Bullet weight for 9.3x62

[Scrumbag]

Hello all,

Forgive the Heresy but is the 9.3x62 actually better with 250gr bullets?

I have known and loved the 285gr bullets for a long time (Norma Oryx being a favourite). But, given new bullet technologies and, shock horror, non-lead bullets, is something a bit faster and flatter shooting actually preferrable?

Scrummy

 

[Tanks]

Depends on what one is hunting I guess. If hunting buffalo, I'd say you are 150 - 320 grains light

 

[WAB]

I loaded 286 gr A-Frames for my wife’s buffalo hunt. I used that same load on eland.

I load 270 gr Speer hot cor for everything smaller than that.

 

[John Wasmuth]

I’m stuck on the 285/286 bullets for everything. Haven’t really messed with any other bullet weights.

 

[AZDAVE]

I use 250gr accubons on blue wildebeest and smaller and 286's for anything bigger.

I use 300gr in my 9.3x74

 

[Bob Nelson 35Whelen]

Hello all,

Forgive the Heresy but is the 9.3x62 actually better with 250gr bullets?

I have known and loved the 285gr bullets for a long time (Norma Oryx being a favourite). But, given new bullet technologies and, shock horror, non-lead bullets, is something a bit faster and flatter shooting actually preferrable?

Scrummy

@Scrumbag
Mate with a good cartridge choose 2 good bullets that group pretty well the same out to 200 yards and go have fun.
Remember If'n it ain't broke don't try and fix it.

 

[Scrumbag]

@Scrumbag
Mate with a good cartridge choose 2 good bullets that group pretty well the same out to 200 yards and go have fun.
Remember If'n it ain't broke don't try and fix it.

True, though supply here isn't so great.

 

[michael458]

What I know about a 9.62X62 you can put all that knowledge on the tip of a very sharp pencil, cartridge wise that is.........

But I do know a little bit about Bullet Tech. I have a 9.3 B&M cartridge, and I don' t believe at all it should be used on buffalo, I have used it on Australian buffalo, and find it coming up extremely short in caliber.......... Regardless of bullet......... But if you consider .366 adequate for less than buffalo, plains game, most Alaskan game, deer/hogs and such as that, I don' t use, nor need but one bullet, and its one we worked with extensively here from Cutting Edge, 200 gr Flat Base Raptor.

Oh that is TOO LIGHT and I can hear the naysayers already.......... Well, what do you know about Bullet Tech? Do you know how a Raptor works and what it can do? Ask first, before being ignorant.

If interested fine, if not, fine.......... I shot about 2 dozen plains game with 9.3 B&M running 200 Raptors at 2900 fps in a 19 inch gun, up to and including zebra, and never recovered the first bullet, all exits.... Zebra I shot all ran like hell, 40-100 yards and fell over dead.....bleed out, so much blood you could not believe it and how it could go so far, zebra are tough. Wildebeest/Oryx 50% of them DRT on the spot, the other 50% ran for 20-30 yards and pitched up stone Cold......... Everything else smaller than these, were all DRT on the spot....... This is small caliber at work......... Up the game to 416+ and all of the above are DRT......with Raptors anyway...........

But .366, like it slightly bigger cousin .375, is not worth wasting time on buffalo, unless you like to just shoot a lot..............I like to shoot, don't get me wrong, but I like putting stuff in the dirt..............

You can enhance your smaller caliber guns with proper bullet tech, but you still can't stretch caliber capabilities.................

 

[Bob Nelson 35Whelen]

What I know about a 9.62X62 you can put all that knowledge on the tip of a very sharp pencil, cartridge wise that is.........

But I do know a little bit about Bullet Tech. I have a 9.3 B&M cartridge, and I don' t believe at all it should be used on buffalo, I have used it on Australian buffalo, and find it coming up extremely short in caliber.......... Regardless of bullet......... But if you consider .366 adequate for less than buffalo, plains game, most Alaskan game, deer/hogs and such as that, I don' t use, nor need but one bullet, and its one we worked with extensively here from Cutting Edge, 200 gr Flat Base Raptor.

Oh that is TOO LIGHT and I can hear the naysayers already.......... Well, what do you know about Bullet Tech? Do you know how a Raptor works and what it can do? Ask first, before being ignorant.

If interested fine, if not, fine.......... I shot about 2 dozen plains game with 9.3 B&M running 200 Raptors at 2900 fps in a 19 inch gun, up to and including zebra, and never recovered the first bullet, all exits.... Zebra I shot all ran like hell, 40-100 yards and fell over dead.....bleed out, so much blood you could not believe it and how it could go so far, zebra are tough. Wildebeest/Oryx 50% of them DRT on the spot, the other 50% ran for 20-30 yards and pitched up stone Cold......... Everything else smaller than these, were all DRT on the spot....... This is small caliber at work......... Up the game to 416+ and all of the above are DRT......with Raptors anyway...........

But .366, like it slightly bigger cousin .375, is not worth wasting time on buffalo, unless you like to just shoot a lot..............I like to shoot, don't get me wrong, but I like putting stuff in the dirt..............

You can enhance your smaller caliber guns with proper bullet tech, but you still can't stretch caliber capabilities.................

