The next step up

Salty,
The rest of Canada bein' semi-arid? Maybe the Loops & Medicine hat, but fer the rest....Naaaa. Ever been to Ont.,MB.,NFLD or Quebec? The north can be dry too, just in a different and colder way.:)
 
You need a 243.
Seriously, you 9.3 can kill everything in your list effectively, why bother to buy something big to hurt your shoulder? A 243 is accurate, flat, and shoulder friendly.
I have two 9.3, won't go anything up. Enough is enough!
 
Personally for your purposes the .375 H&H sounds nearly ideal, and offers more versatility than the 9.3 due to bullet selection and a little more horsepower. I've hunted the moose, the bear in both species, and the bison with it and zero shortcomings or complaints. Of course a .416 won't have any either, but you're really into expensive to feed and getting a bit more than is required at that point.
 
elker said:
You need a 243.
Seriously, you 9.3 can kill everything in your list effectively, why bother to buy something big to hurt your shoulder? A 243 is accurate, flat, and shoulder friendly.
I have two 9.3, won't go anything up. Enough is enough!
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.375 H&H is still downright gentle and a pussycat for most any experienced shooter, certainly not beyond the enough is enough threshold.
 
gunrunner8 said:
9.3x62....375H&H....458WM....boring....
404 Jeffery on the other hand....COOL!
No other serious caliber feeds as smoothly into chamber, allows you faster follow up shot and has better hunting record.
It might be overkill here in NA but not to much against the biggest of game like moose, grizly or bison.
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No my Friend, the 404 is not overkill.... and you are 100 % correct in what you say about it.
I will never be without mine !!
 
.308 seems out of step with the rest of your selections....
A 6.5x55 would seem like a more natural fit (all European cartridges).
As for bigger why make a small leap? Cause in a year or two you'll want a bigger one...
This happens with everything...boats, trailers, guns, engines, etc...
 
Nechako said:
Obviously care is required and I do take very good care of my firearms, but I don't enjoy beating up my old BRNOs and M98 so I would like an all weather big bore.
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I won't begrudge you wanting a more weather-proof rifle, but another thing that lots of people overlook is that not everything in a stainless rifle is stainless. As with one of the C8s at work, three weeks in a car trunk without coming out to play revealed some very unsightly ferrous oxide patches growing on the purportedly "low maintenance" rifle. Nothing 5 minutes with a rag and some G96 couldn't cure but yet another gentle reminder that you can't take things for granted.

On the other hand, the old man hunted for several years around Granisle with a rust-blued custom BSA with a highly figured walnut stuck. Never had an issue and the rifle is still a classic beauty to this day, some 50 years later.
 
There isn't enough difference in the terminal performance on game between the 9.3X62 and the .375 H&H that the .375 could be considered an upgrade; in fact given the time it takes to recover from the additional recoil, and the necessity of a physically larger, heavier rifle, it could be considered a disadvantage. So the choice then is to choose a high speed .375 like an Ultra or a .378, or go bigger, to which the .416 bores are the next natural progression. Frankly, I think I'd jump right to a .458 bore rifle, since the 9.3X62 covers the medium role pretty well, with bullet weights up to 325 grs. But if I was to purchase another .45 caliber rifle, it would not be a .458, neither a Winchester or a Lott. I would have the rifle chambered for either a .458 Ultra, or a .460 Weatherby. C-FBMI, IIRC, made up a few rounds of .458 Ruger, but I don't recall if he built a rifle to fire them in. My logic in all of this is less towards improved performance, although performance of the larger rounds are faster if you care to load them that way, but more importantly, a bottle neck cartridge cycles better than a straight wall cartridge in a bolt action rifle. Now I had an old Whitworth Mauser that fed .458s without a hiccup, but my M-70 has an issue in that the rim of the extracted cartridge catches the case mouth of the top round in the magazine, sometimes stopping the rearward progression of the bolt and making a burr on the case mouth. Crimping only solves the problem if the bullet has a deep crimping groove, like a TSX, an A-Frame, or a cast bullet, but if your jacketed bullet has a knurled cannelure, it doesn't allow the case mouth to form tightly enough to the bullet to avoid catching the rim of an extracted round. If the cartridge is bottle necked, at worse the rim of the extracted cartridge will touch the shoulder of the top round in the magazine, and will cause no functioning problems. The downside of a bottle neck cartridge is that you will need a drop box magazine to maintain the same number of rounds as a .458 will hold.
 
You need to buy "smaller" not "bigger". I suggest a couple lightweight sporters in 223 and 243 or 250Savage or 257Roberts

Your 9.3 will do anything you will ever need for moose and bear.
 
