamer). I can shoot them that way uncoated but they're too long for the magazine. So I seat them so the front band is barely past the case mouth and that makes plenty of room for PC on the nose and I can poke them all the way in the chamber, smack the butt plate with my palm, and they fall back out.

The super-short OAL of the magazine spool is why I didn't want to throat this rifle to begin with, I really wanted to to try pointy, lighter bullets in it and still not have too much OAL, so the throat pretty much needs to be non-existent for the profile I want and OAL limitations. This ACE bullet is pretty close to perfect when coated.

 

[Brad]

I am not familiar with these bullets. Photos?

How heavy do you plan to go with subs?

 

[fiver]

imagine the xcb minus a lube groove but with a square front drive band.

 

[Brad]

So the nose is slightly under groove diameter? More of a bore rider? Straight nose or tapered?

 

[Ian]

ACE on the left (blue), MP in the middle, (black). If you look close you can see the engraving marks on the nose of the dummy rounds. The far right is the bullet Fiver sent me to try, it works but won't go in the magazine.

The heaviest I'll probably ever go with subs is 170-180 grains, no need for that much really, for varmints out to 100 yards the MP hollow point will do nicely and won't be slowing down very much due to the nose profile. I'll hunt with the higher-speed stuff, maybe I can work it up to 2300 fps and keep the pressure around 30-32K, that should be plenty for whitetail. I still have the Lee 160RN mould to try too, last one I had was .309x.298 (sold it) and should be fine for PC if I decide on a heavier bullet. All I have to do is make up my mind whether I want to trade 150 fps for 20 grains of bullet, and for hunting, I'm leaning toward no.

 

[Brad]

Is the black one the MP version of the 311410? I have a 4 cav HP of that mould and haven't really tried it in much yet.
I may cast some solids to try in the 300 BO. I fear the HP would get torn up by the feed ramps.
That 140 ACE looks like a good bullet.

 

[Ian]

That's the one, I borrowed the mould to cast a bunch and have since returned it so I didn't remember the number.

The ACE bullet is a much better design IMO, it has a slight taper to the nose and not such a ball-shaped ogive. The MP bullet tends to gimble in the throat too much and has to be steered from the back almost entirely, think reverse of 'self aligning', and my .308 won't shoot them worth a damn.

 

[Brad]

That 311410 was designed for 30 carbine I do believe.
I bought mine for the 30 carbine BH but haven't shot many in it. Like I need another project right now......
Wonder how the ACE does at HV.

 

[Ian]

It isn't much of a sample but you saw the target. The two going over 2100 fps were touching @ 75 yards.

 

[Ian]

I'm still waiting for Freebullet to log on and tell me again how much he doesn't like the look of rust blue...

 

[fiver]

your welcome.... for the ACE design.
that's one I sent to josh when Jared decided to go with the ED Harris design. {which I had no problem with}
it has 2 different diameters [which is why I asked Ian which version he had got] there is one for the regular 30 cals and the smaller one for the AR 300's.
he wouldn't bend on the front drive band angle, but he did open the base of the nose and the area right at the ogive as part of the final design.

I'm kind of surprised and bummed that those RCBS bullets don't fit your Magazine, it really is a super good bullet in the 30-30 for just about anything you want it to do from 1500 fps on up.

 

[Ian]

Well I have three other .30-30s (including the sweet little 336 that Josh still regrets selling me) that have the zero throat problem and will love that RCBS bullet, so they'll get used I assure you. My beloved Lee custom 311041 copy has a .305 band in between the front drive band and the bore-diameter nose and that makes it shoot so much better in things like .308 and '06 than the Lyman version that's .299 all the way to the front band, but it won't chamber in my throatless .30-30s. I shoot it in my old 336 Texan which has a "ranch dog" throat with no step at the end of the chamber whatsoever, plus a lot of wear, rust, firelapping, etc. and the skinny nose bullets bounce around in there like bbs in a box car.

 

[Bret4207]

Can't recall if you left that in 303 or not, but I think if you use something like the RCBS 30-180FN at anything north of 1900 fps that it will do very, very nicely on whitetail. That bullet at 1500 fps penetrates the length of cows head, through the neck and out the backside of the neck above the withers.

 

[Ian]

It's still a .30-30 Winchester. After some discussion on the other thread about various re-boring options or 7x30 Waters, and some concerns about the square receiver cracking, I decided to keep the original chambering.

 

[Bret4207]

Okay, couldn't recall which it was. Either way, that 180FN is a great 30 cal design for hunting.

 

[VZerone]

Ian have you tried the Mihec 308 hollow point hunting bullet for fit?

 

[popper]

Guy next to me at the range last week was shooting one in 250 savage(?). Nice rifle and he liked it for pigs.

 

[VZerone]

Long time ago in another state a friend of mine traded a really bubba 7.7 Jap and $150 dollars for a Savage 99 at a pawn shop. Turns out to be a very early tapered octogan barrel, with German silver front sight blade, steel crescent buttplate, rotary magazine with the counter window, in mint conditions 303 Savage. Boy was I envious!

 

[Ian]

I saw one of those on a closed auction that sold for $75,000 and wasn't "mint", probably only 95%.

This one was probably worth $100 with the corroded-out bore, bubba front sight, second refinish on the stocks (someone slapped a coat of Tru-oil on over the varnish someone else had put on the wood years ago), and over-buffed/cold blued receiver. But the action was decent and it was all there, so worth fixing if you didn't have to pay a gunsmith to do it. I figure I have about $6500 in it at $50/hr. (being conservative and not counting the time logging for stock wood), plus $350 in parts and another $150 in materials, so it would take seven grand to break even on it if I sold it.

I don't have Bob's .30 hunter mould, but the nose is too wide at the front for the magazine spool according to pictures Brad has posted of it in the past next to bullets I do have. So far I'm pretty happy with the way the ACE 140 is working out, I just need to figure out how to get the internal ballistics to calm down so it will print one group instead of two.

 

[fiver]

I know you know how to make that happen, it's just whether you want to use it/them or not.