NRA Article "The Little Savage: .250-3000"

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Old No7
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NRA Article "The Little Savage: .250-3000"

Post by Old No7 »

Heads up all you 250 Savage fans!

The February 2019 American Rifleman has a "Loading Bench" article on "The Little Savage: .250-3000".

I've only skimmed it, but it looks like a good one to me -- plus, a "Little 250" is my go-to deer rifle now -- in a levergun, of course!

Enjoy! :wink:

Old No7

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Re: NRA Article "The Little Savage: .250-3000"

Post by piller »

As far as I can tell, it has always been a nice cartridge for game up to deer. Never seen one in the flesh.
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Re: NRA Article "The Little Savage: .250-3000"

Post by Old No7 »

piller wrote: Sun Jan 27, 2019 7:37 pm As far as I can tell, it has always been a nice cartridge for game up to deer. Never seen one in the flesh.
What I like about it, is (a) the sweet Savage 99 levergun, (b) it's an old Classic, (c) the deer was dead-right-there and didn't care that it wasn't shot with a .308, .30-06 or .300 Mag , and (d) because it wasn't one of those others -- it's the first time ever that I saw the bullet hit the "hair I was aiming at" when I took the shot.

That was awesome :o -- I hadn't expected to see the hit.

Cheers!

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Re: NRA Article "The Little Savage: .250-3000"

Post by Grizz »

is that because you didn't squeeze your eyes this time?

:lol: no recoil has its advantages

the 308 Savage 99 hits like swat team battering ram . . . I keep my eyes closed until that's all over . . . LOLoud
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Re: NRA Article "The Little Savage: .250-3000"

Post by Pete44ru »

.

My .250 happens to be a tang safety Ruger M-77R, and found it's a very good deer rifle. :)


.
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Old No7
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Re: NRA Article "The Little Savage: .250-3000"

Post by Old No7 »

Grizz wrote: Mon Jan 28, 2019 12:59 am is that because you didn't squeeze your eyes this time?

:lol: no recoil has its advantages
Now that's funny! LOL!

But it is a sweet shooting deer killer -- which can double of coyotes too. :wink:

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Re: NRA Article "The Little Savage: .250-3000"

Post by GunnyMack »

The 250 was my first choice when building a Mexican Mauser in school. Before I bought a barrel blank I stopped to see a smith in Raton NM on the way to Whittington Center. He had a Douglas air gauged all fit & chambered for a Mexican in 257 Robert's A.I. , it had a small dark spot in the bore . The customer didn't want it so I bought it for 75 bucks. I just had to head space it and blue it. The dark spot came out with a bronze brush...
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Re: NRA Article "The Little Savage: .250-3000"

Post by Old Savage »

I have a 1954 production EG, very little recoil.
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Re: NRA Article "The Little Savage: .250-3000"

Post by 3leggedturtle »

The 250-3000, it's what the .223 wishes it could be! I had one, loved it, some one liked it better. It got kicked aside because Remington or Winchester couldnt hang there name on it. Which still makes me wonder why Remington handicapped the Roberts so bad. Now I gotta look for one. Todd/3leg
30/30 Winchester: Not accurate enough fer varmints, barely adequate for small deer; BUT In a 10" to 14" barrelled pistol; is good for moose/elk to 200 yards; ground squirrels to 300 metres

250 Savage... its what the 223 wishes it could be...!
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Re: NRA Article "The Little Savage: .250-3000"

Post by wolfdog »

The Savage 110 I picked up recently has proved to be a good shooter.
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Re: NRA Article "The Little Savage: .250-3000"

Post by guido4198 »

I have had a lifelong love affair with my Savage 99 250/3000. Inherited when my Dad passed away. As such, it's a "family gun" and will never see the market, built in 1941. Schnabel fore-end, brass rotor, all the great features. My Father, who was an avid Deer hunter back in those days bought it to be Mom's "deer rifle".
You'd have to have known my Mom to appreciate the humor in that. She was a total East Boston City Girl...with NO interest whatsoever in shooting, hunting or anything like it. He had it drilled and tapped and mounted a scope on it. Fortunately for me...Dad was also a reloader and bullet caster. I still use his IDEAL HP gas check, mold for an 87 gn cast bullet in that rifle (1:14 twist). I've had great results with 100 gn bullets as well. I like the old cartridge so well that I purchased one of the very first Left-hand Remington 700 short action rifles in .308 to hit the market with the intention of having my good friend and awesome gunsmith Joe Hollingsworth rebarrel it to the .250 Savage for me. Sadly, Joe passed before that came about. Since then I've just enjoyed the LH 700 and gave up on the conversion idea.
My 99 has taken groundhogs, prairie dogs, fox, and Whitetail.
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Re: NRA Article "The Little Savage: .250-3000"

