Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Mule Deer's 9.3x62 data

Probably that British Columbia moose. It was taken only about 100 miles south of the Yukon border, and while the moose in that area aren't quite as big as Alaska/Yukon moose in either body size or antlers, they're not much smaller. Per usual I measured its body, both the chest depth and overall length, and it was bigger than some Cape buffalo--which can also vary considerably in size from region to region.

The only time I had a chance to take a buffalo with the 9.3 was in 2011 in southern Tanzania. It's a very hot area, and Bergmann's Rule (which I've mentioned before) is that animals in warmer climates don't grow as large as the same animals in cooler climates, either higher in elevation or farther from the equator.

I could have taken three buffalo on that trip, and had already taken a very good bull with my .416 Rigby. But my PH, the late Paddy Curtis, was also very impressed with the way my 9.3x62 put plains game down, so arranged with the government game scout to allow me to use the 9.3 on a bull.

But the next herd (four bulls) we got up on was in pretty thick stuff, and the one viable shot was on the biggest bull--which had one broken horn. We decided to pass it up, a decision I now regret because we'd already run into the same bull once before, and it would have been helpful to take him out.

But even if we had, the buffalo in that area weren't as big as that BC moose--or bigger-bodied buffalo in other parts of Africa, including northern Tanzania. Took my first in Botswana, which measured 10 feet from the front of the chest to the back of the butt, and the mature bulls my hunting companions and I took in that part of Tanzania ran around eight feet from chest to butt.

Here are a couple photos my CZ with the custom stock: