Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters 9.3x62 with 250 gr accubond seating depth?

Hey guys, thiscevening I'll start reloading for my newest 9.3x62. My old one only gets 286 gr bullets with big game powder. This gun will be my first time trying the 250 nosler accubond. I was just curious as to the amount of bullet jump most of you have had success with this bullet. After I measure the lands I was gonna start 40-50 thousandths off the lands, since I've always heard that bullet usually likes some jump. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. And thanks In advance.

Does the new rifle have a "special" 9.3x62 chamber? The reason I ask is the typical chamber has a very long, tapering throat, so long it's just about impossible to seat spitzer bullets anywhere near the rifling. This is also true of the SAAMI chamber, not just European chambers.

The 9.3x62 was originally designed to to fit in the standard K98 Mauser magazine, which is approximately 3.30 inches long. My CZ 550's magazine is a little longer, around 3.4+, but even when seated out to the longest possible length for use in the magazine, any spitzer is a LONG way from the rifling. Yet it shoots extremely well with the 250 AccuBond and just about any appropriate powder. This is also typical of other 9.3x62s I've heard about from various handloaders.

All but one of my 9.3x62s have been single shots--the one that wasn't was a rebarreled pre-64 Model 70. I loaded 250 ABs for it just short enough to feed reliably from the magazine, and it shot very well. However, I never measured the amount of free-bore that might have been in the custom barrel, although I assume that the chamber was not too far off SAAMI specs.

As Mule Deer said, the leades on the 9,3x62's tend to be very long. Thus, I simply load any bullet as long as my magazine will allow and go shooting. Despite the long leade, the 9,3x62 tends to be very accurate so seating depth hasn't really been an issue. I've owned about a dozen or so 9,3x62's and still have half a dozen, this practice has worked well on all of them.

Yep, and I suspect that's partly because the very long leade (a little over 1.1 inches according to the SAAMI chamber drawing) is only slightly above bullet diameter in front the case, and tapers very gradually to the rifling. Thus bullets have to remain in pretty good alignment as they start out of the case.

This type of chamber was common in early smokeless cartridges designed for long, heavy round-nosed bullets--and the 9.3x62's original loads all used 286 roundnoses. But iit also works well with today's long spitzers.

Hey guys thanks I just finished measuring to the lands, and it's just like my other 9.3x62 very long lol. My magazine will feed a cartridge about 3.380", and that's still about .110 to .120" off the lands. Gonna start out with them loaded deep enough to the base of the neck atleast to begin with for my velocity ladder this weekend. Double check to make sure they will feed through the magazine. Could not find any varget anywhere local, but found some quickload data with RL17. Guess I'm gonna give it a shot and see what kinda speeds it's looking like. Also keeping an eye out for some varget also. Rifle is a sauer 100 XT, and I hunted this year with the 225 gr norma ecostrike. Have to say had great performance out of that factory ammo. Clocked 2623 fps out of my 22" barrel and single digit sd's. Also only shot three groups with them all were below 3/4". Best group was .334". I'll update this weekend after I shoot the velocity ladder. I bought this one to shoot lighter weight Spitzers and my old mauser will keep shooting the 286 RN bullets.

Cleveland48,

On a bit of a side note here. I emailed Norma this year to ask if they were going expand their selection of Ecostrike, Bondstrike, and Tipstrike bullets for reloading components. The person that replied said that they did not have plans to offer the Ecostrike as a component bullet unfortunately . But did intend to expand their offerings of Tipstrike and Bondstrike bullets as reloading components. Possibly more options in the future for the 9.3mm! Good luck with the 9.3x62mm. I do like that cartridge.

Regards,
sixfive

My riifle is a Blaser with a 20.5" bbl.

Been shooting it a lot lately as I am going to BC for a bear hunt in May.

It has a really long throat. Seated some 250 AB out to 3.6" and didn't touch the rifleing. Ditto for the 286 bullets as well. Settled on 3.450" for this bullet.

