9.3 bullet for Moose

[Rifletuner]

Hi

I hope I have posted this question in the right forum.

I have had a box of Norma 231 grain bullets that were given to me by a friend many years ago. I have always used heavier bullets for hunting, like the 250gn and 286gn Woodleigh Weldcores. However I am waiting for my 9.3x66 to arrive, and want to develop a load that my son can shoot. I thought these bullets might be a good option as they are the lightest 9.3 bullet that I have available. So far a 308 Win is the biggest rifle he has fired, so I want to work him up gradually to the heavier recoil of a 9.3.

I was told these Norma bullets were used on Moose in Scandinavia. However I have no idea if this is actually true. If it is in face the case, I will use them on large deer that are bigger than Red Stag. Can anyone advise whether these bullets are actually suitable for the job?

[börje]

Is it the Vulcan bullet? In that case the will do the job.

[Laikamannen]

From the picture and the weight it has to be Norma Vulkan.

It is right that it is used in Scandinavia for moose, bears and wildboar. The bullet is a not bonded and of a soft construction so it expands very fast.

In slower versions of the 9,3 it is great. But at high speed the lead and the jacket tends to seperate.

If you keep your loads low in the 66 it might work. I tried it for moose at around 800m/s for some years ago. In my opinion thats the top or maybe even to fast.

But calm loads in deer is No problems.

[Raggarö]

Hi Rifletuner,

Just to rule things out: Have a look at the box, there should be one of these numbers (bar the xxxx, year of manufacture ?):

20193172 Vulkan (cup and core)

20193072 Oryx (bonded)

20193180 FMJ


Raggarö

[Rifletuner]

Ah, bingo. Its a Vulcan! So that should be worth a try for what I want to do. Since its to introduce my son who is about to turn 15 to more recoil than he gets from his 308 Win, I only intended to use lighter loads. So given what you guys have said, I think this should work well enough to start him off. Once he gets comfortable with the 9.3, then we can work up to a heavier load using a Woodleigh bonded core bullet.

Thanks for your help!

[Raggarö]

Please tell us how your son feel about the recoil, my son tried a couple of shots with my 9,3 x 74R at that age and quickly went back to plinking with the .308. Then again I did nothing to soften the recoil - he was served the 285 gr. Lapua Mega as I wanted him to shoot properly with the .308 before "upgrading".

Raggarö

[cmk]

Depending on where you are located (Oz?), you may get hold of even lighter bullets. Sellier-Bellot, a Czech manufacturer, makes a 193gr softnose. I believe it's intended for the 9.3x72R or possibly the 9.3x57. At 9.3x66 velocities it would probably explode on inpact ike a varmint bullet. But as a light practice bullet, why not?

Also, Impala Bullets (South Africa) make a 180gr solid in 9.3 calibre.

[norsk]

Not that you asked,but you do get 9,3 bullets as light as 154 grains.
https://lutzmoeller.net" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
I have zero experience with his bullets.
I think I have seen some even lighter from another manufacturerer,but I cannot remember who that was.

[TekDr]

I shot factory loaded 19,4gram Brenneke TUG from my grandfathers 9,3x62 when I was around 11-12 with no problems and my fathers 375 H&H with stout 300 grain loads when I was 14-15. No problem at all, just start standing up and ensure that you have enough eye-relief if you have a scope on the gun and any 15 year old can shoot quite large calibers.

Recoil, relax and enjoy


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[potatiskastare]

The 193gr S&B might be tricky to get to function in x66 since it needs low velocity also for accuracy. It 's never really accurate but when you increase velocity it becomes terrible.

Although I've never tried it, the 232gr Vulkan bullet that you have has a very good reputation. In other calibers different persons seem to have very different experiences with the Vulkan, but in 9,3mm I've heard only praise.

Another lighter bullet that has very good reputation is the 250gr TSX.

[Sigge]

[quote="Rifletuner"]Hi

I hope I have posted this question in the right forum.

I have had a box of Norma 231 grain bullets that were given to me by a friend many years ago. I have always used heavier bullets for hunting, like the 250gn and 286gn Woodleigh Weldcores. However I am waiting for my 9.3x66 to arrive, and want to develop a load that my son can shoot. I thought these bullets might be a good option as they are the lightest 9.3 bullet that I have available. So far a 308 Win is the biggest rifle he has fired, so I want to work him up gradually to the heavier recoil of a 9.3.

I was told these Norma bullets were used on Moose in Scandinavia. However I have no idea if this is actually true. If it is in face the case, I will use them on large deer that are bigger than Red Stag. Can anyone advise whether these bullets are actually suitable for the job?

