Rifles on deer
 

I know others work. But that would mean buying 15 plus rifles, which I'm to cheap to do. My three rifles work like sniper rifles, so there is no need for more firepower.
Of course a 35 Whelan works. A 35 Rem was my early swamp rifle. And not one buddy asked to use it, though they saw the results. Hunters are funny about rifles.

I know what he wanted to talk about but digging up an 8 yer old thread? Why not just start a new one to get new input? That's my point. Old threads die for a reason.

For what it is worth, I had a 350 Rem Mag. It's a pretty good round but suffers from a lack of case capacity. 35 calibers really shine with heavier bullets and the only way to make them heavier is to make them longer. So the 350 falls behind the Whelen when you get to bullets heavier than 225 gr. I sold mine and switched to a 9.3x62 Mauser, a much better cartridge and you can get bullets up to 320 gr for it. It is a real thumper and one of the most popular calibers in Europe and Africa.

Did some reading on that flags, and it sounds like a great cartridge. Do you handload for it or is ammo somewhat available stateside?
-Jake

Jake, the 9.3x62 fac. ammo is available but not abundantly so. MOST of what you can find are solids for dangerous game. There are a couple like Hornady customs (SP) and and Nosler partitions and accubonds but the rest seem to be solids. As far as reloading, there isn't a very large selection of weights on the market. 250, 286, 300 grain seem to be the weight selections on most carriers with various makeups between spire point, round nose, solids (DG) being the most abundant. I've had a couple of those 9.3's quite a few years back. One built on a K98 action and the other was off a Mod.70 action. Both were pretty good shooters and I put a few Elk and Moose and one Musk Ox (dunno why they don't just call the "stink Ox" cuzz damn those critters reek!) down very easily with some Speers that I don't remember the loads. Somewhere around 300gr though I think. One thing I liked was you would THINK that that particular cartridge would make a mule kick look like a hummingbird but in actuality they were not that bad at all. Both rifles weighed in around the 8.5-9# mark loaded and scoped.

You can get factory ammo but you'll have to order it, you won't find it on the shelves. Mine really likes the Seller & Belloit factory round with a 286 gr bullet. I also handload a bunch for it and mine groups really well with both Noslers and Woodleighs.

This caliber, while not known real well in America has a huge following in Europe and is one of the best all around calibers in Africa giving the 375 H&H a run for its money. The reason it isn't as well known is simply because it is German and in the heyday of African safari hunting the British controlled those areas so British calibers like the 375 H&H, 416 Rigby and the big doubles got all the press. The 9.3x62 was the rifle the local hunters used and they racked up a huge amount of game.

My wife bought me on for Christmas about 12 years ago and it has become one of my favorite rifles. I rarely use my 375 &H anymore and I even leave my 7mm Mag in the rack a lot and grab the 9.3. It is one of those rounds that doesn't cause a lot of excessive damage or bloodshot in the meat. It just punches big holes and you can eat clear up to the bullet hole.

This doe fell to the 9.3 2 weeks ago here in TX.


If you're looking for a thumper, check out the 9.3x62.