.300 Savage

The .300 Savage cartridge is a rimless, .30 caliber rifle cartridge developed by Savage Arms in 1920. It was designed to replace the less powerful .303 Savage in their popular Savage Model 1899 hammerless lever-action rifle, which they started to produce again as Model 99, as well as the new Savage Model 1920 bolt-action rifle. Despite having a short case in order to fit the original Model 99 magazine and a rather stumpy neck, the cartridge is capable of propelling a 150-grain (9.7 g) bullet at over 2,600 ft/s (790 m/s) with an effective range of over 300 yd (270 m). After WW2, US Ordnance authorities working on the next phase of US Military small arms used the .300 Savage as the basis for experiments developing new ammunition, eventually leading to the 7.62×51mm NATO cartridge (see section "T65 series experimental cartridges").