During WWII, the U.S. Army was looking to develop a new cartridge that would have nearly the power of the .30-06, but which would be smaller and lighter. They were looking forward to crafting a "light rifle" that would be select-fire - capable of both full and semiauto operation.

In 1944, Springfield Armory was tasked with developing a new weapon, and Frankford Arsenal instructed to develop the cartridge. It was decided that a shortened .30-06 shooting the same bullet with more modern case design and improved powders might work.

In a sense, that cartridge already existed. It was the .300 Savage, which had been developed way back in 1920 as the prime cartridge for the Savage Model 99 lever-action rifle. It was, in fact, a shortened .30-06 - same head size, same .30 caliber bullets.

Frankford Arsenal knew this, and proceeded to buy up a supply of commercial .300 Savage brass from both Winchester and Remington. This brass was used to test for pressure and velocity with different powders and primers.

10,000 modified prototype cases were produced at Frankford for further experimentation. The cartridge was known as the T65. Over next few years, this design went through a number of changes, including neck length, shoulder angle, and case length. In 1949, a final design was approved and called the FAT1E3. Still, more tests were called for, and it was not until August, 1954 that the cartridge was standardized as the 7.62x51mm NATO. In three more years, the U.S. Rifle, M14 was approved and adopted for service.

In 1952, the Army Chief of Ordnance gave Winchester permission to use the FAT 1E3 case commercially. Winchester introduced it as the .308 Winchester that same year, and also debuted the new Model 70 Featherweight rifle. The .308 is today an enduring standard cartridge.

Having recently acquired a Savage 99 rifle and some .300 Savage cartridges for it, I thought it would be interesting to compare the cartridge with a .308 Winchester. You can see the similarities in this picture I took this morning:



Although the headspace dimension is virtually identical, the .308 case has less taper in the body, a more tapered shoulder and a longer neck. Also the extraction groove has been modified to work better with semiauto and full-auto firearms. In this picture, the .300 Savage is loaded with a 150-grain soft point bullet for hunting, and the .308 has been handloaded with a 168-grain Sierra Match King bullet for target use. Interestingly, the velocities are nearly identical at about 2600 fps.

Here's a picture of the Frankford Arsenal developmental cartridges:



As you can see, the T65 case still has about the overall length of the .300 Savage with just a slightly longer neck length - the FAT1E3 is the nearly final 7.62x51mm product.

The .300 Savage cartridge is now obsolete in the sense that arms chambered for it are seldom if ever made now.. Savage lengthened the receiver of the Model 99 to accommodate the later and more prolific .308. Still, many thousands of older Model 99s in .300 Savage are still around, still functional, and still giving good performance right up close to the .308. Both Winchester and Remington still produce ammunition.

Here's the Savage 99 - I don't feel any less armed because it's chambered for a .30 caliber short cartridge developed in 1920!

John

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Great article on one of my favorite cartridges. I would be interested in obtaining one of the arsenal developmental cartridges.

Savage recently chambered the model 14 classic in 300 Savage, although a glance at the Savage website makes me think it's been discontinued.

Through the years, the 300 Savage was chambered in a variety of rifles including: the model 70 Winchester, 700 Remington, 742 and 760 Remington, 1899 and 99 Savage, model 1920 Savage, model 10 and 14 Savage, etc.

It's little brother, the 250 Savage; aka 250-3000, is also a cartridge with an interesting history, as well as still a very useful and versatile cartridge.

Great post! Very informative, thanks for taking the time to write this out. The only lever action I own is a Savage 99 in .300 savage. It was handed down to me from my grandfather and still continues to be an excellent rifle.

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I often thought the 300 Savage with a 130 grain bullet would have been the Ideal round in the Original select fire AR-10.and with the lighter bullet might have been controllable in full auto mode. At which point we wouldn't have needed the AR-15/M-16 and the 223. But we will never know! Ivan

The 300 Savage was also available in Remington's Semi Auto Model 81


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All those enhancements to the Savage were to make it feed smoothly in the semi-auto and full auto firearms that they were trying to develop. I love my Savage 99 in .300 Savage, and I can't wait for deer season to come around this year. I'd like to scope it, but I'd don't want to drill and tap it and ruin its collector value. However, it's accurate enough with the factory open sights. I am mulling over the idea of a tang sight as it is drilled and tapped for that.

I need to go to the range......ya'll have fun.......

You have the option of a vintage Stith mount and scope, or there is a guy on 24hourcampfire.com who goes by the screenname of Lightfoot. He makes new production scope mounts that mount to the receiver sight holes and the front sight dovetail.

