Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles 13 years hunting Alaska with the 9.3x62

RinB,
To broaden your point of view regarding magazine capacity:

Areas in Alaska that allow multiple caribou bag limits, the 3-down guns are at a severe disadvantage.

Twice, I've emptied a 5 down 9.3, and only had 2 or 3 caribou to show for it. 30 mph winds, animals always trotting by, rarely stopping. You will miss and with 5 down, you will recover.

3 down, you will connect only once(one caribou is only a week of food per family), then watch a herd pass by as you reload your rifle. Then, you'll go to the AC and pay $25 for a lb of beef. Or: If a snowmachine, $12(or more) for a gallon gasoline to go try again.

I've never seen a subsistence hunter carry a 3-down rifle. And this is why the WSM cartridges never overtook the 243, 308, 270 or 30-06 in the villages where caribou outnumber people.

I may have not read carefully enough, or didn't notice ... do any of you have experience with the Speer 270 gr. bullet? I have somehow accumulated more than two hundred of them, more than I need for practise, and I'd like to eventually take them hunting bears, moose or elk. I have other proven 9.3 mm bullets too, mostly 285 grains ( Norma Oryx, Swift A frames, Nosler partitions, Lapua Mega) so don't need to hunt with the Speers but I'm curious how they'd measure up.

If I recall Yukoner has used the 270 Speer in his much used 9.3 X 62 PM him.

You recall well! The 270 Speer has been very accurate in both the 9.3X62 at waaaay over 2400 fps, and the 57 at around 2300.

Expansion and deep penetration has been reliable on moose and bears, and never a bullet blowing apart. Here’s a picture of the only one I ever recovered. Broadside in the lungs, a moose at 30 yards, 9.3X62.



Ted

Thanks Ted, that gives me confidence to try them when the opportunity comes along. Good to know they are so capable and reliable. And thanks to mainer_in_ak for this thread, and for sharing your experience. I have a bunch of the cheap Serbian PPU bullets too, and your reports of success with them also are very welcome!

Anyone try these yet?

Ted

these just popped up, half price...

9.3x62 Nosler ammo

Anyone try an leveraction 9.3? Winchester 1895?

I've only had then to the range once. Working up to JB's 2650 FPS load with my slightly slower-burning lot of Varget. I'm at 2600 with 62 grains (23.5" barrel) accuracy seems good in my small sample and POI is the same as the 250 AB thought these are a fair bit longer - likely a better BC than the AB but Nosler list the same BC for them both. Probably an error since in every other bullet diameter/weight combination for which Nosler makes both and E-Tip and a BT or AB, the E-Tip is shown with a higher BC. My guess is they were just making it easy without testing it yet.

They're sure a smoking deal at SPS right now.

Rex

Mainer, where do you live in INTERIOR Alaska that gas is 12 bucks a gallon? Where is there an AC store? Where do caribou outnumber the people in the interior?

Happy new year Mt. How's the 338-06 working out?

Left NW a while back. I was just simply recalling where a 5-down rifle was an advantage: in areas with multiple caribou bag limits.

Much different here in interior, as the federal subsistence permit is 2 caribou. And now that has been canceled this year. Mighty tempted to head back northwest, where winter hunts and bag limits are more favorable than here interior.

My place is about 30 miles outside of Delta.

Are you still in the Nome area?

At lgs today I saw about 10 boxes of those Speer 270s.

And a happy new year to you, Mainer. Your always an interesting person. Left Nome in 2012. Change in my employers plan made Fairbanks the better choice. Left some good trapping, hunting, and fishing behind in Nome. Do some 40 mile hunting and time out by Ruby. Lucked out and got a wife with property in Kenny Lake. Our freezer is filled with copper river salmon.
The 338-06 is working OK. Got a longer, 24 in. barrel on it. Will shoot 250 gr. sierras at 2500. Those outdoors directory guys sold me on heavy and slow. I'm retired.
What are you doing for work and fun?
You almost had me sold on the 9.3 in the past.

