Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Go to Big Game bullet for 9.3 x 62

My thread on the Raptor bullets brought this to mind. There is a wide variety of bullets available for the 9.3. Barnes, Speer, Nosler, Norma, GECO, Lapua, Swift, Woodleigh and more have various offerings.

What is your go to Big Game bullet?

For me, it's been the Barnes 250 TSX. I've had success with Cape Buffalo, elk and a number of smaller game with flawless performance. My second choice has been the now impossible to find (and looks like discontinued in this caliber) RWS H-Mantel in an odd 258 grain weight. Used it on buffalo, leopard, zebra, sable, etc., and was very impressed. Accuracy with Reloader 15 was very good.

Those are the only two that come to mind that I've have experience in the field with. They work so well, I haven't had a reason to experiment, but part of the fun of handloading and hunting is experimentation.

I started with 250-grain Nosler AccuBonds and never found any reason to change. Accurate and deadly on elk, the only animals that I have shot with them.

I've not ever shot a 9.3x62, but I am seriously considering getting one in the next few months, and the goal would be to shoot the 250 AB's, if they would shoot in the potentially acquired rifle. The rifle would be for hunting only North America, and I see no reason for more bullet than the 250 AB.

I've used a bunch of 9.3 bullets since buying my first 9.3x62 fifteen years ago, including Barnes X and TSX, Hornady Interlock, Nosler AccuBond and Partition, Speer 270-grain Hot-Cors, and Normas of various sorts from cup-and-cores to bonded Oryxes. These days I've pretty much concluded they'll all work well for most big game hunting, because of the relatively modest velocity of the 9.3x62 and similar rounds, whether the 9.3x74R or the wildcat Charlie Sisk and I developed, the .350 Remington Magnum necked up .008 inch. This of course the reason the 9.3x62 acquired its excellent reputation in Africa, long before any so-called premium bullets ever appeared.

That said, there's no real reason not to use premiums, especially if you might need to be really sure of some extra penetration, whether on moose and eland, or dangerous game like brown bears and Cape buffalo. They'll also kill impala and deer quite neatly too, which is why most of the handloads on my shelves for various 9.3 rifles feature AccuBonds, Partitions and TSX's. But there are some loaded with 270 Speers and 286 Interlocks as well.

I put my first 9.3x62 together in 2000 for a 2002 hunt in Africa. At the time I do not recall a lot of offerings. I chose to give the 250 gr X a go and it shot very well. It later killed a good number of game from porcupine to eland. I still have a couple of boxes of the X's and would use them again. Today, if starting, I would move to the 250 TSX.

Love the .350 Rem case. I went the other way with it and wildcatted to 8mm. It was the .325 WSM 15 years before the trade got to it. Nearly identical capacity because I have 220 grain bullets (original design) seated to the base of the neck. It hates 180s because of the amount of freebore of my throat design. To be a real rifle looney, you must wildcat something.

As for using Partitions, I've never found them ever to be the wrong choice. They are my benchmark.

I use the 9.3X74R and I just finished my 9.3X57. I have a 9.3X62 in the works for myself too. The 9.3X62 seems to just caught on with Wyoming hunters in the last years and many of my customers love them. 4 years ago, most had never heard of the shell.

I am found of the Nosler Partitions, but I have to admit, the PPU "plane vanilla" bullet seems pretty good and it's fairly cheap. So far I have heard no complaints about the PPU bullets.

I have personally used the Hornady 286 grain with very good results, but I have read two reports of them breaking up too, so the jury is still out on them with me.

The Speer offering is the worst of the lot by far. Super accurate, but it's a 270 grain varmint bullet. Good practice bullet for "plinking' and paper shooting. I buy them a lot, but I won't ever fire another at game. I have had them break up 100% of the time on game as small as Antelope does, and one 110 pound White Tail buck I shot was then killed with my pistol. The Speer 270 grain bullet broke up, and the largest piece was only 5" deep. Yes that's correct. 5 inches.

Woodleigh and Norma also get very high praise, but like the above mentioned Nosler Partitions, are priced too high to practice with very much. For hunting I would have full confidence in them.

I intend to try the 150 grain Accu-bond but so far I have not been able to buy any. Nosler doesn't make a lot of them, and they don't make them very often I guess. I am thinking it may be the one I use in my 9.3X57 most of the time, but I can't shoot what I can't find. I hear very good things.

For now, I am buying Speer 235 grain .375" bullets and resizing them to .366" so I will hopefully have some reports about them soon. I made some up, but I have not loaded them yet so I can't say how accurate they are. If they prove to be accurate I'll chronograph them and then I will do tests in my ballistic test trough. I'll shoot through cow, elk and maybe sheep bones along with water saturated news paper and see how well they do.

I have never used the Barnes, but I have clients that have, and they say they are wonderful as long as impact velocity is at 2000 FPS or more. Below that they don't open up much. Now that's only what I am told. I believe it because I have found the same with most other Barnes bullets I have used in other calibers, but if someone out there has real-life info on low velocity hits with Barnes, please share.

I know of one man that swear by Swift too. Most others, including myself, don't use them because of the price and the fact that they don't seem to open up at lower velocities as well as Noslers do, and cost more. For hunting up close, and if the game is very large, the Swift may be one of the best, but on American game up to Moose I think they are not a good as Noslers. Not bad at all mind you, but not as good as Noslers.

No man becomes a wizard with a rifle unless he can practice a lot, and the cost of some of the bullets today is working against the skill of marksmanship as much or more then the anti-gunners do.

