I'm taking my 9.3x62 to Namibia next May. Since ranges can sometimes get a little long in Namibia I'm looking to load up the flattest shooting bullet I can find, but performance on the animals is also a big consideration. I'll be hunting all the typical Namibian plains game including zebra and eland.

The 250 grain Accubond is probably the slickest bullet going right now for the 9.3 and is what I'm leaning towards right now. Anyone have any experience with it and large African plains game?

Thanks, Wyattd

You would be better served by the Swift A-Frame in the same weight. The A-Frame is a proven African bullet and will get better penetration and retain more weight - both desirable qualities, especially in Africa. It may not have the high BC numbers that the AB does, but its performance on game is second-to-none.

Try the 250g Barnes TSX with Varget. I used it on a little bull moose last year and the performance was outstanding.

The 250 Tsx x 2 .,

or the 230 gr GSC HV

Try using JBM's online ball calc.

http://www.eskimo.com/~jbm/calculations/traj/traj.html

I ran some numbers using both the 250 AB (@ .494 bc/2600 fps) and the 286 Part (@ .482 bc/2400 fps) and your MPRR w/ a 3" vital zone is

250 AB = 244 yds
286 PT = 264 yds

At 300 yds

250 AB = -6.7"
286 PT = -9.8"

Difference? Yeah! Big difference? Nope!

I just returned from Namibia and I used an 8x57 with 200 gr. Barnes TSX's. My wife and I shot 14 animals. I only recoved 2 bullets. The TSX is a great bullet and worked perfectly on game. I have posted a trip report that includes anatamoy photos and the two bullets I did recover.

I agree with the X/TSX route. I used the 250 X at 2650 fps in my 9.3x62 6 years ago with great success. All animals, a dozen in all from porcupine to eland, simply dropped at the shot. Here are the bullets I recovered.

I used 258 grain RWS H-Mantles in my 9.x62mm Mauser last year (2007) in the RSA(Limpopo) and made three one shot kills (No bullets recovered) on Nyala and Waterbuck. The Nyala was at 25 yards in heavy brush, the Waterbuck at 155 yards in the open. Also took an Impala, for which the 9.3x62mm was overkill. I am planning on using the 250 grain Accubond on my next safari, as I am almost out of the RWS bullet and no more seem to be in the pipeline. I'd like to use the 286 grain class bullets, but they cross the line of recoil with my arthritis.

LLS

I figured that the TSX would have a strong following. I choose last year between the 250 TSX and the 286 Nosler partition and went with the partition for my trip to Zim. Shorter ranges and the fact that 286 gr. is the classic weight for the 9.3 steered me that way.

The 250 TSX actually shot better out of my gun than the partitions so I know I can go that route if the Accubond doesn't shoot for me. I've just loaded up my first batch of AB's and will be shooting them in a couple days. We'll see how they shoot compared to the sub moa groups I got with the TSX's.

Those recovered TSX bullets above sure look nice. I've a few 30 cal. bullets recovered from zebra and gemsbok that look just like 'em.

Maybe this is a silly question I've asked. Should load up some TSX's and quit worrying about it!!

Another vote for the 230 gr. GS Customs HP...It is a killer of game up to and including Eland.

Wyattd,

Although not the 250Gr AC, I did use the Nosler 250gr BT on a plains game hunt in 2006. Animals taken were Springbuck, Bushbuck, Impala, Blesbok and Kudu. All droped with one shot. I only recovered one partial core.

The Wildebeest and Heartabeest were taken with 286gr Partitions.

I'll try TSX's next trip.

Don

Wyatt,

Gee, I'm beginning to give some serious consideration to adding a Bullet Collection to compliment my Trophy Collection since I'm obviously missing out on another apparently fullfilling opportunity here.

Between me & my Buddies we've taken 5 various 9.3x62 rifles to RSA or Namibia over the past 12 years and used Factory ammunition (RWS, Geco, Norma, & PMP) or hand-loaded ammunition with Nosler Ballistic Tips (no longer available but pretty much the same shape & form of the Accubond), Accubonds, Patitions and yes, Martha: Speer 270 grainers! Gasp! Never had one bounce off a Critter yet and the few we recovered got tossed in the gut pile after a reflective glance and not a whole lotta conflab. Don't loose sight of the real Acid Test here; it's a cleanly-taken Trophy.