Correction on my part: My rifle is a New Haven, Stainless, G prefix in 270. It’s been looped to 18” and threaded 5/8x24 for me to enjoy until I decide on rebarrel or rebore. I don’t think the stick is anything but a plastic Winchester OEM (molded in checkering), but seems stiff enough. I’m hoping I can scarf up another at some point.

I have a Golden State Eddystone M1917 with my gunsmith getting it set up for some type of scope mount. Would this rifle be considered a suitable candidate for a 9.3x62 rebore?

If it is a 30-06, it certainly will, and with very little work to make it feed and eject properly, if any.

I had a pre war Model 70 in 270 that was a mess. The rifle, including chamber and the bore, was the terribly rusted. The rebore cleaned up everything. not just the bore, but a completely new chamber as well. My son has it now.

Keep us posted.
Ted

Yes, I had Dan Pederson, classic Rifle works do one for me. It needed the rails opened a little to feed correctly. But with a little help from Sitka Deer (Art ) it works great with 7 round capacity. --- Mel

I had read a lot about this cartridge and bought my first 9.3x62 when the LH Zastavas were imported to the US years ago. Loved the the cartridge but the rifle was crude.

A while later a forum member posted on AR he had a custom LH 9.3 built on the Zastava action that looked great. When he posted it for sale I bought it, turned out to be one of my favorite rifles. I've only used it on our Texas hogs but it works great. I also have a LH Model 70 in 375 H&H, beautiful gun but it doesn't get out much, seems like when I go hunting I always grab the 9.3x62.

470Evans,

Very nice rifles (and I include the M70 .375).

A year ago this month I picked up a nearly new Zastava M70 LH in .375 H&H. Matters have improved greatly since those ugly ones. Lots of 'em available a dozen years ago in 9.3 x 62, .375 H&H and my favorite in .458 Win Mag, which I almost bought. The .375 H&H has nice wood, and fit and finish is excellent. I've been working with loads since and it has gone bear hunting without success so far. It's not my first .375 H&H.

But the reason I have it is because I became bored with perfection. I've owned my Tikka T3 Lite in 9.3 x 62 since 2011. It, along with my Ruger No.1 in .45-70 LT, has done all hunting chores until about two years ago when the light No.1 was traded for a Ruger No.1 in .458 Win Mag and I bought a single-shot in .35 Whelen (my 3rd .35 Whelen). The problem with the Tikka in 9.3 x 62 was perfection. I developed several loads that I couldn't improve on in ballistics - bot in accuracy and MV. I killed three bears in a row with it - one shot each. The first was wounded by a young friend. I chased it down in tall grass and shot it in the short ribs on the right side as it was trying to escape through 30" tall grass with two wounded legs (left front and right rear). The 286gr Hornady SP-RP took out eight inches of back bone and went off into the trees in one piece. MV was ~2400 fps. 2nd bear on the same private property was shot frontally from my treestand at 68 yds by a 286 NP at +2600 fps. A nice 6' black bear. He made 20 yds and fell down an escarpment. That bullet was retrieved in skinning - just in front of the right hip. The bullet retained 73.8% of unfired weight. On the same property (different location) another 6' bear wouldn't come to the bait at 85 yds as long as I was in my stand. But when I left to return to my van around 6 pm he came to the bait and I caught him there when I returned. He was shot with a 250gr NAB at ~2700 fps. He too went 20 yds. No CNS hits on the last two. But a blood trail a blind man could follow on the 3rd.

RL-17 was the magic for the 250 AB, the 286 NP and the 320 Woodleigh at +2400 fps, all shooting sub MOA. The 250 AB into a consistent SUB- 1/2 MOA. I was using Hornady brass and WLRM primers. And about a year ago I had to purchase Lapua brass that due to being thicker limits the amount of powder that can be used. And it's at least 2x the cost of Hornady brass.

Perfection gets boring!

Bob
www.bigbores.ca

I have an 1895 in 35 Whelen. I suspect a 9.3x62 would work too, but I'd want to test-feed a few first.