Will,
Well I still prefer deer meat to everything but perhaps beef and when that 270 or 280 bloodshoots both shoulder I get perturbed..I like to stick a tough 300 or 320 gr. 9.3 in my whitetail or mule deer, it kills a bit better than a solid and still does not tear them up...I would not hesitate to use a flat nose solid on deer were it legal, and I have shot a number of Impala etc. for camp with a 9.3 flat nose solid and some with RN solids..I liked that also...

You oughta try the Horn 175s in that 280...but then you look like a hamburger kind of guy!

I try to get a variety of tools into the act for the deer season. The last three years I've taken whitetails with bow, rifle (or double rifle), handgun, and muzzle loader. Makes the season a bit more interesting. So far this season, have taken three deer with two bows.

Gun season hasn't been going that well due to lousy weather. And chrono of ammo for the 9.3 x 74R Chapuis double rifle revealed that I wasn't pushing it very hard. The load sort of regulates but the left barrel was shooting a 3/4" group at 50 yards. But the 286 grain Nosler partitions were only running about 2100 fps. It was too late to do more loading.

At 4:50 this evening, a nice mature doe that I've been seeing on and off finally showed up at a reasonable range ... 55 yards. She was almost facing me, quartered away to the right. Not a perfect presentation but good enough.

The rifle made noise and she went over backwards to her right, twitched once and never moved again.

The bullet caught the tip of the left scapula and exited low across the body. Entrance was bullet diameter. Exit wound was about 50 caliber or so.

More complete inspection upon disassembly showed that the nose of the bullet reacted quite violently ... crushing the scapula. The remains (I assume the base and partition) went on through in a straight line without making a mess in the boiler room. Took out all of the main breathing and pumping equipment along the way. Good clean drop at the cost of one shoulder though most of it can be saved for the grind pile.

So far that is the most definitive drop I've had with any rifle on whitetail that did not involve some contact with the spinal column.

It seems that one just doesn't need to drive a Nosler partition all that darned fast for it to work like the Hammer of Thor! Just amazing.

Good report, thanks for sharing. That has been my experience with the Nosler Partition as well, having loaded it both quite fast (140gr. 7mmRM) and slow (250gr. .358Win) performance seems to be very consistant on big game from about 3200fps down to about 1800fps. They seem to expand well through a very wide velocity range and even upon front core separation (which has only happened to me once), the base still has enough mass to keep pushing on most any big game animal. It really made me a believer in big, slow cartridges and now I'm kicking myself for selling the .358!

I'd love to get a 9.3x62 now that the local shop is carrying Norma ammo, unfortunately, my current hunting situation requires me to take long shots in very hilly country (Canadian shield) with poor cover. A 9.3x64 would be a better choice, but then, why not just get a .338? Way more available here. Maybe I should just get one of each and be done with it.

I've used a 9.3x62 on 2 trips to Africa so far and several deer hunting outings here in MN. The shots ranged from 85-275 yards.

All were one shot kills on game from whitetail (USA) to bushbuck, kudu, and even an eland (and several other large and small species).

Admittedly, my bullet of choice was the Swift A-Frame 250 @ 2450 fps, not the Nosler, however the 9.3 is "my" caliber for any hunting I may have the privilege to enjoy for the remainder of my non-dangerous game hunting career.

I currently own and use a Merkel drilling in 9.3x74r-12x12 and load the 286 Nosler PT. to 2375 fps-mv. I also have five .338 Win mags., but, I am having a Husqvarna Mod. 1950 stripped for the lovely FN action and also have a Brno ZG-47 action, BOTH of these will be going to Bevan King to be fitted with his cut rifled barrels in 9.3x62 and I will load the 286 NP. in these rifles, as well.

What this means is that you certainly should have at least one of each as these are two of the most genuinely useful cartridges available, especially for Moose, Elk and Grizzly. I also find that this class of cartridge, loaded with the superb NP bullets, 286s and 250s respectively, consistently drops game like thunderbolts and does not damage as much meat as smaller, faster rounds; this is important to me as I am a "meat hunter".

I shot a 9.3-64 that a shooting buddy had made quite a bit and would have one, except the brass is much harder to get on a regular basis than 9.3-62 is and the performance level is so close that the hassle is not worth it, to me. YMMV.

I got my Husqvarna Model 649 in 9.3x62 last summer. So far this year I have killed a Texas whitetail doe and 8-pt. buck as well as a bobcat with it. I am so pleased with the rifle and the chambering. I admit a 286 Nosler Partition is a bit much for bobcat, but what the hay the opportunity presented itself. Funny both deer dropped on the spot, but the 18 pound female bobcat jumped straight up three feet anf the bolted 40 yards before collapsing. Tough little animals. At the spot of impact there was a quarter sized piece of lung and the hole on her off side was huge. Getting the buck and bobcat mounted.

Guys,

I too have taken African game with the 9.3x62 ... Impala, Warthog, Kudu, Blue Wildebeast, and Zebra. Used the 286 grain Nosler at 2425 fps. Bullet performance at that speed was spectacular. Four of the five were one shot affairs. Not one recovered bullet, good blood trails where there was not a drop on the spot, and 5 head of very dead game but no untoward meat destruction.

