I scored a 30-06 Ruger M77 Round Top with a 22" barrel for a song at a local pawn shop.
I "needed" another bolt action hunting rifle with sights with the ability to use a QR mounting system. I have at least six 30-06 rifles, but they are either too heavy like my Remington 30S, or too light and no sights like my Remington 700 Mountain Rifle. In all honesty, I could go hunting with a different rifle every day of deer and elk season and still take years to work through all of them. That said, most of my hunting is done with a 25-06 and a 338WM, or a 375 H&H, 280AI, 6.5x284, or 7mm-08 as the whims draw me. Enough of my firearm OCD issues..<LOL>

I only have one 9.3mm rifle in my collection, a pristine Husky M46 in 9.3x57 and I'm thinking that it needs company.
JES lives just down the road from me, so having it re-bored and chambered to 9.3x62mm would be a simple task.
The same could be said to making it a 338-06, 35 Whelen, 375 Whelen, or even a 400 Whelen.
The rifle without scope only weighs 7.2 pounds and the barrel only measures .562" at the muzzle, so I eliminated the 375 and 400 options.
The 338-06 and 35 Whelen options would have the advantage of making use of the shelf full of bullets I have on hand, as compared to the smaller selection of 9.3 bullets currently available.
Then there is the simple option, just keep the rifle as a 30-06. More brass, powder, and bullets that I could imagine using are sitting in the reloading room. Not to mention, what can't you do with a 30-06 in the lower 48. The only easy way out of this option is to find that the rifle shoots horribly when it goes to the range.

Time for someone to lead me out of the rabbit hole....

Depending on vintage, some of those early M77's had very poor barrels. Ruger used a couple of different contractors for its barrels back then and some just weren't up to par. Before making a decision you should shoot some of your preferred loads through it to assess the viability of leaving it as-is. If it doesn't shoot well then I would recommend re-barreling it rather than reboring it -- it's not impossible but it is unlikely to turn a "bad" barrel into a "good" one by drilling a bigger hole in it.

maybe a tad radical but to me it seems like you should sell a lot of the rifles mentioned and go out and buy a good one....one that fits your wants....weight and rifle sights combined.

From what I just read, you're going to add to the "don't really like" crowd.

Sooner or later we all go out to find what we really wanted in the first place.

Johnly.....I'm pretty much in the middle of doing the same thing. I have a ruger 77 stainless/sights 06 on the way. I plan on mounting a 6x36 leupold on it, with the long range dots. I'm going to see how it likes 165 and 180 accubonds, with the idea of sighting the iron sights in with 220 coreloks. I already have this combination, the one that shoots best, I'll leave alone. The other one goes to Jess to become a 35 Whelen, with a 1:12, 3 groove twist. I plan on mounting the same scope on this one, shooting 225 TBBC out of it....the iron sights will be sighted in with 310 gr woodleighs. I'll use warne QR ruger rings on both.

06 for whitetail hunts, 35 Whelen for elk hunts....35 Whelen for combo hunts!

Subject to change, but that's the plan for now.

Andy#3

The 9.3x62 is probably the best of the 06s offspring by far...If you need a bit more velocity the 9.3x64 has a lot to offer..Referring to the beltless rounds.

Maybe all you need is a cabinet file to slim down whatcha got, and come up with a featherweight rifle. or just buy a fwt mod. 70 post or pre 64..

Broke the rule and shot the donor rifle in 30-06 at the range and the best 3 shot group was <.5 MOA at 100 yards and a couple more were less than .75 MOA out of the 9 loads tried. I guess I need to shop for another rifle to make into a 9.3x62mm.

quote:

Originally posted by Johnly:
Broke the rule and shot the donor rifle in 30-06 at the range and the best 3 shot group was <.5 MOA at 100 yards and a couple more were less than .75 MOA out of the 9 loads tried. I guess I need to shop for another rifle to make into a 9.3x62mm.

That happens a lot.

quote:

Originally posted by Johnly:
Broke the rule and shot the donor rifle in 30-06 at the range and the best 3 shot group was <.5 MOA at 100 yards and a couple more were less than .75 MOA out of the 9 loads tried. I guess I need to shop for another rifle to make into a 9.3x62mm.

I told you not to shoot it!
You should have listened!

