Folks,

Ever since I've been on AR I've heard about the 9.3x62 being a buffalo cartridge. What I don't remember is who said they had actually shot a buffalo with the 9.3x62. Of course Ray shot buff with it but he shot buffalo with everything over the 270 Win.

I have booked a friend in Zim for buffalo and he wants to use his 9.3x62 so I would be very interested in any actual first hand experience people have had with buffalo and the 9.3x62.

Thanks,

Mark

Thats a great question,i am eagerly waiting for some answers too.

I'm not positive but I think it's the same guys who think the 458 win mag won't kill buffalo.

Ganyana has been the PR front man for the 9.3x62 and buff.

It ought to do, if you can't find a .375 H&H.

take the blaser CDP and no problems to kill a buffalo

Ganyana and Kevin Roberstson ( "The Perfect Shot") have both used and recommended it for buff.


465H&H

I believe Coenraad Vermaak of CVS in SA still uses one for dangerous game backup.

I guess what I should have said is sport hunter experience. The thoughts of a highly expereinced PH are relavent but not what I was really looking for. For example I'd be very interested in what an average guy that had taken a handful or less buffalo might think of the performance of the 9.3x62. Where an experience PH might do very well with any marginally adequate round.

Mark

Mark,

I saw a TV show recently where one of the guys shot a cow buffalo with a 9.3x74R, which is the same bullet at the 9.3x62 but at lower velocity.

The cow was feeding at about 50 yards and he shot her broadside. I seem to remember that she ran about 100 yards and laid down. They followed her up, put another shot or two into her and the hunt was over.

The last buffalo I shot (my 2nd) was in thick brush at 25 yards while he was facing me. I had a 416 Rigby. He was an old dugga boy traveling with one other old bull. In that situation (facing you, within 25/30 yards) I would want something bigger than a 9.3x62.

By the way, I think in "The Perfect Shot" the author suggested only using solids in the 9.3x62 when hunting buffalo.

Tim

I have used the 9.3x62 in my blaser for two Cape Buffalo and a friend used it also on a buff. We used 300grn swift a frame softs and 286 grain Woodleigh solids.
The first buffalo shot with a swift a frame through the lungs travelled approx 80 metres and found dead.
One was shot slightly uphill and dropped on the spot with a solid as it came close to the spine, two more shots were placed.
One was shot at about twenty meters with a soft then with three solids this animal travelled about thirty meters and was visibly shocked especially when bone was hit.

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Visualize the biggest FRieghtliner truck and a trailer load of cement blocks coming at you at 60 mph. A buffalo is as hard to stop as that truck. Think you could stop the truck with a pipsqueak popper like the 9.3x62? If you do you are delusional!
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I don't believe anything I have fired from the shoulder, including a .700 Nitro, would stop a "truck" but I believe a 9.3x62 would serve very well on buffalo. Is it optimal in a charge? No, but if 286 to 300 grains of bullet are placed right there wont be a charge. The 9.3 isn't my first choice for buffalo but it's still a very good choice. I certainly don't believe those who choose to use it are "delusional".

Tom

well I guess then that a .35 Whelen with 275 grain ought to do it too.

Dr. Kevin (Doctari) Robertson has shot app. 650 buffalo with a 9,3 X 62, velocity 2300 to 2350 fps and 286 grain bullets. He recommends the RHINO bullet.

quote:

Originally posted by Sunshine:
Dr. Kevin (Doctari) Robertson has shot app. 650 buffalo with a 9,3 X 62, velocity 2300 to 2350 fps and 286 grain bullets. He recommends the RHINO bullet.

sunshin
Kevins rifle is a Brno ZG 47, that he bought from a man that had been working with Buffalo culling on a big farm in the south of Rhodesia.

Ken Stewart, one of the greatest African Hunters still alive has shoot hundreds buffalos with a 8x57, just because the ammo for his .470 Westley Richards was to expensive.. The .470 was used when he helped J A Hunter with black Rhion culling in Kenya...

Another sterile caliber argument. If course a 9.3 X 62 "can" kill a buff, and so "can" a lot of other even smaller calibers. I think the hunters part is ensure that he take the animal as cleanly as possible with the least chance for inflicting a less than fatal wound. Going up the caliber/power/penetration scale, with proper bullet selection, should be the objective; stopping when you get to a cartridge you can't shoot well because of recoil and/or weight. Nothing like a wounded buff lurking in the tall grass to nail some unsuspecting villager because some ballistic theoretician decided he could take it with a 7X57 but had a bad shot angle/made a bad shot/didn't see the small twigs/etc.

quote:

Originally posted by Sunshine:
Dr. Kevin (Doctari) Robertson has shot app. 650 buffalo with a 9,3 X 62, velocity 2300 to 2350 fps and 286 grain bullets. He recommends the RHINO bullet.

Well that answers it all eh! And is well documented too!How can anyone argue with the "score on the board"?

quote:

Originally posted by vigillinus:
well I guess then that a .35 Whelen with 275 grain ought to do it too.

It could if it were legal, but it isn't, the 9.3X62 is!

I've taken Buffalo with a 9.3X74R, with outstanding results! The 9.3X74R and the 9.3X62 are balistic twins. The shooting of buffalo is not where the problem is! If placed properly no charge will occure, and if no charge occures, then any caliber that is legal will do fine!

Stopping a close charge on a buffalo is going to be a surgical BRAINECTOMY, or a spine removal. The only thing that will stop a chargeing buffalo is a CNS shot, and those are easier with a smaller rifle,useing solids, than with a heavier rifle that kicks like a mule! The heavier chambering may make you feel better till the brain, or spine is missed at ten yards, and you find yourself trying to recover from a Kick of a mule, to get off the next shot.

I believe, in the case of a charge, which isn't likely anyway, it isn't the rifle that matters as much as it is the shooter's ability to remain calm enough to shoot at a spot on the Buff, rather than just punch him where ever. Still in a close charge, I, personally, would like something a little bigger, but not so large that it takes too much time to recover from the first shot. Something like a 450/400NE, or a 450 NE 3 1/3" with a 500NE as that absolute largest. Of the three I've metioned my choice would be a good double chambered for a 450/400NE 3"! Low recoil, accurate for this type of shooting, and in a double rifle, the 450/400NE 3" is a MAGIC wand, on Buffalo! Two shots is all you will get in a close charge with a double, and one with a bolt rifle. The fact that the 9.3X62 comes in bolt rifles, would make it a hazard in a close charge, but the 9.3X74R would be my minimum, because it is almost always in a double rifle.

IMO, in the unlikely event of a close charge, the bolt rifle combined with a small chambering, is a drawback. With a bolt rifle my mimimum would be a 375 H&H with a 300 gr Nosler partition on top, folowed by as many 300 gr solids the rifle would hold!

Well, if it is any help, I asked John Sharpe about my daughter using a 9.3x62 for buffalo on a hunt we hope to put together with him. He felt that it was quite adequate for a visiting client, and that he would not have any problems with her using it.

Dave