Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Africa Using 9.3's for Dangerous Game in Africa.

Can anyone here provide a definitive list of African countries that allow some of the 9.3 cartridges for dangerous game? Specifically I'm wondering about the 9.3x62 and 9.3x64 Brenneke.

Thanks in advance.

Zimbabwe- both 9.3's mentioned is legal
Namibia- only 9.3x64 legal for buffalo, 9.3x62 legal for lion, hippo, elephant as they are not specificaly mentioned in law. (Law states minimum enegry level of 5400 J / (about 3900 ft/lbs) for buffalo)
South Africa- both legal, except in Kwazulu Natal province, where minimum is .375. (Northern Cape's new "permit conditions" on the back of a hunting permit states .375 as minimum, and also that you require 2 PH's to hunt dangerous game!!! I do not think they enforce it though.)
I still want to meet the outfitter telling a prospective client he cannot hunt with his beloved 9.3x62...

To make a 9.3x62 legal in Zim you must handload it to a certain velocity and energy level, but I don't know of anyone who has been checked or anyone that would even know how to use a chrongraph in that country!

I have used the 9.3x62 in Zim, RSA and Tanzania without question. I used a borrowed 9.3x64 in Tanzania once or twice.

Both are good calibers and I prefer the 9.3x62 with a 25" tube as you need all the velocity you can get using a max load with the 320 gr. Woodleighs, a bullet I like..I never could get my chronograph to tell me the 9.3x64 was much better, about 75 FPS and more recoil it seemed.

I've used the 9.3 X 62 in Zambia, Tanzania, and Cameroon.

Face it, it is up to the discretion of the PH. The PH's I've hunted with in these countries know me and my capabilities, and have had no reservations about this round. Game scouts have never looked to see what any of us carry.

I like 250 grain Barnes TSX on everything.

Karl, some of the things going on within RSA have always been a little unusual to figure out.

The RSA "LAW" is quite different from RSA "Policy" Both legal and enforceable government positions.

Another example is that it's illegal to hunt with any weapon that discharges a bullet with each pull of the trigger. Yet double action revolvers have been legal to hunt with for years, just as double rifles are. That is due to "policy" however if you were to look up the "law" it would not be legal. Same with Serial numbers that must be on the barrel, not just the action. However policy says that it's Okay. I could go on with more of these examples for a while here but I think you all get the jist of it.

It's quite important to deal with people who understand the way this works. It's the reason so many posts go back and forth on these topics. Far too many people who have visited once or twice or know somebody who did have these firm "factual" opinions that conflict with the last poster and the one before him.

Bottom line, Contact your outfitter, booking agent, or the PH you are going to hunt with. These are the folks you're paying big bucks too for your trip. Why second guess what they tell you? If you cannot trust them for such a simple question as this then why trust them with the remainder of the trip either?

Although I don't equate Outfitters or other safari professionals with a doctor, it's actually kinda the same thing. You're paying big bucks for your care and diagnosis, would you then go onto an internet website and ask people whom you've never met and don't know for better advice?

Practical applications VS written law can, as JJ said, be quite different. In Zim we have never known of a hunters rifle to be checked for legality as to caliber etc. If the PH is willing to put himself and the client on the line with the attendant risks the attitude of the game scouts, to date, has been to let the hunter hunt. No less an authoruty but Kevin 'doctari' Robertson has used the 9.3x62 in Zim on Buff and other dangerous game animals a great deal despite the written Zim regs stating 375 or greater caliber. As always, check with your hunt co-ordinator and PH.

I have used the 9.3s in several countries without a problem, but I would never suggest that a client do so if it was against the law..Game scouts btw come in all sizes and shapes, both good and bad. I know a game scout that told a hunter that he could shoot an elephant for $300 because he was building a new house, the hunter did and the game scout told him the price had changed to $10,000 or jail..I can tell you a few more horror stories that I know of..

Problem being that you may get away with it, probably will, but if some little something goes wrong, the results could very easily ruin a very expensive trip. Thats just not smart and in todays changing Africa I would do everything in my power to stay legal, and polite.

When in a foriegn country, abide by all the laws is my advise. Bottom line is a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, especially in Africa today, that applies to hunters, PHs and your friendly Game Scout.

In RSA and Zimbabwe, there are a lot of PHs, farmers, and old timers that thought they had the situation pegged with the local indigenous species, now they are "whistling who'd thouht it!"

Thanks for the insights, guys. Very informative. I've another question along these same lines - What are the rules/regs with regard to rifles and ammunition head-stamp? Does the head-stamp absolutely need to match the designated caliber of the rifle?

I have killed several buffalo with a 9,3X74R, loaded with 286gr Woodleigh solids. They ended up just as dead as the buffalo I killed with a 416 Rigby. I had to "help" a hunter who suffered from "hopps flue" every morning and seldom made it out of camp. I was using a 12/12/9,3X74R Merkel drilling I brought for PG and francolin & guinea. There was a perverse satisfaction in shooting two and letting him pay the tab.

I have never known of anyone having that problem because of the wrong headstamp, I have heard this rumor on many ocassions but my clients have been taking wildcat cartridiges to Africa for 40 plus years without question..Pierre told me that one time he had a cleint questioned out of curiosty by a Tanzania customs officer, and Pierre stuck one in the gun and closed the action and flipped the round out, all of the customs boys were impressed to no end and one of them requested a round as I recall and got it.

Also many of the custom people can neither read nor count, and I have had that minor problem pop up on several ocassions.