Well, after 5 years of looking at them on the store shelf, I finally bought the CZ 550 American I've considered owning.
In a word, I bought it to get similar a rifle to my old .375 H&H performance in a handier rifle.
It weighs 9lbs 4oz fully loaded with a Burris Signature Select 1.5x6 illumidot (Leupy 2.5x8 was on the Classic Stainless .375).
Yes, the action was a little rough when I first bought it, but I greased the rails and bolt with Rig grease and cycled the action about 1,000 times during a movie and it is about 90% smooth. I'm sure it will smooth out with use from now on... and it WILL be used now as my main safari gun!
I highly recommend this rifle to anyone interested in this old familiar African Classic.
CZ even double cross-bolts it now. It's a real shooter!

I just joined the club about 2 months ago. Congrats on your purchase!

Congrat's. I have never owned one myself, but everyone I know that does really likes them a lot. Must be a damn good cartridge.
Cheers

It's been a little over 2-1/2 yrs since I became enamored with the 9.3x62. This CZ550, all tricked/weathered up for Alaska went up in 2008 for Grizzly. Alas, no joy. At least not with the rifle. Shot a 62" bull moose with my Ruger NMBH in 45LC.



It's now gone to someone who, I'm sure, is showing it a great life of adventures.

But, it's replacement Pre 64 M70 arrived last month and, I'm pretty sure , will have a home until my dying days.


It truly likes the 250 Accubond


as well as the 286 Partition


Alan

I heaved the scope and went with peep sights on my 550 American-

Anyone that has a CZ550 should go to the AHR site and see what they can do with them. See coral blue box on their home page.
http://www.hunting-rifles.com/

Hay GSSP, what powder were you using for the 286's? I noticed is was BIG somthing but could not make out the rest. Also is this a hard compressed load? I have always found out that 64 grains is hard to get in the 62's case.

My guess it is Ramshot"BIG GAME" that sits next to Re15 on the their burn rate chart.

64 grains of Ramshot Big Game is easy to get in a 9.3 case with room leftover for more and a 286 grain bullet.
That powder is very accurate in my rifle.

derf9.3,

Yes, it is Ramshot Big Game. Compressed? Yes. Hard? Not in my book.

Alan

GSSP:Were you in EOD? Where and what years?

FA,

Yep! Tech Escort at both Edgwood Arsenal, MD and DPG, Utah; 1981/2 to 1986.

Alan

Well thanks gentlmen, i will have to give Ramshot a try. I just had my 700 CDL lefty rebored by classic arms and need to workup some new loads. Must say classic arms did a great job. The bore cleans as easy as any prime target barrel i have ever cleaned. Smooooth as a babys back side.

The 9.3 X 62 is almost the ballistic twin of the .35 Whelen....and that's not at all bad....

Using the .250 grain accubond you have a very fine and surprisingly long range plains game rifle. Load up some solids and take it after bigger stuff....I'd not hesitate to use mine on cape buffalo.....with the right bullets....

The 9.3x57 isn't too far behind it either!!!!

GSSP: Was in two foreign units. The 61th at Ft Sill,Ok in 68 and the 21th at Gissen Germany till the end of 69 and then it was AMF. Do they still send the units to Sanda, NM each year. I was going through Indianhead when MLK was killed. It got a little dicey and they almost handed out old preWW1 Navy 1903 to the students and have us guard the factory. All three of the Jar-heads in my class wanted M60's and be sent to 14th St in DC.

Albert,

I was at Indianhead in '81 (?) when the passenger jet crashed in the Potomac river right their by National airport and it was our Indianhead Navy EOD divers who ended up retrieving all the bodies. I truly miss EOD.

Alan

I have owned a 9.3x62 in a Blaser R-93 platform for a few years now and loved the cartridge from the first time I shot it, but for you to truly fall in love with it, you really need to kill something. I am just an east Texas redneck and have no intention of ever going to Africa, but the 9.3 is the real deal for a hog gun and works splendidly for whitetail deer too.

Wooo Hoooo! Nice hog!

Nice rifle, and good times. Congrat's.

quote:

Originally posted by vapodog:
Using the .250 grain accubond, at 2750 FPS

Vapodog, that sounds fast. What powder, may I ask?

Count me int the 9.3x62 club.

It is.....it's not at all proven and I'll edit it.....

It comes from Nosler loading data for the .35 Whelen which shows a 225 at 2789....(not a 250 grainer) using 59 grains of RL-15. my error

I haven't done a lot of load development for my 9.3 X 62 yet and assumed that since they were (nearly) identical cartridges they would shoot (nearly) the same. BTW....Nosler does not show RL-15 used in the 9.3 X 62.....at least yet.

I'll change my post....thanks for catching it.

Ah, ok. Actually I didn't realize I was "catching" anything; I thought maybe you had achieved that.

For what it's worth, I've experimented a bit with IMR 4831. In theory that's too slow a powder to use, but Speer does inclued it in their book for their 270 gr load. And thus far it seems to work fairly well with 286 gr. bullets. A stiff compressed charge can get me over 2,400 fps. All I really want/need with that bullet is 2,300 fps, though. I do my experimenting with the rifle straped to a Lead Sled and me pulling the trigger from behind a wall, by the way.

Also, for what it's worth, I've chronyed some S&B 286 gr rounds and they clocked in at ~2,450.

User beware, your results may vary, etc.

Hello!

Have been playing with the 9,3x62 since 1990, and shot a lot of moose with it.

My custom M98, with a Heym 58cm(24 inches) barrel makes 2450 f/s easily with Woodleigh/Oryx/Nosler 286 grain bullet.
The load is 60-61 grains of N140 in Norma brass, catr length 84,5 mm. That's 2,5 mm longer than the "normal" standard.
Yhe -62 has lots of freebore, and the only thing to worry about is the magazine length (85-86mm)

The best bullet for me is the Woodleigh round nose. Perfect mushroom and 80-90% ret. weight.

Another exciting bullet is a 220gr copper bullet from Norwegian bullet maker PBP. Very much like the Barnes Triple-x, but with more grooves. This ones easily make 2750 fps in my rifle, with good presicion.

My moose hunting buddy uses a 35 whelen. He gets 2500 fps with the Woodleigh 250gr in his custom Remington with 55cm barrel.
We both feel that the 9,3x62 is quite a bit more powerful.

M

Metric, that sounds good. Among the 9.3x62's many other capabilities that 220 gr bullet @ 2750 fps could make the rifle work for sheep hunting in bear country...

I own a 9.3x62 in a blaser R93 and a Sauer 200. I have never been with out one for about 5-6 years I love the caliber--hits hard, and accurate as it a round can get. Here is my Sauer


By coachsells at 2010-09-16

And Yep, it works in Africa!!!!


By coachsells at 2010-09-13

Ed

Congrats on the new rifle!

Heres mine on the right (next to its' big brother in .458 Lott!)

I would call 9.3 x 62 the 6BR/PPC for Africa
intrinsically accurate and effectiveness beyond what's not shown on paper.

This is my Mauser in 9.3X62. I hope to do some loading this weekend.


Butch

quote:

Originally posted by butchlambert:
This is my Mauser in 9.3X62. I hope to do some loading this weekend.


Butch

Looks like a very nice rifle!!!

M