View attachment 453800

@michael458
My son shot his plains game up to and including zebra and oryx and never recovered a projectile. That was with a 308 and 150gn accubonds and 140gr outer edge so does that make it equal to your 9.3B&M.
Many a buffalo has been taken with the 9.3x62. Next year I will be hunting scrub bulls that can be bigger than buff and I won't feel under gunned with my 35 Whelen and 275gn Woodleighs.
Bob

 

[Rick HOlbert]

I shoot/handload quite a bit for 9.3X62. I've used it in Namibia with excellent results. Using 250grn Swift A-Frames everything from Eland on down either were DRT or never ran more than 20-30 yards. That being said, if I were to go for buffalo I'd go to the 286grn pill. Excessive velocity will limit penetration and frankly I want that bullet under the hide on the off side. Just me and what has worked for me.

 

[geoff rath]

True, though supply here isn't so great.

Now that Woodleigh are in the rebuilding stage, it's a shame their 286, and maybe 320 are in very short supply. Otto Bock got it right when he developed the X62, opting for bullets in the 285/286 range ...

 

[Tanks]

@michael458
.... Next year I will be hunting scrub bulls that can be bigger than buff and I won't feel under gunned with my 35 Whelen and 275gn Woodleighs.
Bob

I assume you are talking about water buffalo?

 

[112Savage]

Ive killed sable, oryx, and two zebra with one shot drops using 9.3x62 and 258gr hammer bullets. Ive killed bull elk with 250gr accubond at up to 394yds and Ive shot targets out to 600yds. The only time I felt the bullet wanting was after pressuring a waterbuck that laid down 100yds after the first shot but required 3 more vital shots to finally kill. I would have no problem using premium 250gr bullets on animals up to 1500 pounds.

 

[John Wasmuth]

I assume you are talking about water buffalo?

I believe he’s talking of feral cattle. They have bad attitudes just like their cousins….

 

[Bob Nelson 35Whelen]

I assume you are talking about water buffalo?

@Tanks
No out of my price range.
Scrub bulls are feral cattle that are meaner than a mother in law and very temperamental ( full of temperamental and half mental) to go with it. They are that mean they will charge just for the exersize.
Attach is a photo of a wonky horned scrubber

The person on the right is the father of the guide I will be hunting with and the designer of the 35 Mitchell Express, Ted

 

[Foxi]

"Scrub bulls are feral cattle that are meaner than a mother in law and very temperamental ( full of temperamental and half mental"

Ive read a book from a German pioneer who lived in Texas in the 1840 ies (around the Leona River)
He was almost more afraid of the feral cattle of the abandoned old Spanish settlements, than of the Comanches, and they had it in them

 

[michael458]

That was with a 308 and 150gn accubonds and 140gr outer edge so does that make it equal to your 9.3B&M.

It does not need to be equal to a 9.3 anything, it needs to equal .458 caliber.......... Something that actually gets Bovine attentions...........

Hell I have a 223 bullet I would love to put in the brain pan of a few bovine just for fun....... but that don't make 223 a Bovine cartridge/bullet..............

Have fun on your scrub bull hunt, anything Bovine is GOOD........ I have shot a few RedSkins in my days..... always good fun.

Where I used to shoot bovines with Paul they referred to them as RedSkins...... and they were all like these in this area............

But neither here nor there, and of no consequence.........

The chap asked about a bullet for 9.3 caliber....... I like the 200 Flat Base Raptors........ do anything I would do with a small medium bore......... end of story....... for me, bovine and bigger, make it 458 and bigger......... you chaps can do as you please............

I won't feel under gunned with my 35 Whelen and 275gn Woodleighs.

Excellent....... doing some pressure work probably end of the week or so with 35 Whelen......I wish I still had the Win M70 I had built in 35 Whelen.......... always like the 35's..... still have a 358 STA and 358 RUM.........

 

[shark_za]

What do these cows taste like? Biltong must be good.
Better than Buff at least.

 

[michael458]

What do these cows taste like? Biltong must be good.
Better than Buff at least.

What I ate tasted like Fido's Ass.......... Now it could have been Paul's cooking, or any number of other factors, but I don't want anymore.......

And I am not sure anything can be better on planet earth than Buffalo Tenderloins, at least the ones I had. Of course I did not have to shoot them to pieces, I used proper calibers, cartridges and bullets...

 

[Bob Nelson 35Whelen]

It does not need to be equal to a 9.3 anything, it needs to equal .458 caliber.......... Something that actually gets Bovine attentions...........

Hell I have a 223 bullet I would love to put in the brain pan of a few bovine just for fun....... but that don't make 223 a Bovine cartridge/bullet..............

Have fun on your scrub bull hunt, anything Bovine is GOOD........ I have shot a few RedSkins in my days..... always good fun.

View attachment 453926

View attachment 453927

Where I used to shoot bovines with Paul they referred to them as RedSkins...... and they were all like these in this area............

View attachment 453928

But neither here nor there, and of no consequence.........

The chap asked about a bullet for 9.3 caliber....... I like the 200 Flat Base Raptors........ do anything I would do with a small medium bore......... end of story....... for me, bovine and bigger, make it 458 and bigger......... you chaps can do as you please............


Excellent....... doing some pressure work probably end of the week or so with 35 Whelen......I wish I still had the Win M70 I had built in 35 Whelen.......... always like the 35's..... still have a 358 STA and 358 RUM.........

@michael458
A crazy Dutch mate of mine brains scrub bulls out the back of Canberra at at little place called Captains Flat with a 223. The load he used was a 55gn Sierra game king boat tail. He would hit them on the little curly tuft of hair between the eyes. I did ask him what happens when the bull moves its head a bit as he shoots and it all turns to shit. He didn't have an answer and gave up that game a short time later. He did shoot 6 or 7 over the time. More guts than brains.
Bob