I'm with Pete, the 270 Speers will work well on the smaller game, but even the 286 grains will work well, I have even used the 286 grain x on Springbuck and it killed them very well, a 286 grain PMP Pro-am took care of a nice Blesbuck, shot loads of duiker with this load but it makes a awfull hole in the animal, the x works better on them, on the blesbuck it was not that bad.

I acquired two 9.3's last year. One a CZ bolt rifle from a member of the board here, and the other a Chapuis DR.

Hit a nice white tail and a decent little pig (100 lbs) with the Chapuis last season. Both with 270 speers. Velocity was about 2250 fps. Both bullets fragmented yielding virtually instant kills, but leaving a bit of a mess to clean up. Found pieces of jacket and lead in the wound channels.

Took the 9.3x62 CZ to Africa in May. Was loaded with 286 gr Nosler partitions at 2425 fps. Took Impala, Warthog, Blue Wildebeast, Kudu, and Zebra with it. Everything except the Kudu dropped like a rock. I think the Kudu was atypical and had obviously not read "The Perfect Shot." Happens every once in a while.

There were no recovered bullets ... all pass throughs leaving good blood.

9.3x62 is a terrific caliber for smaller to good sized animals, but I would not burden it with the 270 gr Speer bullet. Partitions do a terrific job, even on smaller game.

The speer works well in the 9.3 for thin skinned stuff and pigs....but for heavier stuff I would use the woodleigh. I think I will load woodleigh 250 gr bullets when I run out of speers. But I do feel the speer has it purposes.

The cz 550 lux is a 9.3x62 worth looking at.

MStarling,
What powder were you using to achieve 2425fps in 9.3x62? The CZ has a 24in bbl? Thanks

The load was 57.0 grains of RL-15 on Norma cases. So sign of head expansion, loose primers, or any other indication of pressure.

CZ does have a 24" (more or less) barrel.

Have also used Graf cases with good success, but no chrono data on them.

HI,

PC, how flat will them 250's shoot,is it close to a 180 grain 3006?,Kev

With the big bores there is no reason what so ever to load them down, you just cripple your long range ability...The big bores are not as meat damaging as say a 243 or .270...

I have shot a lot of game with full power loads with both the 9.3 and 375..Typical reaction is a short run, good blood trail and you can eat right up to the bullet hole..A much better synopsis than one gets with a .270, 243 or even a 300...

Your only disadvantage is ranging ability and I've never noticed that to be much of a problem, I still over shoot more often than I under shoot on game....

RL15 must be the powder of choice. I am shooting 71gr of H4350 in my 9.3x64, 24in bbl on a M70 and only getting 2450 fps with the same bullet. Thanks, Bob

Kev,

with a 250 gr Nosler BT I doubt there would be that much difference between the towbu tI think the 06 would be slightly more flatter shooting. The equation might change if one where to use the Norma 232 gr Vulcan Bullets, they would be doing very close to 180 gr 06 speeds I think with good brass and a modern bolt action.

hi captdavid,

Let's analyse your "problem":

Q1: What 9,3 are you thinking of? 9,3x62 or x64?
9,3x64 is by all pratical means identical to the good ol' .375 H&H in performance, for all other arguments see below...

Q2: What are the typical shooting distances at your hunts?
The 9,3x62 really is a medium-range (~200m) caliber at most, so ideal for bush/forrest type hunts. Lighter bullets (250grs and below) help a little, but not much, check out the ballistics tables for the bullet drop beyond that and figure in that you will almost never reach the advertised velocities.
The .375 more or less copies 30-06 ballistics (with a little more punch...), so it will work fine up to 300m.

Q3: Which rifle?
You will need a (more expensive) mauser magnum system for a .375, the 9,3x62 was designed from start to fit the standard mauser action. Also, your .375 will require a longer barrel (26") than your 9,3x62 (22-24"), so depending on your hunting that might be an issue to consider as well.

Q4: Bullet supply?
I understand that for the US and other parts of the world .375 bullets might be a lot easier to get than 9,3's, so here's another argument. Although Nosler is making those wonderfull 250grs BT's and 286grs Partitions in 9,3/.366, so supply shouldn't be a real problem, however .375 has by far the larger bullet selection.

Q5: Recoil sensitive?
No doubt about the fact that the 9,3x62 is a lot more pleasant to shoot than a .375. However, it is possible to download a .375 to 9,3x62 velocities, greatly reducing recoil level, but than again, what do you have a .375 for?

As for bullet selection, the Nosler 9,3 250grs BT works very well for animals in the 150lb (and above) range. There are even lighter bullets from german RWS, that is a 246grs conetip (very similar to the BT, a touch softer) and the 232 grs "Doppelkern" (i.e. "Double Core"), but those, again, might be hard to get.

Decicion's, decicions...
Both are wonderful cartridges, with a lot of overlap, so the choice is not an easy one! Enjoy!

Cheers, 500NE

I shoot the 180 in my 30-06 and the 250BT in my 9.3x62. I load both stoutly: the 180's to 2750 and the 250's to 2600. My ballistic program shows them essentially equal to 175yds. Then the 30-06 is an inch higher than the 9.3 at 200, 1.5" higher at 250, a little over 2" higher at 275, and 3" higher at 300. The 9.3 is about 1" high at 200, 2" low at 250, 5" low at 275, and 8" low at 300.

The 250BT is OK for small animals (I've taken a duiker with mine) and is terrific for deer and hog sized animals. I took a bush pig and bush buck and several other antelopes with that bullet. I have never taken anything with the 270 Speer because of the reports of its softness. Ku-dude