Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles 9.3x62 or 30/06 ?

Wish I knew this before using it on a zebra....

I have had and am again making up a LH Zastava in 9.3x62. It is a highly useful caliber for general purpose hunting. What did the late Bob Boatman say? The 3006 was designed to kill small men while the 9.3x62 was designed to kill big animals. It's also very pleasant to shoot. I strongly recommend you reach out to Gentry and get a LH 3 pos safety.

I came pretty close to buying one of those LH Zastava 9.3x62 rifles form Tradeex a couple of years ago. Apparently they are pretty light but accurate. I ended up with a friend's 358 Win and really like it too. Be neat to see how it works for you and what your impressions are when you shoot it a bit, still have that one in the back of my mind just because it's there.

ryoushi,

At my age & with (at least somewhat) failing eyesight, I wouldn't even consider shooting at a game animal anymore beyond 250M, so (for me at least) that's not a consideration.
( I wonder how much difference in trajectory that there is between the 2 calibers, if the 9.3x62mm is loaded with the 232 grain "Oryx" spitzer.)

Also, I don't like chasing game in the dense brush, so the old-school 9.3x62mm with the 286 grain JSP anchors even a BIG boar, moose, elk, etc. quickly & often (presuming a decent hit with the 286 grain bullet) they fall/expire quickly.
(Fyi, I'm a "heavy bullet guy".)

Note: Back in my youth, when dinosaurs roamed the Earth (CHUCKLE), I got a chance to take a IIB Hirsch/Red Deer in BRD, with a borrowed 9.3x62mm Husky. - I was IMPRESSED with how well that one 285 gr bullet did at 132 long steps from the tree-stand. = He took 2 steps & COLLAPSED, as if "pole-axed"..

yours, tex

I bet the 232 gr Oryx shoots pretty much as flat as the typical 30-06 load to your 250 meter limit. The 250's would too. I always thought that those 232 gr bullets at around 2700 fps would be a real hammer for everything from deer to moose. Kind of like the typical 225 gr load from a 35 Whelen at the same speed.

gerry35,

I wish that someone who KNOWS would "check-in" & tell us about the trajectory of the 232 grain load.
(Fyi, I was GUESSING when I said that I suspected that .30-06 & .232 grain spitzer "fly" about the same.)

yours, tex

30-06 with 200gr partitions is anything but "marginal" and will do anything a 9.3x62mm will. Btdt. Id pick the good ol 06. Hard to beat its versatility.

Late to the party, but my $.02.


Either is a good choice,
basically recoil and trajectory against, a bigger bullet and a little more punch.
Neither swings too far in either direction, and they can be loaded to come close together.



The Swede compared to the Creed

Oh boy!


Take a 100 year old cartridge, shorten it, jack up pressure, tighten tolerances and use
modern knowledge to enhance accuracy.......Creed!

If you want a short action or only shoot factory ammo, Creed.

If you load your own, and tailor the ammo to the gun, the Swede can exceed
the Creed. In velocity. It is an accurate cartridge, but the dimensional issues
give the Creed an accuracy advantage when you are discussing a random rifle,
shooting an unknown bullet.

Build a custom with a chamber and throat cut for accuracy, anything can be made to
be accurate. The creeds claim to fame, is that it was designed that way.

I would like to put a 3 position safety on it. What happens to the original safety when the switch is made? Is it just removed?

Gerry, the 358 is a tough one to beat. My thinking was similar, left hand rifles are hard to come by in some calibers so I was interested in the Zastava 9.3 one I knew it was available.

On another note, I saw one of the nicest rifles I've ever seen last night. A friend of mine collects pre 64 model 70 Winchesters. He sent one down to your neck of the woods and had Martinni do all the metal work. New barrel, barrel band front sight, barrel band sing swivel stud, action blueprinted, and the whole thing re-buled. After Martinni was done the rifle was sent north to Dawson Creek for a new stock. Apparently there are two guys there that build stocks, and they are both world class. My buddy supplied the wood and had the stock built from scratch. The rifle is a 458, and truly a work of art. He has just over 5k into it all in. I didnt know about the stock makers in Dawson Creek, but will contact one of them about a new piece of wood for the Zastava.

I love both cartridges, but the Far North with Moose and Bear is a fine place for the 9.3x62! If you gather up components, it doesn't matter if 'zero" grocery stores have any ammo on the shelf. right? I've travelled a little bit, and always took my ammo with me and even it had been lost, I could borrow a good rifle, no big deal. I have had 3 9.3x62 through the years. My first was back in the late 90's and I had a time scrounging up dies, components, but it was fun doing it! I had a Mod 70 FWT (PF) rebarreled with a Lothar Walther 24" barrel. It was a great shooter, had zero issues with headspace problems (that round shoulder). I shot the Speer 270 for an all around and the then new 286 partition. I gave that rfile to my Youth Minister who had been using a 30-06 for elk all his life ( he was around 30ys old). He shot a big spike bull that fall. He said the bull was behind a light screening of buckbrush about 75yds away.. He could see him fine, but would never have taken the shot with his 30-06/180s. He thought, "hey, I have this big gun" , lets see what it will do...so wham! He was hooked. ha. The next one was the one I bought for my Marine Son In Law on his return from 2bd tour of Iraq. A CZ 550 FS. The Vortex 286 TSX factory ammo gave about 4 failures to fire. The Privi did fine. Fireform cases, of course, are just fine. My last was a beautiful Mod 77 African with nice wood (no brake) and it was barely in spec for headspace, gave me many (too many) FFs so I just sold it outright. All this time I had a pet 35 Whelen Ackley Improved ( which is more like the 9.3x62 than the standard Wheln is, in my opinion) that I took for everything, so the 9.3 was like having a red headed step child, ha. I loved him, but he was alot of trouble. I was already fireforming my 35 WAI, wasn't going to do it for the ruger or send it back. It shot some ammo fine, but not others. But the 93x62, Its a fine round!

