Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Lighter 9,3 USA made bullets, please!

Hello,

I don't understand why no one of the USA bullet makers are offering a lighter 9,3 bullet...I think there would be a very good market demand for a monometal 220 to 230 grs TTSX, GMX, E-Tip and so. Also an Accubond, Interlock/Interbond, Power Point would be great, making the 9,3x62/64/74 still better all around cartridges. If they make these weights for the .350" bore I don't see why not in .366"....
In Europe, there are a lot of very good bullets of those weights!! My most used 9,3x62 bullet for big Red Deer and Wild Boar down here, is the excellent made in Slovenia FOX 220 grs monometal bullet. At 2800 f/s, it is a perfect all around bullet for these game in all conditions.
No matter this covid 19 thing, hope they would offer some...

Best!

PH

Probably because if a guy here owns a 9.3 whatevertheheck, he probably has about 20 other rifles too. Why sling 220gr 9.3 bullets at 120 pound deer when his 243 using 90gr bullets works fine.

The guy with a 9.3 likely has it with the idea of shooting bigger animals.

I shoot my 9.3whatevertheheck at whitetail using 286 grainers and it works just fine.

Cutting Edge Bullets has the 210-grain Raptor. I haven't tried it on game, but have had excellent results from other Raptors from .22 to .30 caliber. In my CZ 550, 66.0 grain of Reloder 15 gets around 2850 fps.

Probably because, as you pointed out, the 35 bores are already very popular. Or...popular for medium bores, anyway. Demand for 200 to 225gr .358 bullets has been established for at least 100 years here.

Just got some Hammer Bullets .366 at 240 grain . American made and drive band technology much like GS Customs. Ordered a 15 pk sample for testing. I like the GS Customs 230's but they are a pain in the azz to get.

I would LOVE to see a 235 grain bonded bullet with a thin nose jacket for good expansion at impacts velocities down to about 1400FPS. We have many good 9.3MM bullets make for heavy tough game, but few for deer. I have used the 286 grain Hornady and the 285 grain PPU as well as the 286 grain Nosler partition with excellent results, but from my 9.3X57s the velocity at the muzzle is only around 2175 to 2235 FPS so the range at which I can expect expansion is limited. The 270 grain Speer blows up badly from my 9.3X74R with hits on small deer and antelope inside of 300 yards, so it's jacket is too thin.

What I think would be a winner is a 235 grain bonded with a thin nose jacket ,and also maybe a thick jacket on a cup and core bullet of the same weight, with the ogive thinning down from the shank thickness of about .062 to about .005" so the bullet would open at low striking velocities, yet hold together well enough for hits on larger game at close range too. Having rings "lock" the core in would be good too, but the thicker the jacket the less you can "lock" in the core by a crimp (like a cannelure). So the "dream bullet' is not always easy to make. The PPU comes close, but they only offer the 285 grain weight. If they did one in the 235 grain weight (or something close) I would try some. If they were as good as their 285, I would then buy about 5,000 of them.

Hornady's 286 grain bullet gets a few mixed reviews. So far all I have used worked well, but I do hear others complain. It's jacket is thin enough to make the cannelure go into the core (Inner-lock) by crimping the jacket inwards, but I have read a number of times about them breaking up. No so with the PPU bullets. They make the jacket thicker.

When reducing weight an increase in velocity is expected, so jacket thickness should also increase in the shank.

Bullet making is a science and "perfect' bullets can be made, but not cheaply (yet) in the USA.

There are many excellent bullets out there that are priced at a point that can only be reached by 2 classes of shooters. #1 The very wealthy and #2 those that can't afford to practice with they guns and ammo enough to become truly excellent marksmen.

Making a bullet that is excellent in it's expansion yet won't break up, is very accurate, and cheap enough it shoot 1000 a year in practice is (so far) only a dream from American companies.

Can it be done? I think so.
Will it be done? Well that's a question that time will answer.

The 9.3 made its reputation with the heavier bullet weights. Having said that I have taken over a dozen deer with a 9.3X62 using Norma's 232 Oryx bullets. Performance is outstanding. Only ever recovered one bullet, it expanded to about double diameter, and about 3/4 of its weight left. I think there would be a market for a good lighter bullet. Norma at one time had bullets as light as 200g.

My CZ 550 shoots the 250 NAB really well but, I do wish that Sierra would come up with an offering for the 9.3x62. I would look hard at a SGK or Pro hunter in a 230 to 240 grain bullet. I emailed them a few years back and the response that I got was that they had thought about producing a .366 bullet but apparently that's about as far as it got. My guess was that they thought the market for this caliber just wasn't there.

In general, Sierra tends to concentrate more on the target market than hunting--a trend which has increased in recent years, and not just with Sierra. That's because target shooters use FAR more bullets....

However, if the long-range addicts somehow decided 9.3mm was a lot more special than .338 or .375, then we might see a change--but that would NOT result in lighter 9.3 bullets.

Hawk makes 200 & 235 9.3 bullets.

Rick, the question was about USA-made monolithics.

I made my own by machining TTSX bullets of 250 grain to 200 grain. It did result in a much less recoil which was my goal but the best I got was a bit over 2" groups.....I gave it up for the time being

No it wasn't - read the second sentence.

Gee, sorry. The PRIMARY question (the first sentence) was about monolithics--as is obvious from reading the rest of the post.

I don't see any good reason for lighter lead-cored bullets in 9.3mm--because there are already several under 250 grains, including the excellent 232 Norma Oryx. Even though they're not made in the USA, they're just as available by ordering on the Internet.

Or not as available, depending on the moment.

No reason to be sorry John,
Just thought I'd point out that the original question wasn't only about USA Monos - same as you were doing to RinB, just in reverse.

I don't see a need for lighter cup & cores for a 9.3 either - if I wanted to shoot something that light in a medium bore I'd just use a 338 Win Mag myself - but to each their own.

Hello,

Thank you for your comentaries about my question.
Personal of course but I think many of us would like a 220/225 grs monolothic and a bonded or Partition lead core 230/240 grs 9,3 mm, and simple but good cup and core bullets made by the big ones, good and less expensive than the very few there are now.
These bullets and weights are entirelly adecuate for medium soft skinned game at any sane range with good impact velocity.


Best!

PH

Good points about the role of heavy(ish) bullets in the 9.3, but I recently began doing a little work with the 200 TTSX in my 35 Whelen AI and it is pretty impressive. So I can see how a .366 analog to the .358 TTSX could be a very interesting and useful bullet. I'd have to do the math to figure out what the .366 version would weigh, if the .358 was "swole" up to give the same BC, but I'm betting it'd be right around what the OP is looking for.
Yeah, I bet that would sell. I'd try it.

Cheers,
Rex

I've used the 232gr Oryx a bit and had good results on medium sized plains game in two different 9,3X74R guns. I can see little justification for anything lighter or Shorter. The only justification for light short monos is for CA hunters who have no other rifles and are recoil conscious, and that's a mighty slim market.