Leave it to Ray to dump a bucket of cold water in the form of clear thinking on all this nostalgia over the 74r. But Ray isn't totally immune to nostalgia: mention the old .25-35 in a lever gun and watch him get all warm and fuzzy.

The brass is pretty thin on the 9.3 x 74s that I've seen and they don't last long to begin with. If you ramp up the pressure I think you'd have problems regardless of the action type.

Thanks guys. It was just a stupid question that bounced around in my brain. Guess it was more theorectical than practical.

If you really want a rimmed round that has the potential for big bullets at high velocities (ouch factor) look at the 500/416 by Kreigoff. It is a 416 based on the 500 3-1/4 case. Good modern brass and case capacity close to the 416 Weatherby. Its normally loaded to match the Rigby (400 gr/2400 fps) at lower pressure for doubles but handloaded you can really make it sing. Or is that sting?

DPhillips/Boomer,
Stupid question!!!!
There aren't any stupid questions. The 9.3X62 has a case capacity of 74.95 the 9.3X74R is 84.27 and the 9.3X64 is 87.04. As RickR stated the 9.3X74R can be done on the Ruger action and you would end up with a nice single shot, and you are correct based on the case capacity it could be moved up in MV & ME with reloading. Boomer if you like the "74" go for it! almost all of the old timers ( myself included) have built a few Martini's, Rolling blocks' Mausers, etc in some unique calibers and guess what! that's what the kids coming up today are looking for "the unique stuff", get what you want if you don't you will regret it. Take care and God bless.


cordell

Rick -



My experience suggests 9.3x74 brass is at least as long-lived in a tightly chambered, strong single-shot rifle as is a rimless case, so long as one loads to the pressures for which the case is designed and not to the excess pressures of some version of "all the powder the case can hold".



BTW, all you folk who have 9.3's might want to keep your eyes open for the none-triple-shock versions of Barnes-X 9.3 bullets at your gunshops. It appears to me that Barnes might be clearing them out now that the Triple-Shocks are on the market.



Recently I bought a bunch in the $11 per box range from Midway. This morning I was at my local gunshop and they had about 200 boxes of various Barnes-X bullets on sale for $15 per box, regardless of weight and caliber. I bought out their entire stock of 250 gr. 9.3s, 300 gr. .411s, and 180 gr. 8 m/ms. Cost me several hundred bucks, but will last me probably the rest of my life, too. (What with the 50 + boxes of 9.3 fodder I have left from a similar deal on 286 gr. RN Normas at a $2 per box closeout price 32 years ago, I know they will...)



The Barnes-X 9.3s shoot great in my .365"/,366"-bore guns (9.3x62 bolt action & 9.3x74 double rifle, and under construction, 9.3 WSM MRC SS bolt action).



Alberta Canuck

Getting back to the question of whether one should rebarrel the Ruger #1 for rimmed or rimless cartridges, I have several rebarreled and fairly extensively customized No. 1's...and the most recent 3 are all for rimmed cartridges...the 6.5x53-R, the 7x65-R, and the .375 NE-R (NOT the magnum). All 3 shoot and handle great.



What is really interesting to me is that they handle the rimless cartridges as well as the rimmed, in the same guns.



For instance, the .375 NE-R shoots the 9.5x57 rimless, also known as the .375 NE-Rimless, just as well as it does the rimmed version, extracts the cases as well, and shows no signs of pressure problems. That's probably because the whole case head is all the way inside the barrel except the small part on one side of the case-head which is against the extractor claw when the round is fired, rather than hanging out as it might in some bolt guns.



Anyway, I prefer the rimmed cartridges because headspace is a no-brainer with the rimmed fodder, and extraction is an absolute done deal.



Ruger No 1's were made in both rimmed and rimless versions, though very, very few of them were made in the .30-40 Krag...an original of which I would dearly love to find at a price I could afford.



My favorite elk rifle for 250 yards or less is my Ruger #1 7x65-R, with the heaviest available factory RWS H-Mantle bullets. Beyond that distance, I prefer a bigger, flatter shooting cartridge.



Best wishes,



Alberta Canuck

Several years ago had a #1 in 30/06 rebarreled to 9.3x74R. No problems at all with ejection using the same extractor/ejector that was on the rifle. I believe that when I looked in the Brownells catalogue there are only three extractor/ejectors available 22 hornet/45-70/everything else.
Great rifle/great caliber.