I am just curious about your experiences. Thanks in advance.

9.3,

I have shot quite a few animals with the 250BT and with fine results. If your rifle is a modern firearm with modern steel, you can load this bullet to 2600fps, which will permit you to shoot to a six inch circle to about 275yds.

The bullet performs quite well out to those ranges. I have taken the following animals with the 250BT in the 9.3x62 from 25yds out to 250yds: impala, warthog, lion, fringe eared oryx, Paterson's Eland, Leopard, Coke's Hartebest, Lich. Hartebest, Topi, Roan, Sable, Defassa waterbuck, East African Bushbuck, common bushbuck, red lechwe, and my son used it for a Grant's gazelle.

It is a very stout bullet, holds together well, and kills efficiently. I certainly hope Nosler does not try to improve it. Kudude

That's an impressive list of critters to have fallen to a bullet that a lot of guys, myself included, would not of thought to shoot at those animals with. I had always thought of using a 250 grain TSX for these kind of shots. Have yo used any of the Nolser 250 gr Accubonds, or are they still not available.

I have a 9.3 CZ I want to take to the Rockies next year and now won't hesitate to load BT's for MD and Elk.
Ron

9.3 & verhoositz,

My experience, like Kudude's has been very positive with the 250 gr. Nosler BT's. They are my bullet of choice for the 9.3x62 with a charge of either VV N140, H-4895 or IMR 4320. I've never even messed around with the AOL, just crimp them lightly with the RCBS seater die at the upper edge of the cannelure and that's given me sterling accuracy with all powders from day one. I shoot at least 200 of them annually for load development, targets, training and at game. Couldn't be happier. My German Drive Hunting buddies who reload swear by them as well.

I do not have the fantastic experiencve with this bullet in Africa as Kudude has (Wow!) but gave my loaded ammo to a friend last year and he took Blue Wildebeast, Oryx, Impala and several Warthogs with them in RSA; null problemo, all one shot bags.

I use them almost exclusively for European Red Deer Stags, Hinds & Calves and take at least a couple handful of Wild Boar of various sizes with them every year. If a Roe Deer or Fallow Deer happenstance along, they get one too.

Like Kudude says, I also hope Nosler doesn't try to fix something that ain't broke.

I have loaded the 250 gr BT in my 9.3x64 and found it to be very accurate. One inch groups at 200 yds. I have taken whitetail deer and black bear with this bullet and have yet to recover a bullet. All pass through. They do mushroom as the exit holes are considerably larger.

This is all nifty information but that horse left the barn a good while back. Nosler discontinued the 9.3mm, 250 gr. BT.

Another brilliant move for American industry!

You can bet that I will be rationing the ones that I have.

For any of you that are interested, my reloading experiments with my 9.3 I wrote up in the reloading forum. I found that Varget gave me the absolute best overall performance. Roughly, after working up to my final loads and testing them thoroughly as outlined in the piece, I get 2600fps with 250BT, 2500fps with Speer 270's, and 2400fps with the various 286 bullets from my Mark X based rifle with a 24" barrel.

The BT's are like a target bullet in any caliber, and my 9.3 fired one group at 300yds you could cover with a quarter. I don't get that all the time, but when I don't its operator error. When new, it would shoot any load through the same hole at 100 yds.

What is really incredible about this cartridge and rifle, is it puts the 286 Woodleigh solid and RNSP right on target at 50yds and 100 yds; it puts the 285 Nosler Partition about 1.5-2" high at 100yds; and the 250BT just below 3" at 100yds all with the same sight setting! It is my very special rifle. Kudude

With any luck they'll be re-issued as Accubond bullets. I use them in my 9.3 x 57.

I can confirm that they shoot VERY precise with Vihta N140. No game taken so far, though.

Kudude, very interesting stuff. Especially lion with the 250 gr. Nosler BT. Frankly I didn’t realize it was up to the task. Perhaps that’s just ignorance on my part.

Tigertate, yes, I would like to see Nosler introduce either a 250 gr. 9.3 Accubond or Partition.

