has anyone used norma's 232gr soft point bullets? I have managed to find some here in Oz and am wondering what kind of velocity they can be loaded to they might almost turn my 9.3x62 into a varminter

Go shoot some red deer with them! These bullets are very much of the controlled-expansion type -- they are very suitable for shooting moose (the target they were developed for).

I doubt that many small varmints will offer enough resistance to initiate expansion and I'm afraid the bullet might drill through with only a modest amount of expansion.

Somewhere I have a test report of how this bullet fared on hundreds of moose, but it is in Swedish...

jpb

Additional follow-up:

I forgot that some of your "varmints" are things like kangaroo! They should work very well on animals of that size (I was thinking of "varmints" as being groundhog sized -- showing my background here!

jpb

Norma made 2 types of 232gr the Vulkan and the Oryx. The Vulkan has a folded jacket at the tip and the Oryx is bonded.

Both are tough bullets. I have shot moose with both (only one each) and they work well. I get an accurate 2,600fps from 59gr VVN135, I can get 2635fps from 60gr but I err on the side of caution.

I've done some informal bullet performance testing with the 232 gr. factory load in fresh cut aspen. To make a long story short, they penetrated about 10" of wood and expanded perfectly; the test was done 15 ft. from the muzzle. I was very impressed.

FYI, the Nosler 250 gr. BT, at an impact velocity of 2600 fps, penetrated about 14" of the same wood, but did not expand as uniformly and its lead core was jarred loose.

9.3

9.3x62 do you test many other bullets? in Oz we really only have easy acces to barnes speer woodleigh (off course) and sometimes norma and rws of these the speer is probably the cheapest to use for practice and just bombing things up
how did they perform

Thanks to all who replied the bullets arrived this morning they are vulkans they are a mean looking little slug cant wait to see how it shoots

[ 09-27-2003, 05:36: Message edited by: smlekid ]

Try Hornadys 95grs HP/XTP bullet for the 9x18 Makarov if you want a varmint load, i made some tests yesterday with that bullet.

I loaded 50grs of Norma 200 and got a velocity of 2890 fps with that load. Loads less than 50grs didnt expand the case mouth.

I've done the same thing Robban wrote about--using 9mm Makarov bullets to fire-form 35 Whelen casings, and while so engaged several ground squirrels and a jackrabbit got whacked. Using a .366" bullet on rats is a little counter-intuitive, but the critters looked like they'd been hit with a 55 grainer from the 22-250.

Recent trials with the Mountain Molds 270 grain cast bullet run with the same loads as the Speer 270 SP show practically the same points of impact, and the cast bullets seem as accurate as their jacketed counterparts. Run at 1600 FPS by 18.0 grains of Alliant 2400, they tear ragged sub-1" holes at 50 yards. I'm going to attach a scope to the CZ-550 this weekend to really see how they shoot at distance, and also get a better idea how well the full-house loadings group. 48 year old eyes aren't as sharp as they used to be. :-)

In short--this rifle and its cartridge are one of the most useful in my battery. It is among my most accurate cast bullet rifles, and is reassuring to carry while picking fruit and berries in abandoned apple farms in the nearby mountains. Having covered our retreat from a pissed-off black bear last year with a Redhawk x 5.5"/44 Mag, the 9.3 x 62 bear attitude adjuster feels a lot better to carry along.

I had the chance to shoot my rifle today with the 232 gr vulcans it shot very well right on the 1" mark at 100m tha load used was 60grs of varget in remington reformed 30/06 brass didn't get a chance to chrony the loads yet but i was pleased how well they shot