Skeeter,good post and good advice on cleaning the savage.The reason I don't use heavier bullets is because I don't need them for the size of deer here,but if I was hunting larger animals I would probably use heavier bullets too.Really a 185 gr and 200 gr will do the job on them here but cannot get the smaller bullets to shoot that good out of the savage.I use a nosler 185 out of a ruger,and 200gr out of a encore.The spitfires I tried in the savage were the 245 gr shot 2 three shot groups on different days that were one holers,went to 200 yds and they just really spread out.
Chap were are you located in Va,I hunted up there years ago a few years before my wife got sick(over 16 yrs ago) around lake moomaw,took lot of deer with a bow,rifle and muzzleloader,really wanted to get a bear with my bow but never did even see one even during the gun season.
Below is a couple pics of deer I shot with the savage year before last,killed a doe sat opening day,think it was 234 yds,cannot remember the exact yardages,monday shot the 10 pointer,170 yds,tuesday shot the eight pointer running across the power line at 100 yds,it went about 75 yds before pilling up,shot the 6 pointer about an hour later.This past year shot a 5 pointer at 160 yds,spike at 200 and spike at 230 yds.