The 9.3x62 is now officially my favorite round. I love it so much I’m thinking about getting a second one and putting a 26†barrel on it, a la Ray Atkinson.

In the mean time I’ve developing loads for the one I have, which has a 23.6†barrel. Thus far I’ve only tried the 270 Speers using H4350 and H414. The H414 fizzled, but I’m going to try it again with magnum primers. Though I don’t entirely know why, as the H4350 was awesome! It gave me 2550 fps without any pressure signs, well before reaching the max. I stopped there of course and if I were to use that bullet would go a grain or so below as I have no need to push any envelope.

I also have 250 gr. Barnes TSX’s, 286 gr. Nosler Partitions, and 286 gr. Privi Partizans. With the 250 gr. TSX’s I plan to try Varget, IMR4350, and H414. With the 286 NP’s and PP’s I plan to try H4350, Varget, and H414. Those powders were selected based upon available published load data. Also, thus far I seem to prefer the single-based extruded powders. While neither single-based nor extruded, H414 is thrown into the mix because there is so much load data available for it.

Inspired by you gents I just ordered 2 boxes before they´re gone!

After reading this discussion, I emailed Nosler, and informed them of my disappointment that they discontinued the 250 ballistic tip. They said that they will be introducing a 250 gr Accubond soon.

I think that is good news, so all is not lost. We will still have that great boat tail bullet to shoot, but in the Accubond.

I thought the ballistic tip was great, so we can only hope the accubond is better, if that is possible.

I tried some accubonds in my 338, and 180 gr in my 30-06, and they seemed great at the range.

KB

This is good news. Thanks for passing it along. I didn't know that these had been discontinued, and I am glad that they are bringing this weight out in the Accubond. It is a great bullet.

You can be sure as hell the reason that Nosler droped the 9.3BT was to make more money. Dollar to donuts the cost of the 9.3 Accu bullets( when ever they deceided to bring them out) will be more than the cost of the BT bullets and what it cost them to bond the core.

Yes, Fat Albert, you are telling it true, capitalism - something we all live with. Nosler is definately not a non-profit organization.

I think it's not-too-good-thinking on the part of Nosler to discontinue the Ballistic Tip 9.3 bullet. I think they should have offered both the ballistic tip and the accubond in 250 gr 9.3mm. The reason I say this is because the Nosler 9.3mm 250gr BT fit into a special market niche, being relatilvely inexpensive, yet very accurate and deadly. It was plenty good for all non-dangerous game, probably including moose, and that is saying a lot - not even mentioning or arguing about the dangerous game possibilities.

With the Accubond, they are into a new class of competition. It had better be one heck of a bullet, because now price-wise, and expected performance from us as hunters just ratcheted up several points. Now, with the Accubond, Nosler is head-to-head with 250 gr 9.3 bullets like the Barnes, Northfork, Woodleigh, and the mighty Swift A-frame. This is extremely tough competition

However, whatever the cost of a box of Accubonds, I'm sure I can afford a box or two, and they will last me a long time, and I can be assured they will be as accurate as the Ballistic Tips, and do everything they would do and perhaps a bit more on the tough stuff. I have a friend who shot a large brown bear with his 375 H&H using the 260 gr Accubonds. Right through broadside, and the bear just rolled over and died. The bullet exited opposite side. No muss, no fuss, just a simple one shot kill on a very large animal - rare for a brown bear. I am sure the same results can be obtained with the 9.3mm Accubonds. However, I am equally sure the BT would do the same, but we shoot what we got.

It is probably a real techniological advance for Nosler to go from the non-bonded to the bonded version, and hopefully we reap some benefits too, although for a little more money. While the big companies surely are in it for the money, I also think companies like Nosler, want to stay ahead of the curve with technology and innovation. They want to make something better than anyone else. There are many companies like that particularly regarding bullets. Take Swift for example - many innovations - the a-frame clearly does what the partition does, and yet retains 85%+ of its weight, compared to around 50% for the partition. The bonded plastic tip was a swift innovation, so Nosler has to compete to keep market share. Do we clearly benefit from the corporate competition for market share? I dunno for sure. Is this a situation of if they make it, we will buy it? I dunno. As with so many things in life, they make those decisions, and usually don't ask my opinion in advance.

