Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters 35 Whelen or 9.3x62?

I was in a Cabelas in Hamburg, PA yesterday with the family, and while the kids were chasing each other around and shooting pop guns with a new friend, I talked about this very thing with my wife. It dawned on me that while I'm sometimes in denial about my Loonyism, she's very aware of and accepting of it. It was a touching family moment.

Skip the Euro trash and go American.

35 Whelen all the way. You don't need 117 different bullets, just one good one.

The good Col. hadn't even seen a 30-06 when the 9.3 was already killing things.

Betcha 10 9.3s for every 35W that has actually killed anything.

The 9.3×62mm (also known in the USA as the 9.3×62mm Mauser) is an 'all-around firearms cartridge' suitable for hunting larger species of animals in Africa, Europe, or North America. It was introduced by Otto Bock in 1905. At a typical 720.0 m/s (2,362 ft/s), its 286 grain standard load balances recoil and power for effective use at up to about 250m (275 yds). The CIP Maximum Average Pressure (MAP) for the 9.3×62mm is 390 MPa (56,500 PSI). [2]

The 9.3×62mm was developed around 1905 by Berlin gunmaker Otto Bock, who designed it to fit into the Model 1898 Mauser bolt-action rifle. [2] African hunters and settlers often chose military rifles for their reliability and low cost, but governments fearful of colonial rebellions often banned military-caliber bolt-action magazine rifles and their ammunition. The 9.3×62mm was never a military cartridge and so never had this problem. Mausers in 9.3×62mm were inexpensive and reliable, too, so their popularity in Africa grew quickly and became widespread.

The rifle "behind the door" in the German colonies.

Field & Stream or Chuck Hawks...

HuntnShoot,

When my book OBSESSIONS OF A RIFLE LOONY was first published, we had a table at a local gun show, with some books at one end of the table and some guns at the other. Several couples stopped and looked at the book, and one guy paged through it and then asked, "What's a rifle loony?" His wife said, "You are, dummy."

That's because he isn't aware he has a problem! Confessions of lunacy are quickly rationalized in our minds however and the confessions become an explanation of the mistakes we have made or our rational and not the characteristics of lunacy and the diseased mind.

Larry Root

Make mine a .35 Whelen, please. Killing deer and elk junkyard dead for 27 years. Happy Trails

Damn right beretz, I love both, and in the case of these two cartridges, a flat nosed 280 gr BBW #13 solid at 2500 fps, can't see why in hell that wouldn't fully penetrate an Elephants head, or a 158 gr XTP loaded down to 1800 fps in the Whelen for a kid or an elder dispatching deer with aplomb, talk about versatility.

I've always thought one of the Swift A-Frame pistol bullets coming out of a Whelen around 2400-2700 might be some wicked deer killers. No worries of coming apart and they just might be light on recoil too.

I've owned both and "to me" the 35 WAI was more equal to the 9.3x62 than the standard Whelen, but hey, I was loading it way hot too, come to find out. The 24" bbl 35 Whelen and newer powders really step it up into Ackley speeds ( but with normal pressure too) I've owned 3 9.3x62s, the first was a rebarreld Mod 70 FWT Classic and it shot well, but I didn't feel I had the range of my 35 WAI, at that time. I then bought my Marine SIL a CZ FS (he is of German descent) as a Welcome Home present after his 2nd tour in the sandbox. I shot it some before he got home. I later bought a beautiful Mod 77 African in 9.3x62, had it tricked out with bedding/trigger work, etc. Now here is what got me "puckered up"...I had misfires with factory ammo in both the CZ and the Mod 77! I "never" had a misfire with 35 Whelen factory loads and for sure, not with them Ackleyed. Since I had some factory ammo also misfire in a custom .404 Jeffry years before, I got "spooked" about the tiny/rounded shoulder on the 9.3x62 cases, as some are about the Whelen! ha My first 9.3 had a Lothar Walther barrel with a carefully cut chamber, so I chalked it up to factory chambers and factory ammo. I was in no mood to "fireform" each 9.3 cases as I was already doing that with the 35 WAI, so off went the African and the CZ is not my problem. But hey, I "love the idea" of the 9.3x62 and IF I ever have another it too will be a custom and I would use the 250gr for the range I wanted along with the 320 in the woods. That's just me. I used the 310 Woodleigh in that 35 WAI at 2400 (according to QL I was running about 70K!) I had "zero" what we looneys call "pressure signs" either, not with any of my 200x/250x/250PT loads, but they were going 72k!) I used those loads for 20yrs, and I consider myself "blissfully ignorant" and Blessed I had no blow ups or bulged chamber issues! ha I had that rifle converted/rebarreled to 358NM to get those same speeds "safely", then had to turn around a sell it...Obamacare. Now that I have a nostril above water, at least every now and then, I scratched my "Medium Bore" itch with another 338WM. If it ever needs a new barrel, it will be a 358NM too! So good luck, both are great rounds...

Jim's observations about the 35W AI are spot on. The 35 like most 400 W rifles has a tapered cartridge not needed in a modern rifle with good ammo.

As Mike Petrov's research proved the 400 W was damned by not using the correct Whelen/G&H chamber. With the correct chamber it works just great. Had the 35W also had the G&H chamber it would be a far better cartridge. The 35W AI addresses that issue in spades.

The 9.3 still has an edge in ballistics and the range of bullets. The 9.3 has killed lots of Buffs and Elephants, the 35W not so.

Since there is no shortage of nice FN commercial 30-06s out there for around $500, why not have one of each ? Still cheaper than a new 700 or 70.

Once again, a Campfire thread on two VERY similar cartridges ends of up even longer than average, and like a rock rolling downhill, collects slightly more moss.

However, DaShadows last couple of lines proves rifle loonies still have a very fine sense of proportion--as in, why not two rifles in very similar chamberings? This allows us to argue endlessly, especially about (maybe) 10% difference in powder capacity--which amounts to 2.5% difference in velocity with the same bullet weights. Which amounts to maybe 60 fps.

I say get one of each and keep whichever rifle shoots 286-grain Partitions the best and sell the other.

You bet beretz, on the other end of the Whelen spectrum is a mighty 250 gr SAF or Partition at 26-2650, that would smash holy hell outta anything short of Ele and Hippo out to 400 yards.

There is a 280 gr SAF for the .35 Whelen. It would be pretty good choice for eland and down.

Damn right Elk, nothing wrong at all with another 30 grains of hammer weight.

I don't get the talk of greater bullet selection for the Mauser round. Bullets under 100 grains to well over 300 seems to make the Whelen a candidate for greatest bullet selection, and surely it isn't outdone by a 9.3mm cartridge.

Woodleigh makes a soft-point and solid in .358". That bullet weighs 310 grains.
https://www.midwayusa.com/product/5...weldcore-round-nose-soft-point-box-of-50

https://www.midwayusa.com/product/6...er-310-grain-full-metal-jacket-box-of-50

Just in case a elephant escapes from the zoo.

I have no doubt they'd work on Ele and Buff if allowed Elk, and you are exactly right HNS, a lot of different bullets from 100 to 310 grains, Squirrels to Moose with aplomb, accurate with manageable recoil, a very versatile cartridge to say the least.