Nevadan, (thread above) has graciously obtained some of the new Hornady 286 gr. Spitzers and they're gonna get a work out next time, too.

Do your best, make up some good loads with whatever bullet suits your fancy and don't get too wrapped up in the details or the "it's JUST gotta be this way Syndrome". It's called Hunting and sometimes you get close (often: real close) and sometimes you're confronted with the challenge of a calculated shot at range. We all want to make good clean shots with the best equipment & components available but remember; more animals get shot by local hunters annually in Namibia & RSA with vanilla-flavored Round Nose PMP's in 9.3x62 than any amount of Tourists will ever bring to bag. Your Nosler AB's will work just fine given you put one in the right spot.

Telling it like it is Gerry?!

We have this same "debate" back home in Sweden, I have just gotten a load of AB`s in different cals and the loads I have shot are promising,

I took a roedeer at the close of the season this spring with a AB to the neck, a 7 mm bullet from a 7x57R, nothing remarkable really bang, flop and dead roe,

Any and all bullets would have given the same result.

One good thing about the AB´s in 9,3 is that they make for a good longer range load.

Best regards Chris

I don't think you will see any difference in hunting and point of impact at longer distances between the 250 gr and 286 gr bullets. I of course did lots of shooting before my trip and assumed that the Barnes would drop 10" at 300 yards when sighted 2.5" high at 100 yds. Well, it didn't. I shot a Jackal at 300 and I held right on him. I also noticed that when I shot both of my Zebra, the bullet impacted where I was holding, not where I thought it would drop to. If you have a place to shoot at these distances, I would recommend that you find out exactly what your bullet is going to do down range.

With the Norma Bal engine, I found that there is a diff with one (1,4) inch drop between a 250 grain A-frame and a 286 RN, the Oryx.

Zeroed 2,5 inch high at 100 they are -12,1/13,5 inch low at 300.

I would have believed that a 250 grain bullet would do better but apparently not, however I belive the AB has a better BC then an A-frame.

How could there not be a significant drop at longer ranges?

/C

The Accubond is a good accurate premium bonded bullet. One of my favorites! If it shoots good in your rifle then I would think your looking for the perfect bullet would be over. Remember that there is no one perfect bullet for everyone. If I had a good load worked up with the Accubonds then I wouldn't bother with the other premium bullets. Practice and then practice some more.

If I may chime in here for a second.
I hear and read all the time about how it isn't about the bullet,," just get in close and stick it where it needs to be" bullshit..

You are going to Africa for gods sake do these folks think that a few extra bucks spent on bullets is going to break the bank?

The old arguement between premiums and the rest is really dumb.
If you are shooting a backyard buck with bones no bigger that your own it probably is not a big deal, if you don't really care that much.

But when you have a shitload on the line, like a trip like this,, or just bigger and tougher animals we owe it to ourselves and them to use the best.
These bullets are called premium for a reason, and you may not ever need them until you do, and then when you do need one and you didn't use one and lose an animal then lets hear the stories.
An accubond is a great bullet, but it is not a swift A frame, or a TSX or a failsafe.

What is the margin of difference? it may be only the extra inch needed to break another bone ,reach a vital or a spinal cord that you didn't, and well, it just didn't.
Or the few extra pounds of energy to get the exit wound you did not get that allowed you to lose your animal when their tracks got mixed with a hundred others, and by the time you find it , if you find it, it has been scavenged.
An Accubond loses about the same weight as a partition, and that seems like too much to me when there are other choices that don't.
Yes they do wreck more lung tissue when they shed that is a fact, but there are times when that is not what I am wanting.
When you have spent ten hours tracking a wounded animal and then suddenly you see it just turning to walk into the brush and the only shot you have sucks is just one instance of when you need something more.

