[Mike Irwin]

"I knew Savage put a sharper shoulder on their .300 case because of its area being reduced from enlarging the neck to minimize shoulder setback from firing pin impact."

It was more likely an attempt get as much powder capacity in the case as possible so as to approach .30-06 ballistics.

In a way, it was a partial step towards an Ackley Improved type of cartridge with a much sharper shoulder than normal.

I think it's very interesting that P.O. Ackley, as far as is known, never tried to develop a .300 Ackley Improved Savage cartridge, but he certainly did with the .250 Savage.

Charles Newton designed both the .22 Savage Hi Power and the .250 Savage, but there's no real indication that he had anything to do with the .300 Savage, which is very interesting because it takes his progression of cartridges almost to the very extreme.

"Cartridges of the World" (11th edition) says "The original factory load used a 150-grain bullet and matched the original .30-06 sporting load at 2,700."

That's an interesting nuance. The original sporting loads for the .30-06 were, I believe, developed by Winchester and U.S. Cartridge Company.

Were the original ballistics for the commercial loading inflated? I don't know.

It also doesn't jibe with what I've previous read, which says that the round was developed to match .30-06 military ammo ballistics and give returning Doughboys a rifle they were familiar with (lever action) with a new cartridge with ballistics they were familiar with.

Interesting questions and speculations.


Oh, and here's the real kicker from Barnes:

"If loaded to original factory pressure levels with IMR-4064, it can significantly but safely exceed that velocity."

The loading table on the page shows an IMR-4064 load with a 150-gr. bullet turning out 2,800 fps.

At the time the .300 was being developed, the military and Du Pont were expending vast sums of money developing new Military Rifle (MR) and Improved Military Rifle (IMR) powders that would offer improved ballistics at lower pressures and lower chamber temperatures.

A whole raft of new powders were coming on line and were being slowly released to civilian markets.

While I have no proof of this, I have little doubt that Savage designed the .300 around one of those new powders -- very possibly IMR 17 1/2 or IMR 18, which were both developed into the lead up to America's entry into World War I, and which offered significant ballistic advantages over the military standard Pyro PG powder, which had been introduced in 1909.