What surprized me with the 2100 fps white tail episode was the great performance at such a low muzzle velocity.

The 9.3 caliber 286 gr Nosler Partition has done very well for me! This is a quality projectile that performs well across a range of velocities and game species ... from small to pretty fair sized.

When I get the 9.3x74R load worked out in the 2300's, the choice of rifle between the double and the bolt is going to be pretty much driven by maximum range and weather conditions ... and I suspect that range is not going to be very limiting as the double is scoped.

A 9.3x64 is closer to a 375 then a 338 for power

My loads for the 9.3x74r are built with IMR-4064 and the accuracy is phenomenal; using a Leupy 2.5x Compact, H.D. or a Leupy 4x, the 100 yd. groups hover around .6" for three shots, from a break action gun which must be moved from the bags to be reloaded each time. Now, however, due to the temperature sensitivity of IMR powders, I will try a keg of H-4350 which should give me close to 2400 fps-mv with equal accuracy, perhaps you should test this in your double Chapuis. I have heard good things about these, what is your opinion?

I have used Norma 201 in my 9.3x62 and 9.3x74R. Works very ell with no pressures and velocity about 2320 in the 9.3x62. I use the same load in both-the norma load for the x62. It shoots into less than 2" in my Valmet and each barrel groups into less than 1" for 3 shots. The CZ's all shoot MOA.
I have become a believer in big slow bullets since I started shooting these calibers in 2000. I doesn't need to go any faster than 2350fps unless you have to worry about trajectory.
The Nosler partition is my choice of all bullets. For hunting I just don't load anything else anymore. Why bother?

HI,

Gentlemen help me out on the 9.3 as I have no experence with it.Will the 9.3 shoot almost as flat as a 338 out to 300 yards?,Kev

Just to be a smart ass, what did you expect a 286 gr. Partition to do to a whitetail doe?



I'm not against overkill, but that pretty much describes it!

Well there are guy's on this site that use 500 nitro's express loaded with 575 grain bullet's
to hunt Elk.. talk about freaking over kill

Talk about ...BLOOD SHOT

I have been in at the death of quite a lot of BIG game animals and one thing I have noticed is that the larger bores with controlled expansion bullets consistently cause LESS bloodshot meat than do smaller bores. This is true of even the Nosler Partition bullet which is my favourite hunting bullet and what I use in everything from my .243 to my .375H&H and .45-70, this is a total of 28 big game rifles. I won't use anything else, although I have done, due to Nosler's reliable performance.

The "power" levels of the .375H&H, the .338Win. and the 9.3-64, loaded to top velocities with bullets of equal B.C. are so close that any difference in field performance is undetectable. I have owned 6 .375s in the past 23 yrs., 12 .338s in the past 37 yrs. and shot with my buddies 9.3-64, all loaded with 250, 300, and 286 NPs. I cannot see any difference in actual performance on Moose or Elk or feel any real difference in perceived recoil.

While the .338 shoots a bit flatter, this is immaterial at sensible hunting ranges, so, go with the rifle you like best as all three of these will definitely do the job. Actually, now that I am close to 60, I am more inclined to use the .338-06, the 9.3-62 and the 9.3-74r, all of which I own although the first two rifles are still a'buildin'.

I have found, in 40 yrs. of big game rifle ownership, which includes about 100 good rifles, that I, at least, consistently shot best, especially in the field, with rifles I really like, over those I am not especially enamoured of and this is without respect to caliber, cost or anything else. YMMV.

kutenay
1967-35x378 Weatherby -- 1968-1968--378 Weartherby and 460
Weatherby --1972 475 A&M -- 1973 Two Ruger M 77's in 458
1975 Brno 416 Rigby and alot more

1979 Married 1983 Devorced
1985 Happy again and buying rifle's

2004 Restarted old Bullet Company Even happier


Pottsy


PA Bullet's

Overkill ... certainly. Effective, with little to no blood shot meat ... absolutely. I've seen more meat damage with a .308 Win.

A good bullet in comparison to the 270 grain Speer at 2400 fps? For sure! The Speer tends to come apart, curve the wound track and leave fragments along the way.

The 9.3x74R Chapuis double is a lovely little well balanced rifle that mounts quickly and is just very handy. Same could be said of any number of calibers that allow the use of small receivers I would guess. Most of them though are likely to do more meat damage.

I did not intend to sermonize ... I was simply delighted with the performance of the bullet at rather low velocities on a relatively lightly built traget.

But then again, I also like the performance of the 9.3x62 and 35 Whelen in the relatively dense woods of the east. And I suspect that any of these would do well on black bear in the same woods.

The formula of large bullet moving relatively slow can be taken to extremes of course, but even then it still works well. A .470 NE loaded with a 500 gr FPGC bullet and pushed at 1800 fps is a pussy cat when fired from a Searcy ... but leaves even less meat damage than the 2100 fps 286 gr Nosler.

HI,


"There is no such thing as "overkill", there is underkill", MR. AKINSON
I do not need to say anything more,Kev