Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Africa 9.3 x 62mm Load for Whitetail

I like the idea of a flatter shooting 232gr (if I can find them!). What kind of velocity are you getting with this load and do you have an idea what is your PBR? I shoot 220s out of a 358 Winchester which seem plenty strong for Moose/Elk so I think a nice flat shooting 232gr would do nicely.

358 Win and 9.3, two of the most under rated and obscure rounds in North America. lol, glad I hand load. One of these days I will buy a rifle that I can get bullets at Walmart, but that would be too easy.

Have you tried the set trigger on the CZ 550? I found it a little awkward at first, but I think it helps the accuracy. Plus you have the option to use it or not.

Nice read here Gents, I have so many rifles I work up one load for anything I may ever hunt with that particular rifle, that said my 9.3x62 will be using the 320 Woodleigh's,

I will file the quarter rib to be dead on @50 yds, and use a little 2.5-8 Leupold in a set of Talley QD's for hunting ranges out to 200 yds.

Its being built on an old Heym Mauser 98, and a beautiful stick of walnut that our friend Karnis has worked over

Cant wait to see the completed rifle.

Gunner

Velocity runs at 2725 for the load using Lapua cases and CCI LR primers. Normas can be hard to find, Black Hills is the US distributer for Norma.

I picked up some Norma Oryx 232 gr tips at Graf's a while back. Using RL-15 I was up around 2650 on the chrono at what appears to be easy pressures. Case necks were smoked and they about fall out of the chamber. Not sure on the PBR, never shot them that past 200 yards. Seem to recall them being about an inch low at 200 with them two inches high at 100 if that helps.

Agree that the 358 and 9.3 are under rated. Seems that most are looking for string trajectories and means 3000 fps+ and bullets under 200 grains so you are not killed by recoil.

I found that 58-59gns Varget works with just about anything in 285gns with my 9.3s. Yesterday I was shooting my new Hawkeye 9.3 with 286gn Hornadys, Lapua Mega and tried a few 286gn TSXs adn they all shoot well. The Megas and the hornadys shoot to the some POI and all group around .5 to .7" - the variation probably being me........

While the 232-grain Norma Oryx works fine on deer, if you might shoot longer ranges the 250-grain Nosler Ballistic Tip shoots noticeably flatter, even though it can't be started as fast, due to a MUCH higher ballistic coefficient. It also penetrates deeper, though it still expands easily on deer-sized game.

If ranges aren't going to be over 250 yards or so the Hornady and Privi 286's are the best financial deal.

61 grains of Varget in my 25" barrel got 2,627 fps (Chrono'd). 63 grains would be slightly more of a good thing. I zero it at 200 yards and have not had to shoot anything over that (yet). If you come across some factory RWS 258 H-Mantel ammo it is superb quality and would also make a fine small game soft skinned game load. Very expensive however.

Yes, I think the 9.3 and the .358 are under rated, yet very efficient for their respective uses. I guess they are victims of "magnum mania" since the 50s. I shoot 180s out of my .358 in a BLR, however, that gun is very light and it does buck a little even with the smaller bullets. What is the smallest bullet out there for the 9.3? Is it the Norma 232gr? Thanks for all the contributions out there.

Larry

How do you like that Hawkeye? Looks like a sweet gun.

Your custom Mauser 9.3 sounds like a really nice project. I thought about going that route until my local gun store had a formally Africa bound CZ550 with a nice Nikon scope tempt me beyond my ability to resist. The rifle was brand new, but sold as used. Apparently, the Africa trip never happened for a customer and he traded it in for used. His loss and my gain and the rifle is a real shooter (.5 to .75 inch groups).

Larry

I got amazing accuracy with the 286 Previs in both 9,3X62 and 9,3X74R. Granted, they aren't all that "slick" through the air, but they are good bullets for the two 9,3 flavors I used.

I loaded the 250 Ballistic Tips only in 9,3X74r and found them OK accuracy wise and tough enough for the relatively slow velocities of that round. I never did try them in the 9,3X62, but I can't see a downside.

JB- would an AB give any less meat loss than a BT or same?

I really like the 9.3 and my next mid bore has a 95% or better chance of being this round. Love 338s, but looking at 9.3 vs. the non belted 338/06 I prefer, the 9.3 looks really good.

This may be my German Bleifrei (leadfree) round, plus I don't think there is anything in Europe that wouldn't fall quick with this load.

The Barnes TSX 250g is accurate in my 550, about 2625fps again with RL-15 about 62g. These are loads that JB published some time ago for his CZ550. They work so well in mune that I have found no need to experiment further.

For thin skinned game like deer, I think the Speer 270 grain around 2,400 - 2,500 sounds about right. My 9.3 is shoots under an inch with this bullet with light recoil too.

Larry - As far as I know, the 232 is the lightest bullet available in 9.3. My gun weighs about 7 1/2 pounds loaded and ready to fire. I do not find the recoil objectionable, even with the 286 grain loads. No question it will be somewhat more than your 358 assuming comparable gun weights.

65BR,

You may or may not be aware that Nosler bullets of all types (except perhasp the E-Tip) are designed to perform differently, depending on the type of game the Nosler folks anticipate hunters will use them on. This even applies to Partitions: The larger, heavier models are designed to retain more weight.

So to say "a BT" doesn't mean much. Some AccuBonds will perform very similarly to the stouter Ballistic Tips, while others will act more like Partitions.

The 250-grain 9.3 AccuBond is designed to retain at least 80% of its weight, and the only one I've recovered (from pretty good-sized grizzly) retained 83%. This a lot more than even the stoutest Ballistic Tips, so it does tend to tear up less meat. I've also shot endwise through big kudu and similar game, but the front end expands readily on deer-sized game.

When loaded to 2650 or so it has a very similar trajectory to the 180-grain .30-06 load.

There is lighter bullets for 9,3 available than Norma Vulcan 232gr. Lapua new Naturalis is 220gr and Imapala (SA) offer 180gr.

Actually, I think my ultralight BLR in 358 seems to buck about the same as my heavier CZ550 9.3. Of course that is just perception.