The caliber that you are choosing and the weight of bullet that you are using is going to go a long way towards eliminating any problems even on bad angled shots.
I just can't help but think that when you are looking at the kind of proof that has already been presented here with the TSX's that you would even consider going with an inferior bullet on such an important hunt.
Particularly when you have already mentioned that your gun likes them.

Just in case you want to see it for yourself. Here are the two bullets I managed to recover from 14 animals taken this month with my 8x57. I used the 200 gr. Barnes TSX. I shot two mountain Zebra at 300 yards each and did not recover a bullet. AND before you start telling me they didn't expand. They did, and both Zebra were down fast. The bullet on the left is from my wife's Kudu taken at 75 yards thru the left shoulder and spine. The one on the right is from my Eland taken at 180 yards and found under the offside hide...3 feet of penetration and down in 60 yards.



The bullet from the Kudu weighed 199.9 grs and the one from the Eland weighed 197.7 grs.

Here is a picture of the offside of the Eland, you can clearly see the damage the Barnes caused.



And here is what it did to a Springbok.

The late, great Eric Ching swore by the 250gr Bal-Tip in the 9.3x62. I would think the Accubond would also be a great choice.

Have taken Impala, Warthog, Blue Wildebeast, Kudu, Zebra, a number of piggies, and a couple of white tail deer with the 9,3x62 and 286 gr Noslers. Never recovered a single bullet. All but one were DRTs.

They just work.

I won't spoil the trend by adding experience of the bullet you asked about on large plains game!

I would suspect that the largest number of big game taken with this bullet will be in Sweden/Finland on moose. Post in English on Robsoft http://forum.robsoft.nu/ and you may get some true field experience of that bullet on big animals even though it will be at short range and on different species.

All else is supposition.

I have not tried the Accubonds, but have used the 250-grain .286 ballistic tips on elk, and I would not do so again. The ballistic tips failed to penetrate the shoulder bone at approximately 150 yards when started at 2,500 fps. We did recover the animal after a lung shot behind the shoulder. However, they would make an excellent bullet for 100 to 150 pound class animals such as deer/impala.

The Nosler Ballistic Tip bullet features a tapered jacket that allows more even expansion and than the conventional bullet. This is so by virtue of the uniform and gradual thickening of the jacket wall at the bullet's mid-section that is designed to keep the bullet together. The front part is still as thin as the conventional bullet and expansion is violent and loss of mass in the front part makes it good for varminting applications, not for hunting tough and large game such as elk.

Some people like Hot Core cannot comprehend this, or perhaps more like it, is too stubborn to admit it. The classic old fashioned conventional bullet is even more frangible as its jacket is thin all-round and its lead core is more brittle than the lead-alloy used in the Ballistic Tip bullet.

At higher levels of momentum and energy the conventional bullet becomes even more frangible as opposed to when lower forces are applied.

Warrior

The 9.3x62 is a very forgiving caliber when it comes to bullets, mostly because it isn't a hot rod screamer sizzling whiz...It gets along with about any bullet on plainsgame, deer and antelope and even on elk size animals for the most part. I suppose the Bal tip or a simular bullet could come apart on a heavy boned animal, but why would anyone use such a bullet on a heavy boned animal..

That said, I always opt for a premium bullet for hunting as it only makes since to have a partition, or a welded core, or an interlock, whatever blows your skir up...

I like the 286 gr. Nosler, all the Woodleighs, and in a monolithic I like the 230 gr. HV by GS Customs..

I am sure the 250 gr. Barnes is a good bullet, but I doubt that I will ever use another Barnes bullet, I have just had too many failures over the years, guess I'm, snake bit on them..I know many others that swear by them, but they have failed me and I'm not particularly forgiving of failed bullets. Don't need to be because their are just so many choices out there and todays bullet makers are the best in history.

quote:

The 9.3x62 is a very forgiving caliber when it comes to bullets, mostly because it isn't a hot rod screamer sizzling whiz...

Ray,

I'll buy you a Beer (or two) next time you're in town!

And having hunted with Eric Ching and his 9.3x62mm, I can only say that his results were "slam dunk!" He not only had his handloads right, but he was a superb shot as well! He made a 286 yard offhand shot on a cull Impala that would bring tears to your eyes!