Mark

And so you did...
The upside is that I have reason to look for another rifle for the conversion, unless I find a factory chambered rifle I want to purchase.

quote:

Originally posted by Johnly:
Broke the rule and shot the donor rifle in 30-06 at the range and the best 3 shot group was <.5 MOA at 100 yards and a couple more were less than .75 MOA out of the 9 loads tried. I guess I need to shop for another rifle to make into a 9.3x62mm.

My first bolt action rifle was one of those, also a bugholer out of the box with factory Remington 150-grain Bronzepoints,
.30-06 Ruger M77 RoundTop, gloss blue and walnut, with open sights, bought new-in-box at a gunshop on Broadway in Lexington, KY, 40 years ago now.
The gunshop no longer exists, but I still have that rifle ... from my cold dead fingers ... despite the 6 other .30-06 rifles I too am possessed of or possessed by.

That Ruger RoundTop now wears a Brown Precision fiberglass stock, and has Leupold Mark 4 steel cross-slot bases J-B-Weld-glued to it.
I replaced the alloy trigger guard with a steel one like on the .458 WIN by Ruger,
but retained the alloy floorpate for lighter weight.
It weighs 6 lbs 15 oz like that, with Ruger factory open sights, no ammo or scope.

The fold-down rear sight allows use of an NECG peep on the rear base.
It will handle any scope I have, from 2.5X Leupold to 3-Pound Schmidt & Bender !
One planet, one rifle.

Rip ...

quote:

Originally posted by RIP:

quote:

Originally posted by Johnly:
Broke the rule and shot the donor rifle in 30-06 at the range and the best 3 shot group was <.5 MOA at 100 yards and a couple more were less than .75 MOA out of the 9 loads tried. I guess I need to shop for another rifle to make into a 9.3x62mm.

My first bolt action rifle was one of those, also a bugholer out of the box with factory Remington 150-grain Bronzepoints,
.30-06 Ruger M77 RoundTop, gloss blue and walnut, with open sights, bought new-in-box at a gunshop on Broadway in Lexington, KY, 40 years ago now.
The gunshop no longer exists, but I still have that rifle ... from my cold dead fingers ... despite the 6 other .30-06 rifles I too am possessed of or possessed by.

That Ruger RoundTop now wears a Brown Precision fiberglass stock, and has Leupold Mark 4 steel cross-slot bases J-B-Weld-glued to it.
I replaced the alloy trigger guard with a steel one like on the .458 WIN by Ruger,
but retained the alloy floorpate for lighter weight.
It weighs 6 lbs 15 oz like that, with Ruger factory open sights, no ammo or scope.

The fold-down rear sight allows use of an NECG peep on the rear base.
It will handle any scope I have, from 2.5X Leupold to 3-Pound Schmidt & Bender !
One planet, one rifle.

Rip ...

I actually adjusted the factory Ruger iron sights for use. I can do about 4" at 100 yards with them, which should be good enough. Did you use the NECG Weaver Peep Sight N-106 on your rifle?
I actually have some 150 gr. Remington Bronze point component bullets on the shelf. Might just have to loads some up to feel nostalgic.

Yes, that is the one I have, N-106, the first one they brought out. I drilled out the screw-in peepdisk as large as possible:


You might want to try the new N-106G:

https://www.newenglandcustomgu...detail.php?prod=8138

So what and Im an accuracy nut, but its foolishness, the kill zone on most big game is about 12"x12"s average, a two inch gun works on that...Id just rebore that accurate son of a gun and be done with it and I bet the 9.3x62 will shoot just as well. Every hill country rifle they rebored for me shot half inch 3 shot groups, and Jes has a good rep with most folks Ive talked to..

My barrel has a muzzle diameter of only 0.555" inside of the barrel band:



Perfect minimum barrel for a .308-caliber sporter.
Re-barrel, if you must, but that is pretty skinny for a 9.3x62 even if yours is bigger at 0.562".

Did I mention that these scope bases will handle any scope I can imagine.
Should pose her with that 3-pound scope in 36mm rings ...



Drab green Krylon over bare fiberglass, yes, that might have been my first glass bedding job in 1988,
listening to the new guy, Rush Limbaugh, on the radio in the garage while I did it,
down in Tallahassee, FL.

Rip ...