I'm new to reloading and would like to know if I can load the hornady spitzer 220 grain bullet in this caliber? should I use a powder charge equal to another 220 flat nose. I can't find any listing for a pointed bullet in the 99 being a magazine fed rifle should I keep the over all length to the flat nose length or put a loose bullet in shell inthe chamber to see what the length should be and see if that would fit and function in the magazine? sorry all I have is questions. I have the Savage and a Marlin in .375 winchester my son has a #3 Ruger in this same caliber. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Welcome to the forum. Rules are to join in, be polite and not post anything our younger readers should not be exposed to.

Pointed bullets are not safe in tubular magazine guns because recoil can cause the point to touch off the primer in the next round, summarily disassembling the gun. That is why they make flat point bullets for these guns. M.L. McPherson had an article in Precision Shooting a couple of years ago on a Marlin 1895 whose magazine tube was blown apart by such an event.

The same charge as a flat point is only valid if the base of the bullet is seated down into the case to the same depth as the flat point. You could make up such a load, but because they would be longer than the flat point loads, you would have to load them directly into the chamber with the bolt open and shoot them one at a time to avoid the magazine problem. If you seat a bullet base deeper then peak firing pressure will be increased by burning the powder in a more tightly confined space, so powder charge would have to be reduced. It takes surprisingly little additional seating depth in a straight wall case to cause a lot of pressure increase.

You can compare the length between the base and crimp grooves for both bullets to get a general idea to start. If you start wat the lower end for the flat point loads then you should be fine. If I had the spiral mag of th Savage on my winchester I'd be a happy camper.

Thank you for replying to my questions. The magazine in my Savage 99 appears to have room for another 1/4" of bullet length than the winchester 220 GR. soft points manufactured by Winchester. I just bought a box at $36.95 per 20 I called them and they said they only make them approximately every other year. I'm glade for your information on the bullet being deeper would give higher pressure I never thought of that. Thanks for saveing my you know what. Sincerely

John Smith

Hello Mr. Smith,

I own one of these rifles as well, and have tinkered with it time and again. I asked this same question several years back, reference overall length, and the gentlemen that answered me (might have been Pete) had used pointed bullets in his T/C single. I'll look around for that post, but it was years ago. I think that it does have data for the 225 Spire point in the Hornady manual for Pistol, that shows that the data is interchangable with the 220 Flat head.

So, I am convinced that it can be done, although I have not done it, personally.

I've tried to approach the equation of trying to get more reach out of this gun by punching up the velocity, but that has been problematic. AA1680 does the best here, and I've used it off and on, although it really does not group all that well. It is also considerably distant point on impact wise from my old stand bys loads, which have been 220 Horns with Re7 and IMR 4198.

One combination that you may want to try is the 235 semi- spit Speer. I have, with fairly good results, considering. While not a real hot number, I beleive that it would be a very good deep cover bullet, capable of some fairly heavy lifting, and good penetration if an odd angle entry was on the agenda.

My project, admittedly on the back burner since they started costing $40 U.S., is to try to get something going with the 255 Barnes. So far, not so hot.

Best to you Sir, welcome to the forum.

Stevre

smithjh...

Nice gun, one that any levernut would be proud to own! I love the 375 Win and I've been working with it a lot over the last few weeks (pressure trace).

moxgroove pretty much said it but I would like to define it more. As long as the SP bullet isn't making contact with the bore or throat/leade, the SP will generate the same chamber pressures if the base of the bullet is occupying the same volume, seated in the case, as the FP bullet. For comparison, the measurement that is important is from the base of the bullet to the case mouth. Hornady data will sometimes show the same data for two bullets.

The only thing that I would add is to check with the bullet manufacturer and see what velocity range the bullet was designed to perform at. A lot of the .375 bullets are designed for impact velocities that the big cartridges generate and your choice above more than likely will not expand, especially at any distance downrange. The good thing about the Hornady FP is that it was designed specifically for the velocities generated by the 375 Win and it does an outstanding job on game animals.

I think it is also important to remember that it is tough to make this cartridge something that it isn't. By design the cartridge purposed to generate significant pressures with low powder volumes for performance (remember it is a 30-30 Win case). 52.0K CUP vs. the 30-30's 38.0K CUP! That difference in chamber pressure must have spooked the rifle manufactures as I've taken a number of chamber casts from various rifles and the throat/leade on all the 375s have been greater than SAAMI spec. That a technique the manufacturers could have used to take a 52.0K CUP round of ammunition and cause it to generate something less in the actual firearm. I'd love to have a chamber cast from your Savage!