The other day, I shot this deer three times with 9.3x62. The first shot was a going-away quartering shot at 100 yds. The bullet impacted low, just nicking the heart and breaking the opposite side leg (left). The animal stumbled, circled around to face me, and I shot again, shattering the right shoulder and grazing the hair on the hip. The animal laid down, but the head was still up, so I shot again, and broke the spine.

The load was 55.0 grains of RL-15 and a Norma 286 grain plastic point bullet. I now feel like there should be more damage, and less penetration on deer. I should have shot better, but no excuses. It was a personal best, 9-point whitetail, and I was excited.

Any suggestions for next year? For the rest of this season, I will take my 270 WSM for does.

The 270 gr Speer and the 285 Prvi both have a reputation for softer construction. I shot a 140 lb ish sow with a 286 Hornady and thought the expansion only moderate. I haven't yet had a chance to test the 285 Prvi on game, but hope to shortly. With luck, it's reputation for easy expansion will be true.

My sample was only a sample of one so I'm not ready to write off the Hornady for smaller game, as my rifle shoots the bullet very well; time tells all.

Also look at the Nosler ballistic tip 9.3 bullets.

Terry

Excitement happens ... especially when you're lookin' at the nicest trophy of your career so far

I've had great good performance from the 286 Nosler. Nose is soft enough to open up quickly and there is enough mass behind the partition to assure penetration. Deer I've shot with them have all been DRT.

On one side presentation at 100 yards (at a feeder in Texas), my shot was a little low but the impact performance was awesome ... unzipping the sternum completely. Never say anything quite like that.

The 250 gr Nosler Ballistic tip worked well. Had a thick enough jacket to hold together. Unfortunately, it is no longer available. Apparently been replaced by the Accubond.

Norma's 232 grain Vulcan expands faster than their 232 Oryx. Combined with higher velocity of lighter bullet, would provide a larger wound channel on deer-size game.

You aren't going to get any decent 9.3 bullet to stay inside a deer at normal distances.

Norma Vulcan 232 gr. or Oryx 232 gr. were designed specifically for deer size game and would be perfect for the job. I seriously doubt that these bullets won’t exit, but you will have rapid expansion and high energy delivery

Hey Walt,

Congratulations on your best-ever Deer.

I shoot alot of game with the 9.3x62 & 9.3x74R.

My prefered bullet (like Mike above) in both the 9.3x62 & the 9.3x74R cartridges WAS the 250 gr. Nosler Ballistic Tip hands-down. They opened up quickly causing massive internal damage and still penetrated. At the velocity I shoot these cartridges they were fantastic bullets; sadly gone the way of the Dodo Bird.

I've tried 250 gr. Woodlieghs & Nosler Ballistic Tips, 270 gr. Speers, 286 gr. Nosler Partitions & Hornady's SP's in this cartridge. Without the 250 gr. Nosler BT's I've now gone to the 270 gr. Speers in the 9.3x62 and the 286 gr. Hornadys in the 9.3x74R.

At a tad shy (20" bbl.) of 2300 fps the Speer 270 gr. Semi-Spitzers are very accurate and terminal perfomance is just fine; after all you are shooting a Whitetail, not a Cape Buffalo and IMO desire a bit of expansion. As a matter-of-fact they performed well enough (on Wild Boar, Red & Fallow Deer) that I decided not to go through the effort of purchasing the BT's replacement; the 250 gr. Accubonds.

Try some 270 gr. Speers and have fun with your 9.3x62.

Thanks for the advice. I have shot the Speers, and will try them again. I have some samples of other brands that Steve sent me, but I will shoot them into water jugs before I try them on game. Apparently there is a lot of difference!

The finishing shot went through the backbone (the only thing I could see, as the deer was lying in tall grass). It smashed through the bone, but there was only some lost hair and a small hole on the exit side. This supprised me.

I agree, i think you will find it hard to get a bullet to stop inside a deer of that size unless it really is an explosive bullet.

Bullet placement is everything with any bullet
as I think has been demonstrated.

The deer looks dead, Has a nice rack on him too.

At least you got the animal and it did not get away wounded. But it does show that one size doesn't fit all in terms of bullets.

I don't think that it is a velocity problem (or lack of it) our forefathers used slow heavy bullets but of bullet construction.

Think the 215 grain bullet on the old British 303 at abot 1970 fps! But of course for hunting game like the Mauser 227 grain bullet it did have a LARGE exposed lead tip.

Clearly those you used are too tough for the dwell time that they have to pass through the deer. Right bullet - wrong target!

Could you not try to pull out or cut to a flat the plastic points on the bullets you have left? Or even use a hot needle end and melt out the plastic points?

nice deer!
i have all the pieces-parts to put together a .35 whelen. that's one of the reason i stayed away from the 9.3x.62. i was offered a barrel in trade for adouble set trigger but thought the 9.3, being a pretty common african plains caliber, the bullets might be on the sturdy side for our little ole' deer. at least with the whelen you can use handgun bllets and down load them so you know they'll open up at really close ranges. greta elk cartridge, no doubt about it, but we all know the whelen is too.

I also used the 9.3x62 on my deer this year after carrying it in Colorado for elk, but no luck there. Anyway I used the Hornady bullet since I use them in almost everything else. I shot my nice 8 pointer straight into the throut fairly low and as much as I could determine the bullet shed its jacket and stayed right there. I did not get full penetration much to my dismay. While reaching in to slice off the windpipe I found the jacket and a lot of shattered neck bone and nothing else of the bullet. I could not do a full search for what did happen but my guess is, it may have traveled into the spine area and been broken up. I was a little surprised and wondered how they would have performed on an elk if I had been so lucky to have shot one. A friend of mine does some wet phone book penetration tests on a lot a bullets and is going to test these to see how they do. Until we have a better determination, I'll load something different for larger game. I'm still a big fan of Hornady bullets though. Les

I killed my first two deer with my 9.3x62 this week and am totally impressed with its performance on deer. The first deer was shot behind the shoulder and exited the top of the neck (he lowered and turned his head as I pulled the trigger), and the second was shot directly in the chest at 150 yards. Both dropped in their tracks. I was shooting 250 gr Accubonds over 55 grs Varget and CCI 250 primers in Lapua brass out of a 20 inch Blaser barrel. I did recover the bullet from the doe that I shot in the chest. It passed through the heart at an angle and broke the hind leg lodging in the muscle. It is a perfect mushroom. I will post pictures of the bullet later.

I use the Norma 232g Oryx for deer. Using 64g Rl-15. I have shot 5 deer with this load in the past two seasons. Excellent performance, large wound channel but does not blood shoot the meat. I have only found one bullet that did not pass through the deer. Large mushroom about 195g left. Even though it is rather large for deer, it is becoming my go to rifle (CZ-550) for deer season.