Post by octagon »

Had a guy try and sell me a takedown model a few months back. It looked like it had been in the back of a truckload of bricks for ten years :shock: abused. I passed.
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Re: NRA Article "The Little Savage: .250-3000"

Post by Bill in Oregon »

Had two older 99s with the 1:14 twist, and I managed to convince myself that it was a serious enough handicap that I traded them off. Dopey me.
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Re: NRA Article "The Little Savage: .250-3000"

Post by marlinman93 »

The .250-3000 is a wonderful little .25 caliber cartridge, with some great performance. And of course in an early Savage 99 it's one of the favorite calibers and gun combos for collectors. But it's even better performance in a bolt action rifle, and can give fantastic groups in a great rifle and barrel. Not that the Savage 99 can't be very accurate too!
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Re: NRA Article "The Little Savage: .250-3000"

Post by Old Savage »

I had it also in a Remington 700 Classic. You could take better advantage of the cartridge there. But the velocities at the pressures the 99 handles well are still quite adequate. Both were very accurate.
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Re: NRA Article "The Little Savage: .250-3000"

Post by Grizz »

Dad had one in a scoped bolt gun. Very fun and straight shooting plinker.

He liked it because of the muzzle velocity. He was into faster is much better, cars, airplanes, guns, etc.
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Re: NRA Article "The Little Savage: .250-3000"

Post by KeithNyst »

The .250-3000 Savage is a great cartridge. Savage actually introduced the .250-3000 Savage in 1914 in the Model "1899 250-3000"(the article is in error on the year and model). This was a Deluxe takedown with nicely checkered walnut, perch-belly stock, pistol grip, schnabel-tipped forearm, a cross-hatched trigger, and a 22" 1:14 twist barrel. This is mine from 1916:
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Re: NRA Article "The Little Savage: .250-3000"

Post by guido4198 »

One additional comment to make. I was disappointed with the results posted in the Rifleman article for the Savage 99 rifle they used for testing. Perhaps it was the sight they were using, perhaps the loads... I don't know. As I posted above, my 1941 vintage 99 has a scope and I know that makes a difference.For the record... I've found excellent loads using 100 gn bullets with IMR 3031 and H-335 powders that give me 5 shot groups @ 100 yds. averaging right around 1".
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Re: NRA Article "The Little Savage: .250-3000"

Post by Rusty »

My brother in law lives next door to me. he has a 99F that he has had for about 65 years. A woman gave it to his dad after he pulled her out of a snowbank and changed her flat tire for her. It was brand new in the box when he got it. The lady's husband owned a sporting goods store and he had sent her to pick up some product for the store. He's had it ever since.
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Re: NRA Article "The Little Savage: .250-3000"

Post by Old No7 »

I just had time to reread it again, and I just had to share this quote from that article...

"Charles Newton created the .250 Sav by shortening a .30-'06 Sprg case and applying a relatively sharp shoulder angle and long neck, which are prevalent in cartridge design today. If the .250's case body had slightly less taper, it would be a dead ringer for the 6.5 mm Creedmoor, which is oh-so modern. What's old is new again..."

Luv the .250 Savage -- and my sweet shootin' Savage 99 too! :wink:

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Re: NRA Article "The Little Savage: .250-3000"

Post by fatboy »

For years a 1930 something vintage 99 Takedown .250-3000 was my blacktail rifle and each time I pointed it at a deer I had meat, except for once. Because my rotator cuffs are as raggedy as the cuffs of my old Wrangler Riggs work pants, it had to go, just too heavy for my worn joints. Yesterday I had the local shop order a Savage Light Weight Hunter with a .250 barrel rather than any of the modern calibres. Hope to have it in hand for an April pig hunt in Orygun. The 99 worked well with any 87 or 90 grain slug and Speer 100grain ones, the new one was requested to have a twist that will stabilize 100gr+ slugs.
Now I need to find a light weight winch to load carcasses into the truck!
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Re: NRA Article "The Little Savage: .250-3000"

Post by M. M. Wright »

I too had a 99F with the 1 in 14" twist. I tried very hard to make it shoot 100 grain bullets but it refused so I stuck to 87 grainers and found that IMR 4064 gave me the best accuracy and velocity. Yeah, back then I THOUGHT I had to get the last 10 fps out of it. I probably killed over 50 whitetail with it. I'm sure none ever knew they weren't hit with a 100 grain bullet.
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Re: NRA Article "The Little Savage: .250-3000"

Post by flatnose »

The 250 savage was so good, they stuck a .264 bullet in it and called it the 6.5 creedmoor.
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