Hi Rifletuner!
You have a box of excellent Norma Vulcan bullets! They will do the job for up to the biggest moose and wild boar- I have used it for many years here in Sweden!
For your information: Sellier&Bellot has a flatnose bullet/12.5 g in caliber 9.3 and this bullet will certainly reduce the recoil for your son!
My son, now 43, still remembers when he fired a heavy loaded 357 Magnum revolver at the age of 7
Best regards,
Sigge

[Rifletuner]

Thanks all for the comments & suggestions.

Yes, I am in Australia. We get S&B empty cases and also loaded ammo here. Not sure about component projectiles but I will see what I can find.

I will definitely start him off standing. He has also shot about 100 animals, so he understands the difference between practice where you tend to notice the recoil and actual hunting where you can barely remember the recoil.

Anyhow, after all the comments here, it looks like I am lucky to have the Vulcans as an option, and they should last us for a while as a hunting bullet.

[cmk]

Ok Rifletuner. Just beware of potential accuracy issues when drivingthe light S-B bullets at speed.

And to take that to an extreme, there are 95gr pistol bullets for the 9mm Makarov. They are a nominal .365", so they *should* work. But maybe not that well. And maybe they are harder to come by.

Or you could of course cast your own.


Btw - you could maybe shed some light on a thing that had me wondering a bit; how come an NT buffalo hunt is priced at $10.000+, when at the same time they are declared more or less a pest, and are subject to eradication programmes? Of course an outfitter/guide needs some cash for his/her work, but ideas about trophy fees seem a bit odd with that background.

[Rifletuner]

Hi Mate

Thanks for your loading thoughts.

To answer your question about buffalo, its a bit complicated. Its a number of factors. Several decades ago, the state government did an aerial culling program that shot out a large amount of the buffalo in the state. This was on most private land and public land such as national parks. However they didnt cull on Aboriginal land for essentially what I would call political reasons. So most of the surviving buffalo are either on aboriginal land, or on adjacent land that the buff have walked onto. So the outfitters that offer hunts either need to get access to aboriginal land, or the small amount of private land that actually has buff on it.

Also, there is a pretty strong market for Americans who come over here and dont think its too expensive. A lot of these are people that want to go hunt in Africa, but they are too scared to go over to Africa due to perceptions of risk of violence or disease, or both. So they come to Australia instead.

So its actually not easy to get access to hunting of buff here, where they do find them is very remote from civilisation so that pushes up the costs, and there is a fairly strong market for the animals. There are exceptions if you know someone on private land that will let you hunt there, but otherwise you are limited mainly to commercial operations.

[cmk]

Thank you for that information Rifletuner.

This was the topic of a discussion on another forum, where some aussies were a bit perplexed that it was actually cheaper for them to fly to Africa and hunt buff, than doing so in their own country. I think that this was referrng to government owned land.

Also they thought it a bit unfair that NT residents might get off cheaper for hunting buffalo, whereas anyone could hunt deer (for free) in ..eehm.. Victoria? NSW? Well down south anyway.

I might have misunderstood some of the finer points on state/national legal situation.

Sorry for steering this off-topic.

[Matti]

There also is Norma Oryx 231 grains to put into the equation. A bonded bullet a bit more tough than Vulcan. But not as sturdy as Woodleighs bonded bullets though.

[Rifletuner]

There also is Norma Oryx 231 grains to put into the equation. A bonded bullet a bit more tough than Vulcan. But not as sturdy as Woodleighs bonded bullets though.

Thanks for the suggestion. I will see if the Oryx is available here. It would be good because the lighter weight would be nice option to have. Although I think once he is used to the 231 Vulcan, I should be able to step him up to the 250gn Woodleigh.

[Rifletuner]

Thank you for that information Rifletuner.

This was the topic of a discussion on another forum, where some aussies were a bit perplexed that it was actually cheaper for them to fly to Africa and hunt buff, than doing so in their own country. I think that this was referrng to government owned land.

Also they thought it a bit unfair that NT residents might get off cheaper for hunting buffalo, whereas anyone could hunt deer (for free) in ..eehm.. Victoria? NSW? Well down south anyway.

I might have misunderstood some of the finer points on state/national legal situation.

Sorry for steering this off-topic.

The off topic doesnt bother me. Hopefully everyone else here will cope too.

For many years, there has only been public land access for hunting in one state of Australia and that is Victoria (where I live). so anyone can com to Vic, buy a licence, and go hunt a very large amount of public land for deer. I mean a section of huntable public land that is probably equal to a about a quarter of Sweden's land mass. In the last 10 or so years, NSW has introduced some very limited hunting on public land, but aside from that there is no other public land hunting available in Australia. Its a state government issue, and is definitively frustrating. But I dont see it changing any time soon.

[haku]

Woodleigh has a bullet, (47D), at 232 gr it's a PP SN. Should be like Oryx in performance.

[Rifletuner]

Thanks for the heads-up. As an Australian, I am ashamed to say that I didnt know they had bought a bullet this light. I will see if I can find any locally because they should be more available and better priced than any other bullet of equal quality.