Wyatt: As per our PM's: The bullets I originally tried were some reloads (unknown bullet weight). I went back and tried some 150gr factory Win and it worked, but not real well. Then tried some 180gr factory Federal and again, it worked, but not well. I'm not convinced my stripper clips are the correct ones. I can see by your photos that mine are different than yours as far as the edges go. Like I said, they were in a box of junk bought at some auction years back I suspect. Glad yours works...could you post a photo of a front & back view of your stripper clip? Thanks

 

After more fiddling, my clips are not correct. It will only go about 3/4 of the way down and then get hung up on the little ridges. Wyatt's clip has one in the middle and mine have two. It can only be pushed down until it hits this 1st bump on mine. I'll try and get some correct stripper clips just to have a few.

Like I said, mine do work however, in my 03A3 and P17.

 

Here are photos of the 81 along with a 99 Savage-both .300 Savage......too darn cold to take pictures today, 15 below....

 

Great looking rifles. Looks like your 99 is a model EG. I'm 99.99% sure. I have one with no finish but also wears a Stith scope mount with a Lyman Alaskan scope. My EG has a perfect feel and LOPull for me. Here's those stripper clips. Ignore the writing on that one. A previous owner years gone by did that.

 

The clip on the left is 7.62 X 51, and the clip on the right is .30-06. Both have the two stops where the clips in the op only have one.

 

Wyatt: All I know about that Savage is that it was made in 1950 according to the #. It has an El Paso Weaver K2.5. The 81 was made in Dec 1945.

I just bought a few supposed 03A3 stripper clips off ebay and when they arrive, I'll try them.

Here are some shots of the clips I tried using:

 

Those look like m80 ball clips for m14 speed loaders and not the 1903 clips. If you can find some old clipped 8mm Mauser ammo those clips will probably work as well.

 

Or Swedish Mauser stripper clips, that's what I use for 30-06 in a 1903 and model 70.

 

Cartridge Clips:
1903 - M14 - Remington Model 8 & 81 .35Cal/.300Sav
Same aprox AOL, ID close Rem clip a bit narrower.

The Remington clips are better suited for the .300 Savage because the .35 has a smaller rim. I have 4 of these Model 8 & 81 clips and they hold the Savage round more efficiently than the .35 Rem. The longer protrusion on each side does stop the clip in the right place.
IIRC I modified a M14 clip once but did it for the .35 and the results were OK I guess. But the clip needs to be squeezed for the narrower case rim.