Wednesday, February 19, 2014

Calibers Pt. II

As promised, here's the next installment of caliber selection for my safari.  As mentioned earlier, I'm not going to be hunting any of the Big Five, so I won't need any of the .400-caliber or larger rounds.  But I do plan to at least try for a kudu and/or eland, and that's pushing the capability of even the best bullets in a .30-'06 or .308 Winchester.  So what should I use for a 'medium' safari rifle?

The gold standard is the classic .375 Holland & Holland Magnum.  It's the standard for good reason:  it's got manageable recoil, a reasonably flat trajectory, great bullet selection, and enough power to take on just about anything on the continent under reasonable conditions.  I wouldn't want to stop a charging elephant with one, but that's not my concern.  If by some stroke of Murphy I'm charged by an elephant, well, my PH will have a .460 Weatherby in his Johnny Benchian hands.  It's also readily available in Africa if your ammo somehow doesn't make the rendezvous.

But is the .375 truly the best choice for me, even amongst calibers with historical appeal?  Let's look at some of the downsides.  First of all, there's the cost.  I'm not a rich man by any stretch, and safaris are getting more expensive every day.  I would rather buy a more economical (note:  not necessarily 'cheap') rifle and save my money for trophy fees and practice ammo.  And one of the major fixed costs of the .375 H&H is the fact that it requires a magnum action.  That adds $300 or so to the cost of the rifle, easily.  That may not be a whole lot in terms of trophy fees, but it's a fair amount of reloading components that I could use to become more proficient with the weapon.  And while .375 H&H ammo is cheap compared to the truly big bores, it's still not exactly low-cost for training.

Despite all this, until recently I saw no truly better alternative, and resigned myself to saving up my pennies to buy a .375 H&H.  And then I heard about Otto Bock's creation:  the 9.3x62mm.  On paper, it doesn't look like much, appearing to be the Continental equivalent of a .35 Whelen.  It pushes a .366-caliber 286gr slug at a rather sedate 2350 fps (or 2250fps for some loads), compared to the .375's 300gr projectile @ 2650 or so.  So again, on paper, the .375 wins hands down.  But the 9.3 had a sterling reputation in the early decades of the 20th Century.  In fact, the .375 was created by Holland & Holland to supplant it, and there had to be a reason for this.  Several African nations require a minimum of .375 to hunt dangerous game, and several of those nations have an exception to allow the 9.3x62mm.  The commonly heard phrase is "It kills out of proportion to its size and recoil."  It just seems to have that magic formula of sectional density, good bullet construction and moderate velocity that lets it penetrate deeper than you'd expect from such a relatively mild cartridge.  And it just so happens that the 9.3x62mm fits into standard-length actions, with the same magazine capacity as a .30-'06. 

Another explanation for the on-paper performance gap is that the .375 has benefited from years of handloading experience and development, something the mostly-forgotten 9.3mm lacked until relatively recently.  In the last 10 years or so, there has been a resurgence of interest in the 9.3x62mm (and its near-twin for double rifles, the 9.3x74mmR), and the major makers (including Barnes, Hornady, Speer and Swift, as well as European makers like Norma, Prvi Partizan and Lapua) have started producing premium bullets and testing out new powders to bring out the cartridge's potential.  Factory ammo (and reloading manuals) keep the velocity low for much the same reason as they do with the .45-70:  there are plenty of older rifles that can't handle the pressures of a modern high-performance cartridge.  Several companies chambered older-model (pre-98) Mauser actions in 9.3x62, and these don't have the strength or the safety features of the later guns.  In a modern action with modern powders, you can push things a little further.

I heard about the 9.3x62 from my father, who was turned on to the cartridge by Bill Wilson of Wilson Combat fame.  Bill's been hunting in Africa for decades, and learned of the cartridge from some friends there.  He's become a big fan, so much so that he wrote the introduction for the 9.3x62mm section in the Barnes reloading manual.  My father fired Bill's rifle and fell in love with the manageable recoil, higher magazine capacity, faster follow-up shots, and smooth feeding.  He loved it so much, he took a 9.3 of his own to Africa for his latest safari, taking everything from Steinbok to Cape buffalo with it using Hornady DGS solids and 286gr Barnes TTSX .

Only a few years ago, your options for a factory rifle in this caliber, available in the US, were pretty much limited to CZ and Sako (the Scandinavians apparently love this cartridge for hunting moose and bear).  The CZ is fairly reasonable in price, and the Sako isn't particularly bad, but still hovering around the $1000 mark.  The CZ also wasn't available in an 'African' pattern.  And then came Ruger. Ruger created their own .375 Ruger cartridge to duplicate .375 H&H ballistics in a standard-length action, but it came at the expense of magazine capacity due to the fatter cartridge casing required to hold all that powder.  So when Ruger offered their Hawkeye African rifle in 9.3x62mm with a 4+1 capacity, both Dad and I jumped on it.  And a good thing we did; Ruger discontinued the rifle in that chambering within a year or two.  Perhaps they wanted to boost sales of their proprietary .375 and .416 cartridges, I don't know.  But whatever the reason, we were lucky enough to get a pair.  I immediately ordered a set of Warne quick-detach rings, an SWFA 1-6x optic, and some Prvi Partizan 285gr softpoints for practice fodder/donor cases.  Once I got everything set up, it was off to the range to zero.

