I am looking at a Savage 99 250-3000 from 1951. This means it has a 1:14 twist. Will this stabilize a 100 grain bullet. I have read a short 100 grain bullet will stabilize but not a long bullet. This means round nose bullets. I will be hunting our property in WV so my shots will be 100 yards or less.

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That's gonna leave a mark.

Yes, you are right. Stick with a short 100 grain sp snd your rifle will love you for it. The deer, maybe not.

If you don’t have ammo, I saw some in a north GA hardware store a week or two ago. I am unsure of the bullet weight.

I doubt you'd be able to tell much if any performance difference between the 87 grain and 100 grain bullets for hunting whitetails and the 87s may be considerably more accurate, but... if I had access to both bullet weights, even in spitzer form, I'd try them. Twist rate figures are a rough guideline and there are sometimes exceptions to the rules.

I agree. I'd pick up a couple different loads and find out the old fashioned way what shoots best. Sometimes they don't always follow the rules.


What part of WV is your property located?

Calhoun County right off US-33.

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That's gonna leave a mark.

I haven't hunted deer in years, but have probably taken more deer with the .250 Savage than all other cartridges. I keep pretty good notes on handloading but none on hunting. I think I've used both the 87 grain Sierra and 100 grain Sierra and Hornady for whitetail hunting. I don't recall any differences in results.

My rifles have been a couple of Rugers and one Remington. Probably all of them have had a 1 in 10" twist. An advantage of the 87 grain spitzers is another 100 fps to as much as 200 fps in muzzle velocity.

I got to use an early 1899 Savage for years before it went away when the owner went away. The fast twist does present a problem. Winchester built a short 100 grain Silvertip bullet and Remington as well along with a Cor-Lok round nose in both factory and as components. I shot a doe mule deer at 100 yards with the factory Remington round nose Cor-Lok made in the 1960's when they were truly a Cor-lok with the inner belt to retain the core, unlike now without the inner belt. The round nose had a heavier jacket than the spitzers so I felt totally comfortable shooting the doe facing me. At the shot she staggered and rejoined the herd, then escaped onto private property. Took a good half an hour to get permission to get her. She was grazing with the herd and the only indication it was my deer was there was a trickle of blood on the shoulder. A second shot put her down and I recovered the first bullet and it had come completely apart even though it had hit no bone. Extremely poor performance.

A little off track but on a related subject... Many like to hunt these days with cartridges really too light for the intended game, like using a .223 for deer. If you're a skilled shooter and all goes right, no doubt the .223 will kill deer. Strangely, no one ever mentions the wounded deer that are lost using such cartridges.

The .250 Savage, along with the .243 and 6mm Remington are certainly whitetail deer cartridges, but minimal. I've had good luck with the .250 Savage on whitetails, but I don't think I've ever taken a shot beyond 150 yards. In the hands of an expert rifleman, these cartridges are probably good for whitetail deer to 250 yards. The little bullets lose steam at distance.

I have never had more than one shot into a whitetail or mule deer here in Montana using my grandfathers 99 made in 1952. Used to used 100 grain Winchester Silvertips 'cuz that's what grandpa used.

Later I started using some 85 Nosler Ballistic tips and accuracy increased substantially. Only took one mulie with the 85 grain BT, but again it was one shot one kill.

What a nostalgic way to honor grandpa!! both Dad and grandpa hated the .243 Win. but deeply loved the .250-3000 Savage. Both are deceased so I cannot ask them why.

Randy

When I hunted deer I used a Winchester model 70 carbine in .250 Savage with a 1 in 14 twist. I hand load and found out that the most accurate 100 gram bullet was the Speer .250. It is noticely short than other brands.

The round was designed for an 87 grain bullet and using the aforementioned results in the best accuracy. 85 grain bullets are likely close enough, but the literature states that accuracy drops off when 100 grain bullets are utilized.

Awesome old rifles, esp in that caliber (a-la Col. Charles Askins).

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Some Might Say.

For some reason, maybe because they don't advertise their rifle bullets as much as other manufacturers, Speer bullets aren't generally as popular among reloaders as other brands. There's nothing wrong with Speer bullets and they are certainly worth trying.

