Remington Model 81

[Doug627]

Anyone reload and hunt with the 300 Savage or 35 Remington? How did it perform?

 

[rockquarry]

Anyone reload and hunt with the 300 Savage or 35 Remington? How did it perform?

I've had several .300 Savage's; one was an 81. Never hunted with the 81, but did deer hunt with the Savage 99 and the Remington 722. The cartridge is so close to the .308 in performance, you'll see little difference in the field.

My 81 was surprisingly accurate with the coarse open sights. It's been years since I had any .300 Savage, but I think the load I used most often was with H4895 powder and either the 150 Sierra pointed flatbase or the Hornady 150 pointed flat base. I even had good results accuracy-wise with cast bullets.

 

[Alk8944]

Model 8 .35 Remington. Both Deer I shot with it were DRT, what more could you want?

 

[22lrfan]

I used to load and shoot a lot of .35 Remington. These are all my .35's. My 81 is in the center. It was made in Feb '42. It shoots decent groups at 100 yards with the Lyman peep sight. It is also the worst kicking one of all. An interesting coincidence is that the Remington 141 to the right of the 81 was also mfg. in Feb '42.

 

[zeke]

Have one in 300 savage, but never hunted with it. It did scare some people at the range with them thinking the barrel recoiling meant it got blown apart.

Also worked up some loads for it from Ken Waters writings. Being careful about bullet selection helped.

 

[Rubone]

My 81 in .35 is 2" at 200 yds with the standard sights. Good enough for me!

 

[Alpo]

I used to load and shoot a lot of .35 Remington. These are all my .35's. My 81 is in the center. It was made in Feb '42. It shoots decent groups at 100 yards with the Lyman peep sight. It is also the worst kicking one of all. An interesting coincidence is that the Remington 141 to the right of the 81 was also mfg. in Feb '42.

Did you ever run pointed bullets in either of those two Remingtons?



I've read that is the purpose of the twisted magazine tube, but I've never heard anyone say they did it.

 

[jimmyj]

In the 1960s I had a Remington Model 81 .35 Remington caliber. I was not reloading at the time. Using factory ammo it would print 1.5' groups at 100 yards.

 

[loc n load]

35 Remington

I hunted with a T/C Contender 14" in 35 Rem for several years. I harvested several deer with that combo. All of my shots were 150 yds or less and with SP bullets. Quite effective deer dropper in a 14" bl.

 

[22lrfan]

Did you ever run pointed bullets in either of those two Remingtons?



I've read that is the purpose of the twisted magazine tube, but I've never heard anyone say they did it.

Nope. I've never loaded any .35's with pointed bullets.

 

[DWalt]

I have three Model 81s in .300 Savage (and a pair of Model 8s in .30 Rem). One is a Grade B with peep sight. I shoot them little anymore and have never hunted with them. However I have always prized them because of their historic long recoil design. .300 factory ammunition is difficult to find, but that is no problem for reloaders. .300 Savage cases are very simple to form from .308 or 7.62 GI brass. Just one pass through a .300S FL die and then shorten the case neck. The only significant difference between the .300 and the .308 is the neck length. Recoil of full .300S loads is unpleasantly heavy in the 81. For that reason, I shoot mainly light loads, with 150 grain gas check cast bullets and 23 grains of IMR 4227, H110, or 2400. Those are adequate to function the action. Much easier on your shoulder and ears and fired cases land at your feet. You can experiment by using any minimum .308 load recipes. I have never attempted to produce high accuracy loads but grouping is more than adequate at any hunting distance where open sights are to be used.