.370 Sako Mag

[Pheroze]

Hello all,

I am new to forums of any kind so I hope I am doing this right!

By way of introduction I am a novice hunter with dreams of hunting adventures. Started hunting recently with my 15 year old son and 78 year old father! Dad used to hunt years ago when he was a young lad in India.

I have a 30-06 but was wanting to pick up a larger caliber to get comfortable with. My curiosity is piqued by the 9.3x66 aka .370 Sako Mag. Seems like a great caliber but rare in Canada where I live. My question is whether I should aspire to this gun or the 375 H&H? The idea would be to take it to Africa and/or grizzly country up north.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

 

[Spooksar]

Hello all,

I am new to forums of any kind so I hope I am doing this right!

By way of introduction I am a novice hunter with dreams of hunting adventures. Started hunting recently with my 15 year old son and 78 year old father! Dad used to hunt years ago when he was a young lad in India.

I have a 30-06 but was wanting to pick up a larger caliber to get comfortable with. My curiosity is piqued by the 9.3x66 aka .370 Sako Mag. Seems like a great caliber but rare in Canada where I live. My question is whether I should aspire to this gun or the 375 H&H? The idea would be to take it to Africa and/or grizzly country up north.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

I have yet to see one in Alberta so you are probably better off with a 375 H&H, ammo is easy to come buy and relatively cheap, recoil is very manageable.

 

[RickB]

First off, Welcome to AH!

As far as rifle choice. Get what ever you want. You will just have to deal with the difficulties of the ammo. You will do doubt pay a primium for the ammo. Plus the difficulty in finding it. If you can live with this and/or reload. Go for it. As far as Africa goes. If Africa is on your wish list? It will not work for Dangerous Game in some countries. So you may want to take that in to consideration if you ever plan on gunting DG.

 

[Pheroze]

I also noticed that the available bullets for the 370 Sako are only one weight! It seems that the 375 is a flexible a caliber used on all manner of game. I wonder if the 370 Sako would have the same appeal if it was marketed better?

Africa is certainly on the list. I look forward to being there on a plains game hunt with my son for sure! So, a little practicality may save me a lot of grief. The 370 Sako just seems like a flat shooting manageable caliber. Looks like a bit of a missed opportunity for Sako here. I do have my eye on a 375 H&H Weatherby Euromark but I get distracted by this Sako siren.lol

 

[PHOENIX PHIL]

Welcome to AH Pheroze! No two ways about it in my mind, .375H&H. A bit on the low end for DG, but a 300gr projectile in that caliber has killed many buffalo. I have a load using 250gr North Fork bonded core soft points leaving the muzzle at 2850fps, that will kill anything that comes under the heading of PG. Lots of bullet choices for the handloader and I doubt a gun shop anywhere in Africa will not have .375H&H on the shelves should it ever come to that.

 

[sestoppelman]

Welcome to the forum. If I am not mistaken, the .370 is a 9.3 isnt it? If so there are bullets out there for it from around 230grs up to at least 293 and even over 300 I think, if you reload that is. So that really shouldnt be the issue. Its just a stretch version of the 9.3x62 I believe. It would be hard to find ammo for it if yours got lost somehow. No reason not to have one if you want one though.

 

[DOC-404]

Go for it if it makes you happy.. :happy: I have never even seen a .370 Sako. Some PH's will, in a nice way, try to discourage 'exotic' calibers. Ammo does get lost and rifles do break down. It's very difficult to help a client, should there be a problem, if he has a rifle or caliber that you are not familiar with..especially when you are out in the bush.

 

[Pheroze]

Really appreciate all the input. I think before I get the 370 I would want to be comfortable reloading ammo. Even then, I was online checking that out and did not see much available in Canada for this caliber. I think Sako should just give me one and I will wear a sign on my back to help spread the word.

Btw I think of all the hunting related sites this one is the best. Thanks again.

P

 

[Nyati]

Welcome to AH !

I would recommend a .375HH

 

[Norwegianwoods]

Welcome to the forum.
9.3x62 and 9.3x66 are both great cartridges.
So are 375 H&H and 375 Ruger.

In some African countries are the 9.3 legal for DG, in others not.
Then it depends if you plan to hunt DG in a African country where .375 is the minimum for DG.

In my opinion you could choose either of these 4 cartridges and you will be very happy with your choice

People travel to hunt in Africa with oddball cartridges and guns all the time.
Some want to hunt with muzzleloaders, handguns and bows.
I don't think many outfitters and/or PHs will be able to help you much with that if your weapon of choice or ammo get lost.

If so happens, you need to adept to the situation and do the best out of it and most likely will you be able to borrow/rent some sort of gun so you still can hunt.
I wouldn't worry about it at all.
If I ever should go to Africa to hunt with rifles and would want to bring my own guns, I would bring my 6.5-06 and/or my 375 Ruger.