U
Boomer said:
There isn't enough difference in the terminal performance on game between the 9.3X62 and the .375 H&H that the .375 could be considered an upgrade; in fact given the time it takes to recover from the additional recoil, and the necessity of a physically larger, heavier rifle, it could be considered a disadvantage. So the choice then is to choose a high speed .375 like an Ultra or a .378, or go bigger, to which the .416 bores are the next natural progression. Frankly, I think I'd jump right to a .458 bore rifle, since the 9.3X62 covers the medium role pretty well, with bullet weights up to 325 grs. But if I was to purchase another .45 caliber rifle, it would not be a .458, neither a Winchester or a Lott. I would have the rifle chambered for either a .458 Ultra, or a .460 Weatherby. C-FBMI, IIRC, made up a few rounds of .458 Ruger, but I don't recall if he built a rifle to fire them in. My logic in all of this is less towards improved performance, although performance of the larger rounds are faster if you care to load them that way, but more importantly, a bottle neck cartridge cycles better than a straight wall cartridge in a bolt action rifle. Now I had an old Whitworth Mauser that fed .458s without a hiccup, but my M-70 has an issue in that the rim of the extracted cartridge catches the case mouth of the top round in the magazine, sometimes stopping the rearward progression of the bolt and making a burr on the case mouth. Crimping only solves the problem if the bullet has a deep crimping groove, like a TSX, an A-Frame, or a cast bullet, but if your jacketed bullet has a knurled cannelure, it doesn't allow the case mouth to form tightly enough to the bullet to avoid catching the rim of an extracted round. If the cartridge is bottle necked, at worse the rim of the extracted cartridge will touch the shoulder of the top round in the magazine, and will cause no functioning problems. The downside of a bottle neck cartridge is that you will need a drop box magazine to maintain the same number of rounds as a .458 will hold.
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Boomer could this be because of a magazine spring that is a tad too stiff? Just spit balling here as a month ago a friend of mine bought a model 70 safari express in 458wm and his feeds flawlessly. My 550 also feeds flawlessly.

There definitely isn't much of a need to buy anything bigger than a 9.3 but it's definitely a lot of fun and I highly recommend it. For me the 458 was such a natural choice because I already had a couple 45-70's so in turn had a whack of .458 bullets already to play with. Now I have a 38-55 so naturally I now need a 375 H&H ;)
 
SuperCub said:
You need to buy "smaller" not "bigger". I suggest a couple lightweight sporters in 223 and 243 or 250Savage or 257Roberts
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Deer are the smallest animals I hunt and my 21H is perfect for them. Range plinking is covered by the .308 and .22lr.


As others suggested, I have been looking at the .458 options .416 Rem components seem readily available and there is a nice looking rifle for sale.
 
Nechako said:
Deer are the smallest animals I hunt and my 21H is perfect for them. Range plinking is covered by the .308 and .22lr.


As others suggested, I have been looking at the .458 options .416 Rem components seem readily available and there is a nice looking rifle for sale.
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There is never a shortage of big bores for sale... for "most" big bores are a romantic idea... as in life, the romance can be shattered by the jarring reality.
 
Boomer said:
... Now I had an old Whitworth Mauser that fed .458s without a hiccup, but my M-70 has an issue in that the rim of the extracted cartridge catches the case mouth of the top round in the magazine, sometimes stopping the rearward progression of the bolt and making a burr on the case mouth. Crimping only solves the problem if the bullet has a deep crimping groove, like a TSX, an A-Frame, or a cast bullet, but if your jacketed bullet has a knurled cannelure, it doesn't allow the case mouth to form tightly enough to the bullet to avoid catching the rim of an extracted round.
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This sounds like a rifle issue to me, not a cartridge issue. The rim of the cartridge shouldn't be able to drop below the bolt face. Without having the rifle in hand to diagnose the problem, my best guess would be the bolt face was cut slightly too large, preventing a proper grip of the cartridge rim. If you feed a standard rim cartridge through a rifle with a magnum bolt face (crf), you will see an exaggerated example of what I'm talking about.

I wouldn't be put off buying a .458 Win. because of a problem with a single rifle.
 
SHELL SHUCKER said:
Salty,
The rest of Canada bein' semi-arid? Maybe the Loops & Medicine hat, but fer the rest....Naaaa. Ever been to Ont.,MB.,NFLD or Quebec? The north can be dry too, just in a different and colder way.:)
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Yeah ya got me there SS I was a little loose with my terminology semi arid is like you say a step or two from a desert. Let's just say most of Canada is 'dry' or doesn't rain most days. And I'd include most snowy days as 'dry' too as far as moisture hanging on a rifle goes.. doesn't happen when its freezing by a few degrees precip or not.
 
9.3mauser said:
This sounds like a rifle issue to me, not a cartridge issue. The rim of the cartridge shouldn't be able to drop below the bolt face. Without having the rifle in hand to diagnose the problem, my best guess would be the bolt face was cut slightly too large, preventing a proper grip of the cartridge rim. If you feed a standard rim cartridge through a rifle with a magnum bolt face (crf), you will see an exaggerated example of what I'm talking about.

I wouldn't be put off buying a .458 Win. because of a problem with a single rifle.
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After reading your post I began a quick rebuff, but then I reconsidered and took the rifle out to examine as closely as I could what was going on. I think you're correct, I have a rifle issue rather than a cartridge issue. First off, the bolt diameter is larger than the cartridge diameter, so there is no way the rim of the cartridge can contact the mouth of the case, so something else is catching the case mouth of the top round in the magazine. Secondly, the rounds I have on hand are handloads with 500 gr Hornadys, that are crimped. Despite what I wrote previously concerning the rim catching a case mouth crimped to a knurled cannelure, I could not make the rim catch the case mouth when I pushed the rim along the bullet towards the base of the cartridge, with both cartridges held in my hands, so apparently I missed the boat there too. In fact, I was unable to recreate the issue that occurred the last few times I used this rifle, and at the time I got frustrated with it and went back to my .375 Ultra. I have no idea what was catching the case mouths, there appears to be no issue with the machining of the bolt, but I'll have to take it out and do some shooting to once and for all determine the cause. Thanks for waking me up.
 
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