Comes right out. Perfect time to have the trigger tuned as well. If you get a real hankering you can use new bottom metal at some point, too along with a new bolt handle. Pretty soon you'll think about iron sights, and a new stock, and a... well, you get the idea. I got the first one shooting a 286 NP over 58.5 gr of RL 15 < 1/2 MOA which speaks more to the quality of the douglas barrel than my trigger finger.

Dre,

Perhaps I have the "recoil sensitivity" of a mule but I own essentially identical Model 760 rifles in both .30-06 & 9.3x62mm (that Jessie at JES reformatted) & I can tell little/no difference in the "kick" of the two calibers.
(Actually, I have 3 Model 760 rifles in .30-06, as the Model 760 rifles seem to "keep falling into my lap" at estate/garage sales. = Right now I have 8 Model 760 rifles/carbines in .223REM to my treasured 9.3x62mm.)

Note: One of my "garage sale" pump-rifles is a .30-06 that has a badly pitted barrel.
(The PO shot a lot of cheap/corrosive/surplus service ammo in it & evidently W/O ever cleaning it properly.)

That pitted rifle will soon head to JES to be "reborn" as a .400 Brown-Whelen Improved, which is the most powerful wildcat cartridge that can be formed from .30-06 cases. - The "BIG .400" is the "ballistic twin" of "the well-regarded in Africa" .404 Jeffery, that has been used very successfully on every species of big/dangerous game there. - The .400 B-WI uses the same cast/SP/solid bullets as the .405WCF does.
(Truthfully, I don't need a BIG-bore rifle; rather I just want one & a reformatted 760 in that caliber is A-OK with me for anything that I'll ever hunt in this life. - The .400 B-WI "pushes" rather than "kicks", in the one 9.5# rifle that I've shot in that caliber.)

yours, tex

Tex, the factory loads are very mild, as is a 286 grain over 58 grains of reloader 15. Work up a full power 300 grain load using Alliant 2000mr. I top out at 64 grains of powder. At this level, the recoil is far more than a 30-06, you'll notice it.

Yukon, one thing about the common sense, 9.3 mauser:

It's the original bolt action dangerous game rifle. It's older than the first bolt action 30-06 and every cartridge based off the 30-06. That means: it's not a rip off or a knock off.

It's the grand daddy. In the beginning, it never became a German export to the United States or Canada. It became a German export to Africa and Scandinavia. John Moses Browning ruled the north country back then.

I just saw a massive grizzly on Friday night, nose to a 50 mph wind (probably running down moose calves. He looked like a cow moose with shorter legs and a bigger head. Dark brown legs, a hint of blonde guard hairs along the shoulders and neck. He left a high-bank of the Gulkana River. As I took after him, taking advantage of the noisey black spruce, the 9.3 felt right at home in my hand. He left one ft deep impressions in the moss. As the woods got tight and I lost his track, I actually took the scope off the rifle........

mainer, you're a bad influence on guys like me ! I hadn't really paid much attention to the 9.3 until I read one of your posts on AO about the round. I didnt know the Gulkana was your neck of the woods. Seems like we crossed the Gulkana River a week or so back. We went down to Kasilof and picked up a bear dog.

Both great chambers for the field. 30-06 is by a long shot much more versatile in range and loads to support any type of game or terrain. If large heavy game is the majority hunted and 250 yards is your long range, the 9.3 is a fine choice.

You should run some numbers Ross. a 250 NAB at near 2700 fps will do everything out to any sane distance as an 06 will do. Zero the scope appropriately and watch it go. the simple fact is the 36 caliber imparts more shock and awe than does the 308 caliber.

I own both. And I REALLY like my 9.3s.
The only down side to my 9.3s (I own 4 of them) is that fact that bullets cost a LOT more then 30 cal bullets do, and because I shoot a lot, that adds up fast.

So I recommend ..............get both.

I shoot my 30s a lot more then I shoot my bigger bores, but if I add up all the 9.3s all my 375s and all my 404s I shoot each year I come up with about 1000 divided by those 3 calibers.

I shoot 2000 to 4000 thousands each of 224s and 308s each year.

I also fire many thousands of rounds of 7.62X39 and 5.45X39 every year.

Add to this about 1000-1500 rounds of 6.8SPC, and then add in all my other cartridges I shoot, (222, 25-06, 6.5X54, 270 Win, 30-30, 300 Savage, 30-06, 300 H&H, 303 Brit, 7.62X54R, 8X57) and you get the picture.

Safe to say I do a lot of shooting.

The one things that makes a man a very good game shot is --- shooting a lot in the field and hills, and leave the bench rest alone after you get zeroed. I truly enjoy shooting in the field for practice, and I do it about 5 times a week.
So for a man that wants to shoot a lot, enjoys shooting, and may fire 500-1500 rounds from a rifle for every round he kills a game animal with, it is good advice to get a 30 cal.
I like my 9.3s and I shoot them enough to keep proficient to be sure, but I could not afford to fire them in the same numbers I can fire a 308 or 30-06

Rossimp; bluefish,

AGREED 100% - As I said, at 72YO & with "not the best" eyesight, even with a scope, I wouldn't even attempt a shot at a game animal beyond 250M, especially given that you cannot SEE an animal, in the area where I usually hunt. = The brush IS thick enough that 100M is a LONG shot (other than an occasional shot down a powerline right-of-way).

In some places on "the lease" you cannot clearly SEE an animal beyond 40-50M.

yours, tex

Sure thing a 150 or 165 load out of a 30-06 at 500 yards is quite the same as a 250 gr 9.3. Dream on.