And that... is another story.

14 comments:

  1. For what it's worth- I carried a .270 for plains game, took steenbok, blesbok, impala, 2 wart hogs, zebra and kudu. All were 1 shot except the zebra. Used 150 grain nosler ballistic silvertips. 30-06 with 168 grain BST has worked well for me on elk the last 10 years or so. Enjoy Africa, it is amazing. Wayne

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    1. I don't doubt they'll work, especially with good shot placement. That said, I've had a few unpleasant failures with the 150gr .308 BTs on whitetail (mostly at steep angles hitting the shoulder blade), enough to turn me off the bullet style in favor of the Barnes stuff. The TTSX isn't as explosive on a perfect behind-the-shoulder shot as the BT, but it's more consistent in its performance in my experience.

      I did give some consideration to the .270 as a light rifle, but I've always been a fan of heavier bullets and the .30-caliber just seems to fit me better. I know the eternal .270 vs. .30-'06 debate will never be resolved, and I don't disparage the .270 at all, I just like the good ol' .30-caliber.

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  2. Actually, the .375 Ruger has slightly greater case capacity than the H&H. It will probably be my choice for my second rifle (along with a .308 Win) on my hoped-for plains game safari in a few years. Then I can take it for buffalo when I (hopefully) return a few years later.

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    1. Yep, per Hornady's latest manual, you can squeeze a bit more velocity out of the Ruger compared to the H&H. I don't know if it's enough to make a big difference, but the beauty of guns is that everyone can find something to scratch their particular itch. My Dad took a .375 Ruger to Africa on one trip and shot quite a bit with it, and had no complaints.

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  3. My nine three journey was similar. Started out researching a .375 for a moose gun, ran across the 9.3x62 reading the accuratereloading.com forum, ended up building a rifle with a VZ24 receiver, Lothar Walther barrel, synthetic stock, Leupold 1.5x5 and NECG backup irons. I love it and the inexpensive Prvi bullets make it affordable to shoot as you note.

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    1. I'll touch on this in a later post, but have you found and good reloading data for the 9.3x62 using Prvi cases/bullets and Ramshot Big Game powder?

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    2. I am using RL15 and watching the discussion on accuratereloading on RL17. No experience with Ramshot.

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  4. As a veteran of only one safari, although that one a Dangerous Game trip to the Zambezi Valley, I came back with the firm policy to never again take a non-DG rifle into the field in Africa. While YOU may not be hunting DG, that doesn't mean that DG won't be hunting YOU!

    I brought a .308 light rifle and a .458 Lott heavy rifle. About 5 days into the hunt, I bailed off to go after a promising Kudu, and was accompanied by the apprentice PH and the senior tracker, while the PH and my wife drove on to keep looking for Buffalo. 3 hours later while dodging around 2 small herd of Ele it occured to me that NONE OF US had a heavy rifle. Similar circumstances happened 2 more times on that Safari.

    Next trip (probably to Tanzania) my rifles will be my .458 Lott and a .376 Steyr (similar balistics to the 9.3 x 62, but legal even where the 9.3 is considered too small). I never intend to again be amongst dangerous game with a light rifle. If your hunt will be on a game preserve (ranch) where there are NO dangerous game, then that's probably less important.

    YMMV, and If you get 10% as much joy from your hunt as we did from ours, you will have an experience of a lifetime.

    FormerFlyer

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    1. That sounds like excellent advice. I'll be hunting with my dad, and likely his safari partner as well, and they'll both have DG rifles with them, as will the PH's. Honestly, I plan to do most of my hunting with the 9.3, and I'll have some solids as well as the TTSX loads. It's not a .458 Lott by any stretch, but I know I can shoot it well. The '06 (or .308, depending) will be around for any longer shots I might have to take, but the 9.3 will be my primary walking-around gun.

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    2. Follow Jeff Cooper's advice and carry your DG rifle yourself and let the tracker carry your light rifle. You can swap for the light rifle in a couple seconds to pop an impala or whatever, but you want your DG rifle IN YOUR HANDS at all times in DG areas. Also, it's a lot of fun to do most of your hunting with your heavy. I'm more proud of the impala I took with the Lott than of the Kudu I took with the .308.

      The 9.3 is a great cartridge. It was a toss up between that and the .376, but my wife and I love our Steyr Scout rifles, so the .376 won out for us.

      FormerFlyer

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  5. Did you consider the .35 Whelen or .338 for this role? Seem pretty close ballistically considering modern slugs.
    Joe C

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    1. I did, actually, but the combination of the African-style Ruger rifle and a classic African hunting cartridge won me over. And honestly, I'm not sure .35 Whelan would be all that easy to find anymore, it's lost a lot of popularity. .338 WinMag is obviously popular and common, but it just didn't have the historical cachet I was looking for. I want to have my performance cake and history too.

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  6. Oh I thought the ..35 Whelan had made a comeback in recent years. It probably did and faded again while I dozed. And cachet does count for a lot for sure.
    Joe C

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  7. Considering the 200 yard max range you mentioned in an earlier post, it seems would a .45-70 loaded with LeveRevolution rounds might work as well, though I admittedly have zero experience with African game.

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