LLS

I shot a 900 lb bison last fall with a 250g Accubond hand loaded to 2400 fps. One shot at 75 yards was all it took.

quote:

Originally posted by Atkinson:
I suppose the Bal tip or a simular bullet could come apart on a heavy boned animal, but why would anyone use such a bullet on a heavy boned animal.

Ray,

Thanks for your contribution, pointing the obvious out (obvious only for those that has seen or experienced the frangibility of conventional bullets). It just does not make any sense to pick a frangible bullet for big game today. Yet there are still those that will argue the toss (Hot Core and company), and that amidst the availability of a host of much better or appropriate choices, and in addition the the various reports of failures that are coming in from all over the world. Very much the same like an ostrich that is digging his head into the sand.

The focus on the bullet is much more important than the caliber. I rather use a premium-grade bullet in a say a 30-06 Spr than a frail conventional bullet in a .458 Lott.

Warrior

I have a 9.3x64 and a 9.3x62 and while I agree with Ray on the 286 partition, it will slam animals I will have to say I have shot at least 50 african animals and a lot more north american
with the TSX and while I believe he has seen failures, as any bullet can fail I have not had one fail yet and that is from whitetail to giant eland and buffalo. Again I know its possible for any bullet to fail I am just waiting to see one.

As it might be I am a member of said site, and you all know what, less then a week after, 1894 here posted about it, we got a international member.

http://forum.robsoft.nu/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=63170

Corjack, aka Ron Williams

The net is a small place at times.

Best regards to you all.

Chris

quote:

Originally posted by 1894mk2:
I won't spoil the trend by adding experience of the bullet you asked about on large plains game!

I would suspect that the largest number of big game taken with this bullet will be in Sweden/Finland on moose. Post in English on Robsoft http://forum.robsoft.nu/ and you may get some true field experience of that bullet on big animals even though it will be at short range and on different species.

All else is supposition.

Having been in the hunting business for I guess about 50 plus years or maybe more off and on I would suggest that with the high cost of a Safari and the miles traveled that I would never opt for anything less than a proven super premium bullet, that is the cheapest insurance around...

I have seen to many folks show up with conventional bullets expounding their greatness only to spend half the safari chasing wounded animals all over hell and back, it does not make for a great safari I assure you....

Tried a few Accubond loads with Rel 15 and Varget today and accuracy wasn't what I'm used to with this gun. Loaded up my remaining 250 TSX's and shot a couple groups just under MOA. Think I may order a couple boxes of TSX's this weekend, load 'em up, shoot 'em for drop out to about 250 yds and go with it.

Hey Warrior
You still hurting from the drubbing Hot Core gave you on that other thread hey. It shows.

Hi from France,

I never used the Accubond on African Game but i'm sure it will be up to the task, i used it on very big wild "wild boar" that are hunted with dogs, they are running full speed and full of adrenaline so are hard to kill. The Accubond gets the job done and also on big red stags or scandinavian moose. One very good loading if you're not handloader is the Sako Brand with 250grs BarnesX at 760m/s around 2500fps. Penetration is outstanding and you can sight to 160m with no more than 4cm above los at 100m. Good for 180/190m pbr in an 8 to 9cm vital zone.
Have a good hunt
Hunter4570

quote:

Having been in the hunting business for I guess about 50 plus years or maybe more off and on I would suggest that with the high cost of a Safari and the miles traveled that I would never opt for anything less than a proven super premium bullet, that is the cheapest insurance around... I have seen to many folks show up with conventional bullets expounding their greatness only to spend half the safari chasing wounded animals all over hell and back, it does not make for a great safari I assure you....