If all my wishes were true, I wish Sierra would offer a 250 gr Boat Tail hunting bullet in 9.3mm. I would also like to see the Accubonds sold for the same great price as the Ballistic Tips. But the chance of either wish being true is not looking good.

Anyway, I am glad to find so many fans of the 9.3mm. It is my favorite topic and rifle caliber.

KB

I'm looking forward to trying the new Accubond when they come out.In the meantime I went and bought the last four boxes of BTs that my local dealer had. I also have to wonder if Nosler just outsmarted themselves. The price of the Accubond is going to very close to the 286 gr partition. why not just use the partion on everything?

When I was at the SCI show in Reno in Jan., I asked one of the reps at the Hornady booth when they were going to bring out a 250gr 9.3 Interlock bullet and I will swear on a stack of bibles that he had no idea what a 9.3mm bullet was. After he said "Whats that" I said a 366 cal bullet . He then went into a CYA BS mode about how they were looking into it.

I e-mailed Hornady and they said that they had no plans to make 9.3mm bullets in the near future.

Great info guys and a solid exchange on good bullets for one of our obviously favorite cartridges.



I agree with all on this topic, expecially getting good bullets at a fair price. I still shoot alot of Speers, they're no where near as catastrophic as most would seem to infer IMO and the price still very affordable.

I would really enjoy the realization of a 250 gr. Sierra BT Game King - their .375's work well for me too, so why not the .366"?

I bought ten boxes of 250 gr. Nosler BT's when I was in the States last time so my supply ought to last awhile but I would like to hear of experiences with the Accubond when they are out.

As an aside, I've also pretty much stuck to the 250 grainers for my 9.3 shooting. If I need a heavier bullet with more whump I use a 300 grainer in my .375H&H. That's my thinking, so the 286 grainers have never held much interest for me although I know lots of folks who swear by them. I fortuneately have a 9.3 and two .375's which isn't everyone's case so I can understand the need for a heavier, stouter 9.3 bullet.

You North American boys are like your 16ga.com smoothbore mates, just add 0,2mm to slug diameter and end your suffering.
Try 260gr Accubond at about 2700fps.

Gee's you guys are something else. We are Lucky that Nosler even makes 9.3 bullets. I am trying very hard to get myself a Sako 75 in 9.3 x 62 because I want one. Beretta says there is no demand for it sorry pal. Well What makes you think that Nosler is selling enough 9.3 mm bullets to make it even worth while? My guess is because John Nosler is a 9.3 fan we have 286 gr Partitions Ok the 250 gr BT is going away, I'm sure if you look hard enough you can maybe find 10 or 15 boxes of them it you really want them. As for Nosler Company, I want them to be as profitable as they can be, because with money, Companies like Nosler can indulge us with some of the off the wall stuff. I know 9.3 is a popular thing in Europe and else were but like its been said here in the US its what is that? Its better here in the States for 9.3 shooters than it had been, guys like Jack Carter had to make his own, we go Bearclaws out of that. So it was not a zero sum gain.

I have taken quite a bit of game with my 9,3x74R double.
2 soft points have risen to the top in terms of performance.
The 286gr Woodleigh Soft and the 286 gr Nosler Partition.
I slightly favor the Woodleigh in my double, but if I had a bolt 9,3x62 with its higher velocity and possibly longer range applications I would lean toward the Nosler Partition.
With both bullets I have taken small game and some big stuff, including a cape buff with the Woodleigh.
I can recommend both of them.

I'll concur with George Semel on the subject of Nosler 9.3mm bullets. From what I've seen with the Partitions, the Nosler is hard to beat, although I do have a precious hoard of 9.3mm RWS H-Mantles. We are seriously fortunate that Nosler has taken up the 9.3mm as a standard product. Really looking forward to trying the 9.3mm Accubonds after having super success (on paper) with other Accubond series bullets.

LLS