Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Express Rifles and Big Bores Only 9.3x62 Powder Recommendations

New to the bigger bore crowd. Recently purchased a 9.3x62 custom build on a Pre '64 action. Starting to do some load development with Nosler 250 AB, 270 Speer, and 286 Nosler Partitions. What powder would be your recommendation for each of these bullets? Is there one do all powder for the 3 weights? Thanks

Here's a good place to start.

Need pictures, sounds like a nice rifle.

DF

If you ever decide to push the really heavy bullets in the 9.3x62mm you may consider RL-17, I use it to push the 320 gr Woodleigh protected point Weldcores to a very accurate 2400 fps, that's from my Heym 98 Mauser custom with a 25" barrel.

The load is a real hammer, I'd use it on Cape Buffalo without hesitation were it legal in an area that I hunted.

I had excellent results with RL15. I also use that powder for many more cartridges I load for with good results.

Thanks all for the excellent info. Presently my rifle is in the hands of Kampfeld customs. Karl is putting a few touches to the rifle to personalize it for me as I purchased the rifle used. Anxious for its return as I have a Swaro z6 1-6 waiting to be mounted. Hoping to someday do a bucket list hunt for a coastal grizz up north.

https://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php/topics/12684679/1 That should keep you busy!

Greg

After considerable experimentation, I found no reason to use anything but Varget or RL-15. YMMV.

One item I might add is that I've pretty much settled on Varget for lighter bullets and Big Game for heavier bullets because they've proven more cold-resistant other powders, including Reloder 15 and 17.

And yes, I've tried Big Game with Woodleigh 320's that gunner500 mentions, and it works just as well as Reloder 17. From the 23.6-inch barrel of my CZ 550 it gets right around 2350 fps, and probably be very close to the 2400 he gets in his 25-inch barrel.

Have also hunted with Big Game and 286's in over-100 degree heat in Tanzania, with no problems.

<^>

gunner can be a hard act to follow...

DF

MD, wish I could get some Big Game as well as TAC, I'll have to continue slumming RL's 17 and 10.

Dang DF, gas on it buddy ;]

Geez, guys, I just thought somebody might want to use 320 Woodleighs in cold weather!

Gunner, have you field-tested that bullet yet? All I've done is punched targets.

LOL, no Sir, only on my same old homemade method of hard packed glossy? magazines and random cow bones packed tight in a cardboard box, shots were at 25 and 50 yards, it's a hell of a bullet in .366"

That would be my guess! Did you shoot any other bullets into the same media?

I've been waiting for this loooonnnng winter to be over to do some packed-paper whacking myself. Today it snowed all morning, but in the afternoon the sun came out, and the temperature warmed all the way up to 26....

Yes, I shot .375 cal 270 gr TSX's and 300 gr A-Frames that day, the Woodleighs held their own, massive expansion, but with surprising damage and weight retention in the 80 percent area, leaving at 2400 fps, I'd hunt any U.S. game with them to 300 yards, my 9.3x62 now wears a 1.75-6 Leupold.

The 320 grain Woodleigh is an excellent bullet in 9.3. I’ve seen it used on Water buffalo several times and it give good penetration and wound channels out of the 9.3X74.

Nice, they were probably running it at 2150 in the 74R?

Thanks for the info, guys. I haven't hunted with my 9.3x62 for a little while now, and thought maybe that bullet needed a field-trial. Have used Woodeighs before in other sizes both below and above 9.3mm, but not that one.
In my rifle, with 250's and 286's sighted-in 2" high at 100, the 320 lands right at point of aim, so would appear to be ideal for timber hunting.

Dang right they would, I need to take mine a bust an elk or moose in the timber, a nice 9ft Brownie up at Phil's would be sweet icing on a big cake.

Just for S&G's I have a 280 gr CEB #13 solid load that lands in the same group with the big Woodleighs at 100, the 9.3x62 may be like the 375 H&H in that regard.