Ray,

You won't convince the likes of Hot Core, as it is very hard to read comments and good advice from experienced hunters like yourself, when he is in a position like this:-



Warrior

Rick Jamison did some testing for his article "Premium Bullet Shootout" with some current lines of 10 popular bullets, designed for today's high performance cartridges. The photos are all .30 caliber 180-grain bullets fired from a .300 Win. Mag. with a 24-inch barrel. Each photo illustrates an unfired bullet, a sectioned bullet showing its construction, a bullet recovered after close range high velocity impact at more than 3,000 fps, and a bullet recovered after an impact velocity of about 2,000 fps, simulating long-range results. Here you can see the results of 4 bonded bullet types at the lower end of the scale:



Norma Oryx

The Norma Oryx bullet has a relatively thin cup-type jacket in comparison with other bonded bullets and a blunt tip. There is no design feature to arrest expansion at a particular point, such as a progessively thicker tapered jacket, a partition or a solid shank. It is thus prone to over expansion at high impact velocities and shallow penetration (Mo/Xsa). However, used at lower impact velocities it performs increasingly better, and at 2,000 fps it gives sterling performance as can be seen above.



Remington Core Lokt Ultra

Remington introduced its own bond-core bullet called the Core Lokt Ultra, an upgrade on its standard Core Lokt. The bullet has a thicker jacket in the mid-section. Under high impact velocity the bullet turned almost inside-out, expanding down to the base with a very large frontal diameter. Whilst the bullet retains a fair amount of its weight, it is also prone to over expansion. However at 2,000 fps it expanded beautifully at a simulated long-range shot.



Nosler AccuBond

This bullet has a sharp plastic tip and boattail base making for a higher ballistic coefficient. The AccuBond is formed by an impact extrusion process from a billet of metal rather than from a flat sheet. The base and the jacket base-walls are much thicker and taper thin towards the tip, resulting in expansion right down to the base with high impact velocity, whilst more weight and a longer shank is retained under lower velocities. It generally sheds more weight amongst bonded bullets during both high- and low-velocity testing. Again the marked difference can be seen between 3,000 fps and 2,000 fps.



Hornady InterBond

The Hornady InterBond is a plastic-tipped bullet with a boattail and an overall shape designed for a high ballistic coefficient. The jacket walls are fairly thick, but with a thin base design. The InterBond produced an adequate mushroom at low velocity whilst the thick jacket walls and bonding produced a fairly high retained weight.

The design goals of these bullets were to improve on the old style thin-jacketed frangible conventional bullet for the faster calibers of today, as opposed to more than a 100 years ago when the first jacketed bullet made its appearance.

Warrior

Hey Warrior
From where I am sitting Ray is not the one trying to convince Hot Core about anything. You are. So stop blowing smoke and stop twisting Rays words. How would you know about the design goals of these companies anyway? You just repeat the Goooogle of the day without understanding much of it hey.

The Norma and the Remington look pretty impressive IMO...right up there with a Woodleigh. I like those ragged edges as opposed to the smooth round ball like a Swift. The Swift is too much of a good thing, too perfect and tissue damage is limited because of that.

I think I will have to try some of those new Rem. ultra corelokts..The old corelokts were wonderful bullets and soldering the core has to make them even better...

quote:

Originally posted by pinotguy:
You would be better served by the Swift A-Frame in the same weight. The A-Frame is a proven African bullet and will get better penetration and retain more weight - both desirable qualities, especially in Africa. It may not have the high BC numbers that the AB (Accubond bullet) does, but its performance on game is second-to-none.

Pinotguy,

Could not agree anymore with your statement. The few extra bucks you spend on a premium-grade bullet over an Accubond is insurance well taken out, and still remains the cheapest item on the hunt. The bone-crushing ability of a bullet that holds together is so much better than frangible conventional bullets and the thin-jacketed bonded bullets that loose more weight and that is prone to over expansion at higher velocities and energy levels. As the pictures show (at an impact velocity of 2,000 fps), the Accubond yields good results at lower velocities. However, the design of the Swift A-Frame bullet is superior, and is a more versatile bullet - here is another good report for the Swift A-Frame showing how it keep its integrity on big game such as buffalo:



Going after big game such as eland (or elk in the USA) using the better available options only makes sense.

Warrior

Hey Warrior
You are funny man. You agree with Ray when it appears that he has got something to help you with your problem with Hot Core. You are quick to laud Ray as an experienced hunter. The moment he recounts from his experience something that you differ with you find someone else to agree with.


You do all this exclusively with information that you have PERSONALLY gooooogled.