[Daryl S]

Interesting test, LeeSpeed. I, on the other hand tend to favour penetration with less expansion so might give the 270 Speers a whirl in the new 9.3 when it arrives.
; As to the 220 gr. Hornady, I've shot them into moose from my M94 Winchester, started at the lowly velocity of 1,940fps. Although I can drive them at 2,200fps form the 20? carbine's barrel, the lighter load did the job well. The first bull took off running like a horse out of the starting gate and dropped in 1-1/2 steps and the second bull made 4 walking steps and dropped. Both bullets were underneath the off side hide , holding 85% and 90% weight with perfect, classic expansion. On the first moose, I had driven it through the on-side shoulder's heavy blade - no problem.
: I suspect it will be a great deer and even moose bullet in the 9.3 if not driven too fast for it's construction. Another that might work on deer, antelope or other light game is the 225gr. .375" Hornady Spire Point, if swaged down. Should make a good 300 yard deer bullet - of course, the 235gr. already is.
Daryl

 

[Daryl S]

Well, I've got my sizer dies ordered from Lee, a .367" and a .370". I susepct some time in the future I'll be ordering a necking reamer from Pacific - or maybe just a chucking reamer in the correct size to open up the neck of the chamber.
: I checked the headspace on my M46 Husky 9.3x57 chamber last night and found I needed to move the shoulder foreward some .030". had I used FL sized brass, it would have stretched badly, ahead of the web and failed prematurely.
: This was easily done by expanding the brass to .375", then sizing them only until there was stiff resistance in closing the bolt. The resulting 'false' shoulder worked well. Too, when I fireform under these conditions, I seat the bullet to engage the lands and use a moderate load for FForming.
; I have a feeling the 235gr. Speer will be a good all-round bullet for the 9.3x57. It's a bit tougher than the 220gr. flat nose, that worked so well on big BC moose from my model 94 carbine. Theother bulelt that might work, after sizing down, will be the newer 225gr. Hornady Spire point. At around 2,450fps, it should make a very good deer bullet for out to 300 yards, even better, perhaps than the 235gr. Speer.
; Too bad Speer stopped production of the 250gr Spitzers back in the 70's. If you got them moving, they were quite accurate in the 9.3x62.
; Being able to access the wide range of .375" bullets, swaged down, will help with the poor bullet availability up here in the bush. The RCBS 250gr. cast might allow sizing down as well. I've had good luck reducing .459's to .451" for a heavy bullet .45 Colt load, so dropping the .376" cast only .006" down to .370" might work just fine. The rifle's deep rifling may be a winner with cast. I've driven that .376" bullet from my .375H&H up to 2,800fps using LBT Blue lube with heat treated WW's without leading an 1-1/2" accuracy.
; Increasing the chamber's neck diamter to allow seating .370" to .371" bullets will allow using the same bullet sizing die for jacketed as well as cast bullets. Undersize cast bullets only shoot well if paper patched and shot with black powder loads, something not quite suitable for the 9.3mm bore and case.(possible, just not suitable)
; Glad I was directed to this site.

 

[Daryl S]

A chucking reamer has to be run in a lathe to get it straight, however a necking or neck/throater reamer has a pilot and can be hand turned into the chamber - very easily. You don't even have to take the barrel off the action, whereas with lathe-work, this would be necessary.
; Pacific has the requisite neck and neck throater reamer or makes them up as needed. They have pilots as I mentioned so are self centering. This is pretty easy stuff. If you can thread a hole, you can open up the neck of your chamber.
; You merely order the size you want. Normally we don't want to change the geneous throats already in the chamber, so a necking reamer is all that's necessary. On the other hand, if a neck/throater is ordered with say, a 1/10" leade, it won't touch the throat already there, only the neck. That way, in the future, if you run, for expample, a .30/06, .270 or .280 Ack IMP reamer into a spare 9.3x57, with a .357" or .358" pilot to fit the lands of course, you can use your 'old' neck throater to make the new neck and throat and end up with a 9.3x63 with a 40 degree shoulder, all the rest just about identical to the 9.3x62.
: This is how I chambered the first 9.5x68 on the 8x68 case. I used a 6.5x68 reamer, bushed to fit a .375 barrel (my old .375/06IMP), then used a neck throater to cut the neck and throat. What we ended up with, was a 2,900fps with 270gr. ctg. when using RWS brass. This was back around 1985 or so. Keith, my buddy who bought that rifle from me, had RCBS (Huntington's) make up the first set of dies for that round. It was a good one.
; At the time I did this, I didn't have a lathe or access to one. The chambering was all hand work - calluses and blisters and all- yet I ended up with perfect chambers.

 

[Daryl S]

www.pacifictoolandgauge.com should work. Dave Kiff is the proprieter. I've bought 1/2 dozen or so reamers from him and they're excellent in workmanship and service.
; Forgot to mention, you'll need the extender with "T" handle for working on a barreled action. Go slow and clear chips. I use a lot of WD 40 when I do any hand work for flushing, then push a jagged patch through to push out chips. Merely enlarging the neck takes little pressure so go carefully and measure your progress. This is easy stuff.

 

[Daryl S]

In reflecting on the discussion about buckshot in the other forum, LeeSpeed, I wonder how many jugs and boards they'd do at 25 yards.
: In looking over this data again, rest assured I surely do appreciate your work and dedication to this 'end'. I am thinking primarily with guiding and moose hunting in mind, the standard 270gr. Speer is looking mighty good as an all-round bullet. I expect to run it out at about 2,250fps - at least 2,200fps anyway.
: I've loaded up a few 300gr. swaged .375's for testing next time out- dont'know when that will be though- geting cortizone shot tomorrow and will be 'down' for a week I guess. Whacked me pretty hard last time.