Most likely I will only bring my bow again on my next hunt in Africa, but time will tell

 

[Pheroze]

My idea was to build a set of rifles for everything I want to hunt. The 25-06 and 30-06 as the low end, a 404 or 416 for buffalo (some day maybe). It is the gap between 30-06 and the large bore rifles that I was thinking about. I was having fun with the -06 platform and was looking at alternatives to the 375 HH with that theme in mind. The Sako Mag is, i believe, the largest round for the -06 action. Unfortunately, the lack of 9.3 mm brass/bullets/ammo in ontario makes it a daunting prospect. When I switched from a 270wsm to my 30-06 I was struck how much wisdom went into these older chamberings. the 375 HH is clearly in that league and is a very practical round all things considered. In any event, i gotta say all this research is really very interesting. What to do...what to do...

 

[sestoppelman]

You obviously have a computer. Can you not order components on the net like everyone else does? True, all components are somewhat scarce right now but no worse for 9.3 than anything else.

 

[Pheroze]

I am not certain i can. Before I posted here I was looking for it. On the web i checked cabelas.ca and the canadian basspro website. I also looked at the recent cabelas catalogue i got. Nothing in 9.3 that i could see. On the US websites there seems to be legal restrictions to purchasing from the USA and bringing up here. I was on one USA website and when i indicated it is an international order all the firearms and ammo information disappeared. All i could purchase was clothing! When I was speaking to the ATF about bringing my firearms to the usa for an upcoming hunt I am planning I asked about buying components and was told ammo purchased in the USA was only for use there. I emailed Stoeger canada, the distributor for Sako in Canada, and have yet to get a reply. With that I posted here to see if this caliber had a following that would lead me to figure out whether I could get components for it somewhere in Canada.

Sorry for the long post but did not want to leave the impression I didn't do my homework first. I just figured I had missed something in my search.

In any event, I do appreciate the insight offered on all of this.

 

[sestoppelman]

Wow, I had no idea! I didnt know there were restrictions for you up north as to ordering from the US. 9.3 is gaining in popularity down here but still not like a .30 cal by any means. Its a fave of mine, though oddly I dont have one at the moment. One of the CN members should be able to help out I would think. Good luck!

 

[Pheroze]

Thanks, I am having a hard time believing that it is this difficult so I am probably missing something. I am going to keep looking into this.

 

[Norwegianwoods]

Do you have a Canadian Midway branch?
If so, you should be able to order any reloading components you need. At least for a 9.3x62.
I can order any type of reloading components I want from the Norwegian Midway branch and all of it is sent from the US.

Personally I would choose the 9.3x62 over the 9.3x66 as it is much easier to buy guns, dies and reloading components for it.
It has a very soft recoil with the right stock and it has plenty of punch and effect on the animals you shoot with it.
No matter if it is the 9.3x62 or the 9.3x66, my personal choice of bullet would be the 250 grain Barnes TSX or TTSX.

 

[Pheroze]

I took a look and Midway ships to : Norway, Sweden, Spain, Denmark, UK, Germany, Finland, Switzerland, Italy, France...No Canada :banghead:

Strange because the Canada customs website indicates that I can import ammo if it is less than a set quantity. So, I am thinking the restriction is in the USA ? I emailed the UK store to see if they will ship here. I will also go back to the old fashioned method of walking into a store and asking if they will order some in for me.

I took a quick look at the 9.3x62. On the ballistic charts I looked at there does not seem to be much difference in performance over the x66. Probably the better choice of the two. Recoil chart says its less than the 375HH so that is a plus. Thanks. Looks like this project is taking shape :huntingrifle:

 

[adgunner]

Pheroze, welcome to the forum, looks like we are from the same neck of the woods. Keep us updated on the ammo imports ... the shipping restriction is with the U.S. (explosives related) as I have experienced the same problem with trying to bring powder in. It gets pretty steep in cost to import from anywhere else. I have been looking hard at a new big bore and am leaning towards the .375 just for the practicality issues ... good luck with the project!

 

[Norwegianwoods]

I took a look and Midway ships to : Norway, Sweden, Spain, Denmark, UK, Germany, Finland, Switzerland, Italy, France...No Canada :banghead:

Strange because the Canada customs website indicates that I can import ammo if it is less than a set quantity. So, I am thinking the restriction is in the USA ? I emailed the UK store to see if they will ship here. I will also go back to the old fashioned method of walking into a store and asking if they will order some in for me.

I took a quick look at the 9.3x62. On the ballistic charts I looked at there does not seem to be much difference in performance over the x66. Probably the better choice of the two. Recoil chart says its less than the 375HH so that is a plus. Thanks. Looks like this project is taking shape :huntingrifle:

I see that there is some sort of Midway Canada, but it says it is delayed. And it says store closed when the link comes up here. No idea what that means, but you can send them an email and see if you get an answer on this link.
Store Closed

 

[Spooksar]

9.3 components are easy to find in Canada, I have 4 different riles in 9.3 and bullets are available in most gun store. Try Ellwood Epps in Ontario, P&D in Edmonton, Mystic Precision in BC. Also wholesale sports for big box stores. As far as ordering from the states it is US ITAR restrictions that stop you. If you can't find a Sako rifle in Canada PM me and I will give you the name of a FFL dealer that exports to Canada, he also is a Sako distributor.