No need to drill and tap that vintage rifle.

Thanks for the good background. Something i think that is really cool about the .308 that it's identical to the 30-06 with bullets 160 gr and lighter. i know the military 'required' the use of a 30 caliber, but it seems it would have been more forward-looking to have a round with a 6-7mm bullet.

How much the development of the .308/7.62 NATO cartridge cost the Western militaries is a question I would like answered. The French already had the 7.5x54 which feeds very well in semi and full auto weapons and the real lessons of combat in the European theatre pointed to a 6.5-7mm intermediate round. Unfortunately, that did not suit "old army".

Good post! One of my buddy's was trash talking (you know how buddy's are) my recently acquired 1949 vintage Savage 99 EG and its cartridge the .300 Savage. Going on about how the .308 Win so much better. Gave him one of those "my friend the moron looks" and said, well, where did you think the 7.62 NATO/.308 Win came from in the first place? Heckling your pals, great sport.

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Nice post ! Thanks for taking the time to put it together.

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There are over a million guns chambered for the .300 Savage
I would not call it obsolete

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Before that, the Swiss had the 7.5X55, which gave velocities righ up there with the 308 and 300 Savage. If I got it right the Swiss had a 174 gr bullet, it was known as the GP 11, as the cartridge was standardized in 1911, long before the 300 Savage, and a lot longer before the 7.62 NATO. Although a service round, it was held to match precision.

In WW I France had been armed with the 8mm Lebel. After the war they saw an urgent need for a more modern rifle cartridge and developed the 7.5X58 in 1924. It was a great cartridge, and closely patterned on the Swiss 7.5X55. However with all the Geman 8X57 running around, when one of those found it's way into a 7.5 M 1924 chamber, the results were disastrous; the headspace was much too long; the chamber diameter was greater than the 8mm, and forcing an 8mm bullet down a 7.5mm bore raised pressures enormously, even if the bullet wasn't one of the steel core types. Pull the trigger and there was a lot of hot gas running around inside the gun where it wasn't supposed to be. Probably the last round that rifle fired, and sometimes this held true for the shooter too. So France shortened it to 7.5X54 in 1928: no 8mm could get in the chamber. The velocities remained the same. The last rifle chambed for it was the Mle 49/56; which remained standard until replaced by the 5.56mm FAMAS.

I have been taken to task for that statement, but I meant it in the sense that few if any new guns are chambered for it now, and its niche has now been thoroughly taken over by the .308. It's still a great cartridge - it worked then and it still works.

John

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Trouble is, 7.5x55 in the early 1950s was just like 7.62 NATO, unsuitable for the expected Third World War in Europe. I'm well aware of the stunning precision of GP 11 and the K31, they make me look good on the range.

What I am trying to say is that the whole premise of .308 was wrong, but "old army" would not be told. Too much Camp Perry in their minds and not enough building a suitable killing implement. Remember that 7.5 French in its standard form launches a 139 gr pill at about 2700 fps. It's still juicier than the 7x43 intermediate cartridge that NATO should have adopted but even that was not enough for "old army". They wanted 30-06 in a smaller case when it was unnecessary and ignored the lessons learned in WWII.

Recently the bulk of the interest for a 5.56 replacement has been in 6.8 SPC, despite the fact that 6.5 Grendel has the edge at longer ranges. Now go look up 6.8 SPC in metric measure, 7x43 in round numbers. Gosh, wonder how they came up with that?

Given the advantages of 20/20 hindsight regarding cost and certain
other sucessful cartridge designs around the world it might be easy
to question the thinking that drove the US's development of the .308.
But when you consider the end result the fact is that the .308 is an
outstanding cartridge.

as i remember a lot of time and money was spent in the development of the 308 ,our tax money. i shoot 308 and like it

The military did experiment with a 6mm (Lee Navy) early in the repeating rifle development. I guess they had no interest in going back down in size, at the time. The 308 is just fine. Just not in the platform they had. Basically handing every troop a BAR (M14) , or Squad Automatic Weapon, wasn't a great idea.

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There's one I don't hear much about! This is my 300 Savage, complete with gold trigger! Nice little lever-action rifle.

Attached Images

300Sav.jpg (133.4 KB, 14 views)

Sorry if this is off track but every time these discussions come up I can't help but think that an AR10 rifle chambered in .260 Remington would make a great battle rig. You may prefer a different rifle but the cartridge is just what I'd like.

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Regards, Ron
USASA 1965/69