Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Mule Deer's 9.3x62 data

Ted it is a pleasure to hear real "from the bush" experience with stuff. Keep hunting.

If one was to build a short and more nimble 9.3x62… say around 7lbs and with a 20”bbl, I have a question: would the reloader be better using heavier or lighter bullets?
I never grasped the answer to this one.
Going to 232gr be the ticket, or the 320gr?

I guess it depends on what your application is. A back east tree stand hunter might be happy with 232s. Nearly every time I deer hunt I might run into a brown bear, so it's 286s for me. My 9.3 has a 20.5" barrel and is just about 7lbs with the peep sight. I find 286s at 2400 to be no problem.

With the 9.3 there really is no wrong answer.

I have been quite interested in this caliber for a long time. But I've yet to have killed anything with it. It is a 30-06 rebored to 9.3x62. Carries right and I have a plastic stock and wood stock both fitted. RZ.

!

Any new loads, guys?

With some experimenting you can make the 232 Oryx and 320gr Woodleigh PP shoot into the same group at 100 yds. I use RL-15 for the 232 at 2450 fps for a light deer/wolf load, and RL-17 for the 320 at ~ 2425 fps. That could come in handy for particular situations. Of course, past 100 the 320 will hold its velocity better and shoot a bit flatter due to a much better BC.

I do the same type of thing with my .35 Whelen a 225 AB at 2840 fps and 300gr Barnes O at 2355 shoot into the same group at 100. That just happened that way not because it was planned. CFE223 for the 225 and RL17 for the 300. I won't give the loads, but it works!

I might be hunting a wolf or deer with the 225 and run into a bear at close quarters. Or, I might be sitting over a bear bait at 40 -50 yds, get tired of that and want to wander a bit, so the 225 goes into the chamber, etc.

Bob
www.bigbores.ca

Has anyone used the Nosler 250 E-Tip on game?

Testing out 250 TSX and TAC.

The 286 Hornady shot good with 65 grains of Big Game.

Pulled my barreled action out. Removed sights, trigger, bolt stop. Cerakoted, reassembled, first shot was ½" low but centered! Put a soften scope on it today
I'll sight that in tomorrow.

Dennis,
Have you tried JB's load with Varget and the 250TSX?
V8n

No.
I've only tried TAC.
I shot today. Got 2515 avg depending on primer. 56.0 grains
I shot the 286 over Varget, got 2345 with it. 22" barrel.
65 grains of Big Game yields 2405 in my rifle

I may have already posted this in this thread, but if I have, hopefully it is worth repeating.

The interesting thing about all this effort to hot-rod the 9.3 is that the original loading for the 9.3x62 was a 286 grain bullet at around 2150. That was 200 feet less than the current factory load, and was the load that established the reputation for this fine cartridge on ALL big game in Africa.

I have used and seen it used on everything in the Yukon, except sheep. Moose, Caribou, and both bears, as well as huge Woods bison, go down with a single shot in the heart lung area. I have only ever seen one bison that got up after being hit, and that was only because a number of other bison came and helped lift it back onto its feet.

My time with this cartridge is creeping up on fifty years of hunting and guiding, all of which has been with 285-290 gr bullets loafing out of the barrel at less than 2400. I have twice seen the 270 Speer used by a pilot friend on a bear and on a moose. Both were one shot kills

It started out as a poor man’s 375 and still is. Five in the magazine is a comfort too, although I have never needed more than two rounds.

Great cartridge!

Ted

Ted,

Thanks for the report. It obviously always did work very well at those velocities, otherwise it wouldn't have survived.

But I got interested in what the 9,3x62 would do at "modern" pressures, meaning the 60,000 PSI of the .30-06. It turned out it worked very well, and with modern 250s at 2650 or so isn't just a "short range" round.

John

Anyone load up any Lapua 185 gr. (G574) bullets for their 9.3 rifles??

I bought a couple hundred to "plink" and sight in my scopes riding on my Tikka T3 that's sitting in a B&C Medalist stock. A light load to replicate a 30-06 per se.

Agreed, John, and I do understand your interest. I have never used the 9.3 beyond 250 yards or thereabouts, but at that range it is still easy to hit vital areas on any big game we have here.

I will add, however, that it is not hard to clean five pigs off the rail on our silhouette range from the bench. That is 300 meters, 328 yards as you know, and far beyond what perhaps more than 80% of hunters are capable of in the field. But that’s another thread thought that might be worth starting.

Appreciate you starting this thread. Best,
Ted

Yup. I use them for walking around field practice, not for wacking any game.

I use 52 gr. - 53 gr. of H4895 for 2,300+ fps. Could easily go much faster, but for what I'm doing it suffices.

I've avoided" hotrodding" it for the most part. I can't get the 9.3 BS velocities. I do think the modern powders have woken up a giant.

I use RL15 in mine but some say RL17 is a powder which offers more velocity. I put a 286 NP over 58.5 grains of RL15 in mine and see no reason to switch on a proven performer.

Ted, I've had good results with the load you shared with me a decade back. I believe it was 57 grains of h4895 with a 285gr PPU bullet. I was easily hitting 300 yard targets both at the range and in the field. I believe that load clocked 2440 fps out of my rifle.