The good news is the seating depth seems to make no difference at all. Everything and anything shoots sub MOA.

Velocity with 60.5 gr of VGT is 2525

I set my dial up to max of 550 yards. I can ring the gong at 550 all day...or at least till I get tired of the recoil.

The rifle weighs just shy of eight lbs with a 3.5X10 Leupie and combined with the Blaser stock which has a bit of drop it lets you know when it goes off..

Neat rifle/cartridge looking forward to turning it loose on Yogi


Lefty C

That is exactly the same as my 7x64. The throat is extremely long, but is only one or two thou over bullet diameter and tapered. It is the most accurate rifle I own though.

I'm loading the 232gn Oryx and Vulcan in my 9.3 for fallow, pigs and the odd fox. It is a Ruger No.1 so I can seat the bullets out. I have only seated them a bit less than half a calibre into the necks but because of their dumpy shape they are still a long way off the lands. Yet it usually shoots very well.

Yep. Those Germans really knew what they were doing with the long, gently tapering leade design.Both my 7x64 and 9.3x62 are very accurate and seating-depth agnostic. I’m thinking that design might work very well for other cartridges with long, high b.c. bullets - like the 30-06. Assuming decent mag length of course.

I would like to try that tipstrike on deer!

Tested some loads today, but didnt quite get to 2600 fps. I could not find my long drop tube, and ran out of case capacity at 66.4 grains of RL17. Velocity was 2566 fps with absolutely no sign of excess pressure. Will come back to try this later after I get another long drop tube. Then i tried big game and worked up to 65.5 grains and 2531 fps, also no pressure signs at all. I feel like i stopped quite a bit too early with big game, but now i got somewhere to start next. Long drop tube might allow a little more capacity. still no varget, so I did go ahead and pick up RL15 for now. Will try to have more worked up by next weekend. Also playing with my new Annie induction annealer with the water cooled coils. I think I'm in love with this, and no more burnt fingers! Lol

Tested some loads today, but didnt quite get to 2600 fps. I could not find my long drop tube, and ran out of case capacity at 66.4 grains of RL17. Velocity was 2566 fps with absolutely no sign of excess pressure. Will come back to try this later after I get another long drop tube. Then i tried big game and worked up to 65.5 grains and 2531 fps, also no pressure signs at all. I feel like i stopped quite a bit too early with big game, but now i got somewhere to start next. Long drop tube might allow a little more capacity. still no varget, so I did go ahead and pick up RL15 for now. Will try to have more worked up by next weekend. Also playing with my new Annie induction annealer with the water cooled coils. I think I'm in love with this, and no more burnt fingers! Lol

Nosler 250 AB's, burning N540 63.5 grains for 2,725 mv average, shoot accurate.

I think a local store has some of that powder I'll have to check into that for sure!

N540 is a very good powder--especially these days. While Vihatvuori powders have always been accurate and pretty temperature resistant, but more recently they've all been temp-resistant, and include decoppering agents.

I like that!

Has the max of 62 grains of RL 15 been safe in y'alls guns. I was thinking of loading a velocity ladder from 60 to 62 grains in .5 grains increments to check speeds and pressures. My last loads I started too low and was finished well before hitting my max, and I dont wanna keep wasting these accubonds. Also I'm gonna look for some N540 this week too!

All published 9,3x62 loading data is based on old, low-pressure standards. I have NEVER run into any sort of "pressure sign" by starting with published maximums and working up to around 2450-2500 fps with 286s and 2650-2700 fps with 250s, of whatever brand. That's with three different 9.3x62s hat had 21-24 inch barrels.

No doubt it could be pushed even harder, but have generally found 250s and 286s at those velocities kill big game VERY well.

Thanks MD I've used your load of 65 grains of big game with 286 gr bullet. Get right at 2500 fps with that load with no issues. I'm shooting for the 250's to be in the 2600-2650 fps range and I'll be plenty happy with that.