I think you are just going to have to try your particular rifle with different bullets. That is the only way you will know for sure what it likes. This is one of the fun parts of reloading. I have two Savage 99's in .250 and both like the 87 grain bullet for accuracy.

Since I haven't worked with the fast twist 99's in a few years, my memory needs jolting now and again. My above post mentioned the few 100 grain shorter bullets put out by Winchester and Remington. What I forgot about was a long discontinued Nosler partition made in a semi spitzer purposely made for 1 in 14 twists. I traded into a box a year ago, trading a box of the shorter Winchester Silvertips I had stashed away in case I acquire a Savage 99. A side note, I always have a box of full metal jackets ammo with 5 in my hunting pack. You never know when you might run into a Rino and want to be prepared. 25 caliber fmj's were non-existent till Sharps made a run of them for their new 25 caliber round. I bought 2 boxes in case. You can never tell when these might be discontinued.

I have seen M99's with a 1:15 twist rate. It bears checking to make sure. I love the 250 Savage and have two but with 1:10 twists.
You might try the Speer Gold Dot as they are shorter. I have a bunch of Sierra Game Kings in 100 grain. These aren't long like a NBT. I recently had a custom rifle done on a Faux Kurz Mauser action. Thje magazine box is short and I have to seat a bullet like the NBT or Barnes TTSX rather deep where the Sierra's aren't a problem.
If you would like to try a box pm me.
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Yep. BUT I killed a boxcar load of deer with my .243 and SPEER 105 gr round nosed bullets.

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S&W Accumulator

I know that 007 used a 99F in .250-3000 to good effect when he was hunting von Hammerstein. The girl got the German while Bond took out the three bodyguards. He did some good shooting with the lever action at close to 300 yards. Although I can’t say for certain, I think he used the lighter bullet.

I had a 99 in 250 for a short time when I was a kid. Never hunted it and don’t remember what I did with it. Anyway tracked down a nice 99EG in 250 a few years ago. Shot it a couple boxes and don’t remember what I traded it for either.

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Does anyone have a source for 250 Savage brass? I was thinking of resizing Remington 22-250 cases to 250 Savage. My dilemma is I don't want the same head-stamp on both cartridges. I have Winchester 22-250 cases. If I had a different head stamp for the resized cases it would be easy to tell them apart. Even 22-250 brass is difficult to find. Lapua is simply outrageous.

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That's gonna leave a mark.

Brass is always an issue with the 250 and 300 Savage's. I have had to buy new ammo just for the brass. I put a notify me tag on Midway USA to let me know when some comes in.

When you locate hard-to-find brass, buy enough to hold you over for at least five years. I learned this lesson the hard way with .32-40 brass. It seems a manufacturer like Winchester will make a single production run of .32-40, .250 Savage, or something else that isn't popular and then not make it again for several years.

The thread listed below details the rifle that Savage introduced the .250-3000 with.

Savage 1899 .250-3000 c. 1915

If you want to make 250 Savage brass from 22-250 cases I would fire form the brass vs necking it up. The shoulders on the two are different and I've had better luck fire forming brass.

Not arguing, just curious... I've only formed the brass on one occasion to see if it would work alright. Running it through a sizing die once was fine and it fireformed perfectly. However, I had to turn case necks, something one may or may not have to do depending on the brass and the rifle's chamber.

I've fireformed much brass for a variety of wildcat and improved cartridges years ago and am familiar with the process.

When you were experimenting with this, why did the necking up procedure not work as well as fireforming? Either way, the case is fireformed, but with the necking up you can use a full charge or close to it on the first firing.

I have two Improved rifles and just always fire formed the brass for them so it just seemed the way to go when making 250 brass from 22-250 cases. Also doing it this way the brass if formed exactly to the chamber of the rifle.

I've also had a couple of .250 Ackley Improved rifles. This cartridge may be the most efficient of all the Ackley Improved designs and the percentage of velocity gain over the standard cartridge is probably greater than all the rest of the Ackley Improved cartridges. However, I've found whitetail deer couldn't tell any difference.

I have a fondness for the 7X7 AI. The rifle is built on a Sako action