Mine puts every bullet I've tried with it so far into very close to the same place. So far have tried 232 Norma Oryx; 250 Barnes TSX and Nosler AccuBond; 270 Speer Hot-Cor; 286 Barnes TSX, Hornady Interlock, Norma Oryx, Nosler Partition and Solid; the 320 Woodleigh--and maybe some I've forgotten. So far they've all landed within 2" of each other at 100 yards.

Nice, I've only shot the two mentioned in mine, after velocity was reached, the first load workup had three 320 gr Woodleighs in a ragged hole at 100 with a heavy duplex, 1.5-5, thought I'd best leave it alone at that point ;]

The solid load came several years later through boredom with a damn long Winter here.

I would have stopped there too!

Woodleighs usually shoot very well. Tried some 400's in Ruger No. 1's in .405 Winchester and .450/400 Nitro-Express. Three shots grouped right around 1/2" in both rifles.

I knew I'd forget some bullets I've tried in my 9.3x62. The 210 and 255 Cutting Edge Raptors also landed within the 2-inch point-of-impact where the others go.

I like Woodleigh softs, pretty much across the caliber spectrum, that must be near 10 different projectiles you've tested/shot/hunted in the 9.3, I'm hazarding a guess you like it ;]

Another reason to get out and slam some heavy Woodleighs into some test media, I'm just damn ready to go hunting, the reality of 8 months of mowing and weedeating first is purely depressing.

I feel your pain!

Well, a little. In Montana we have a spring black bear season, and after that can shoot unlimited numbers of agricultural rodent-pests until other big game seasons open in fall. At the moment, however, we're anticipating another spring blizzard....

70 and sunny with a pleasant breeze in Lafayette, LA. At my son’s house, playing with grandkids, sitting by the pool following a grand Easter meal.

Blizzard?

DF

Man I'm envious right now. Just got done plowing a foot of newly fallen snow from the house to the county road. Wish that last storm was an Aprils fool joke.

DF,

Sounds like wonderful weather!

The prediction is for up to a foot of snow in central Montana through Monday night, with stiff winds. We're in a little "desert" pocket a little south of the main storm track, so are only supposed to get about a third as much.

A nice black bear hunt and an ammo can fulla 600 empty 22-250 hulls after cleansing a PD town would surely be a great elixir.

Well, we didn't get a foot of snow, but we did have 2 above at 0600 yesterday. 22 above this morning at the same time.

Every time someone puts a 9.3x62 topic up I wonder why I don't have one.

Just a Hunter: I was in your shoes just a short time ago 'til the temptation took over and won. I now own a 9.3x62 and I am a happy camper!

I had two, have a .375 H&H currently. I wanted just one big gun, thought the .375 would cover more bases so kept it, traded the others.

I do like the 9.3x62; it's a very efficient and effective round.

DF

There's no doubt the .375 H&H (or .375 Ruger) is the most practical choice for those hunters who want one big gun--unless, of course, they hunt really big game often enough to want an even bigger cartridge, say a .416 or .458. If I ever downsize my collection of hunting rifles to a practical minimum (which might happen if I ever "retire") my .375 H&H would probably be one that stays.

But so far I haven't given up my last .416 (a Rigby), and since buying my 9.3x62 in 2002 haven't hunted with either my .338 Winchester Magnum or .375 H&H, my two most-used "medium bores" during the 1990's. In fact, since then I've taken 14 species of big game with the 9.3x62, from impala to bull moose.

A few years ago I had no 9.3s. Began to think about why I hadn't tried them. Now there are x57, 2-x62s, and a x74 double. So far I'm missing a x64 and an old x72. Maybe I'll try those in Encore barrels first?

Have a 9.3x62 and enjoy it a great deal. However, the single most useful rifle in my inventory for the hunting that I do is a .416 Rigby. If I could only have one rifle, it would be that .416 Rigby. Very accurate, reliable, flat shooting and hits like the hammer of Thor.