For North America and African plains game with an occasional buffalo or lion, which do you think is the better choice in your 9,3X62, a 250 grain Barnes TSX at 2600 fps or a 286 grain North Fork soft point at 2500 fps?

Since you mentioned buff and lion I would prefer the 286gr NF.

If I thought I might have to shoot some of the elk sized and smaller game at 300 yards plus then I might go to a 250gr bullet for THAT hunt.

But baised in what I have done with a 9,3x74R double rifle I prefer 286gr bullets, They worked fine on a kudu at a little over 300 yards as well.

NF hands down.

What about the old Norma 286gr nickel clad soft points?

Rich

I got a box if you are interested.

I would use the 250 grain Barnes TTSX or the 255 grain CEB Non-Con.
Another good bullet in 9.3x62 is the 286 grain and the 325 grain Norma Oryx.

quote:

Originally posted by Dave Bush:
occasional buffalo

Both would do just fine until you have mentioned buffalo...

Here is a 250 TSX (going 2500 tho) from a big bear - shot from above - entry central on the spine behind hump, found under the hide on chests after penetrating the sternum...











...imo - I'd like more penetration on buffalo and take 286 NF going 2500.

With the inclusion of Cape Buff I would use North Fork cup point solids - 286 with Vihtavuori N540 powder.

quote:

a 250 grain Barnes TSX at 2600

Is that easily obtainable? I was reading another guys post somewhere about 63 grains of 203B under a TSX 250 but that seems more like a lead core bullet load. Barnes lists about 2546 as tops on their site.

I'm sure that is doable, I have a 20" barrelled 9.3 and I get a solid 2460 fps with 286 grain Norma Alaskan bullets and Ramshot Big Game powder and I'm not pushing it hard.
I think it would be easy for me to get another 150 fps with a projectile that is 36 grains lighter.

I found the 250g TSX to be a bit too destructive on meat in moose and the 286g Patrition to be perfect.

I would pick the 286grn NF out of the two above bullets.

Bear in mind that for buffalo you can match the NF 286 gr to the 286gr FPS or CPS.

Having mentioned buff I think you are on the right track with the 286gr.

About 5 or 6 years ago I was a little involved in a bullet test / trial (done in Australia) where we contributed various projectiles including the old Nosler BT, the new Accubond, Barnes TSX, Speer 270 gr, Lapua Mega, Privi Partizan, Norma, Woodleigh 286 & 320 gr etc. You might find it on Nitroexpress site.

The final conclusion was that at the velocities of the 9.3X62, most bullets performed well on telephone books with beef bone, wet phone books & on game. The surprise was the Lapua Megas which were very effective on game including Australian buffalo / scrub bulls IIRC.

The deep penetration of all bullets except the 232 gr Norma was a most interesting feature of this cartridge.