A $2 or $3 bullet may be "better", but in most cases they don't shoot to the exact same point of impact as other less expensive bullets do, so you can't do honest practice with your rifle and ammo at ranges from 10 to 600 yards unless Trump barrows money from you. I am of the opinion that a man shooting a bullet that is "75% of perfect" 500 times is going to be a MUCH MUCH MUCH more successful hunter than the man that shoots the bullet that is "100% perfect" 100 times. From the prices I am seeing the "perfect" bullets cost between 3X and 6X the price of the others, so you can shoot 3X or 6X more for the same money, and you should. Shooting is what is going to make you a good shot, not spending money of "super bullets"

It's not a valid argument that the bullet is the "least expensive thing of the hunt" and you should spend the money of the super duper bullets to hunt with. I find it doubtful that the hunter using them is going to be as good a marksman as the one that spends the same money on less expensive bullets and shot the heck out of his rifle for 1-3 years before he goes hunting. The man is the most important thing to consider, not the tools.

The only exception to this rule may be some of the dangerous game of Africa, where you are required to go with a pro, and he (or she) will get you within 50 yards of the game before they allow you to fire. Honestly, 1 in 100,000 American will ever do that.

For the remaining 999,000 of us Americans I recommend buying 46 to 54 cent bullets by the 500 lot, and using them up in practice. So when you get that opportunity at a big elk, moose or even a deer or antelope, and that opportunity is at 100 to 500 yards, you can fire your rifle with confidence and kill that animal well, because you and that failure with your tools.

For now, to me, that means PPU 285 gr, and Hornady 286 grain bullets for practice and for some hunting, and Speer 270 grain for plinking only. The Nosler Partitions seem to shoot to the exact same point of impact as the Hornadys so that may be the best overall combination. Hornadys for practice and for hunting game up to maybe 350 pounds, and Nosler partitions for everything else from 400 to 2500 pounds. Over 2500 pounds the pros tell me they prefer a solid and at that point you can buy the $3 bullets because all your shots are going to be close and you need not practice with the $3 bullets at 50 yards and closer. Personally I would not spend $2 to $3 of them either because I can buy these.
https://www.midwayusa.com/product/4...-300-grain-dgs-flat-nose-solid-box-of-50
Just practice with the cheap ones and then zero in perfectly before you leave with your $3 bullets (or the 86 cent bullets listed above.) One box of them will last many hunts if you are good with your rifle, which as I said, come from practice.

I used a borrowed Brenneke and PPU ammo in Namibia last year on 12 plains game animals. Worked like a champ.

About 15 years ago, I shot one feral cow with the 270-grain Speer and several others with the 286-grain Partition in my CZ 550 American. All of the kills were emphatic to say the least. I think that either bullet would be fine for anything I'd ever do with this cartridge. I didn't spend much time with lighter bullets in those days, so I'd take another look at the 250 TTSX if I were to start up with the 9.3 again.


Okie John

I found a box of S&B 285 grain for $22. Ordered 2 with my new rifle. Hoping it will give me cheap ammo to practice and decent brass to re load.

9.3 x 62 or your photo?

Does anyone know if present production Swift A-frames are still swaged down .375's, or are they manufactured as 9.3s and can be expected to stand up better than the older bullets?

I don't know about that but I can tell you that the ogive is much closer to the tip than many of the other bullets which requires it to be seated deeper if you have a standard throat.

To All,

About 2.5 years ago I purchased nine boxes of 9.3x62mm of twenty 286 grain Prvi Partizan factory ammo, a set of NOS but unused RCBS dies and about 300 once-fired .30-06 LC cases for 200.oo.

I seriously doubt that I'll ever, at 71YY, shoot up all 180 rounds of the factory ammo, as I mostly shoot GCCB reloads out of the Model 760.
(.30-06 cases are EASY to fire-form to 9.3x62mm and IF I need any more empty cases, they are EASY to "pick up" FREE at the range that I frequent.)

yours, satx

I've only used the 232gn Norma Oryx at the moment to take pigs and fallow deer. I have some 250gn Accubonds to use on sambar deer but haven't tried them yet. But I expect them to go well judging by the performance of the 225gn Accubond in my .35 Whelen. That bullet penetrated fully with a side on shot on a sambar stag.

I really like to load my Heym 98 Mauser in 9.3x62mm like a small 375 H&H mag, 320 gr Woodleigh PP Weldcores at 2400 fps shoot really well and fly surprisingly flat out to 300 yards, not to mention the massive sectional density and level of efficiency derived.

gunner500,

ImVho, "efficiency" is the BEST feature of the old 9.3x62mm, inasmuch as you cannot kill a game animal deader than dead. Also, the "old-school round", even in a light rifle, "won't kick your head off".
(I have another Model 760 in .30-06, with badly pitted bore, that will soon be headed to JES to be cut-down to a barrel-length that fits better under the leg than the 22" barrel does, for hunting on horseback. - YES, 4-5" does make a difference when in the saddle.)

I have had several 9.3x62s and one 74r since 2006 and load 286NPts, 286 Hornady ILs, and 293RWS TUGs. I like the NPts best and load to 2400+ in all of my rifles and the Merkel drilling.

I just canceled another 62mm on a ZG-47, Benchmark STS tube, Micky handle and so on as I cannot use all the rifles I now have and am selling due to age and injuries. However, as a "working BC rifle", nothing suits me as much as a good, light, iron and scoped CRF 9.3x62.

Graf and Sons has 285 grain PPU for $25 a box. Cheap practice and good brass. My Husky loves it.

Yup, don't have my load book handy but 320 grains at 2400+ fps is a hell of a bang for the buck with the paltry powder charge in the '06 sized case, have a 400 Whelen that kicks out 400 gr Woodleighs at 2255 fps on same case size, the little 358 Winchester does it on a 308 Winchester sized case with 48 measly grains to boot a 200 gr TTSX to 2700 fps, talk about efficient with low muzzle blast, not to mention top shelf accuracy.