First look at the Ruger African Safari 9.3x62

I got to see a couple of examples at my local gunshop yesterday and I was very impressed.

They are exactly the same configuration as the 375 Ruger African Safari - same dimensions, weight , excellent open sights with barrel band and a very smooth action with a crisp if slightly heavy trigger.

Ruger have gone back to the gloss bluing and it certainly looks better than the matt finish on the 375R, though its probably not as practical in the bush.

This is the first chambering of the 9.3 in an American factory rifle as far as I am aware.

All in all a very nice package for the money (1100 Aus dollars!).

I love Ruger guns...you can't go wrong with them! That being said what are you using the 9.3X62 for....if it's plains game, great. If it's your top gun and want to hunt cape buffalo you will be a little undergunned...not by much though.

Enysse

Plenty of Buff have been taken using the 9.3!

For me I would use one projectile only on Buff - the 286gn Barnes TSX. In my M98 i have it going comfortably at 2300 fps and I suspect it will fill the rolls of both a soft and a solid for most situations anyway!

The rest is shot placement!

Plenty of Buff have been taken using the 9.3!

I'm sure they have, I prefer a lighter big bore to a heavy big bore. But the facts are most of the places in Africa it's on the border of legal or illegal to hunt with for cape buffalo. Where the 375 H&H is legal everywhere. And most people will still say you are under gunned....I tend to disagree with that statement...Because shot placement is everything, and if you are using premium bullets you will be fine.

A few comments--I own a custom 9.3x62 built on a Persian Mauser 98 action by Somarriba and next to my Dakota .416 Rigby, it is my most prized bolt action rifle. Doctari Robertson avers that his ZKK 602 in 9.3 is his client rifle and between it's first owner and his ownership, has accounted for 650 buff. Or so his book, "Africa's Most Dangerous" claims.

Despite claims that a 9.3x62 is legal for all DG in Zim, only the 9.3 x 64 meets the 4,000 foot pounds of energy that Zim law requires for elephant and buff. The 9.3 x62 is legal for cats, but technically is illegal for elephant and buff. I have heard a well respected PH state that the 9.3 x 62 is woefully inadequate for elephant in the hands of most hunters.

If my PH would allow it (BTW, he won't), I wouldn't hesitate to use a 9.3x62 with a Barnes 286 solid or TSX for a first shot on buff. I would not, however, employ it in a followup on any wounded DG. It is just not enough of a stopper and I value my own skin too much to do so.

IMHO, Rugers are good working rifles, but hardly elegant ones. I'm glad to see they're chambering their African in 9.3. It is a fine all around bushveldt PG cartridge and a good cat caliber as well.

I saw a CZ 550 American in 9.3x62 in a gunshop today wearing a composite stock. With an action job and a trigger job, it stickered @ $1,062 and if I already didn't have one, I would have bought it on the spot.

In most places, the .375 H&H is the legal minimum for DG. Except for cats, it really is a minimum. Sure, other calibers will work. Last year, a dear friend was hunting Red Stag in Argentina and was charged by an Asian water buff, which he dropped at 25 yards with a 225 TSX from a .338 Winchester. It did the job, but he said if he had known a buff was coming to the party, he would have brought something more appropriate.

By now it is a cliche to say "use enough gun"
, but truer words were never spoken.

Good hunting!

Originally Posted by .416 Rigby

Despite claims that a 9.3x62 is legal for all DG in Zim, only the 9.3 x 64 meets the 4,000 foot pounds of energy that Zim law requires for elephant and buff.

I know that I am really late to the party and for that I apologize. However, I was just looking around at various threads talking about the 9,3x62 and noticed the above.

I don't believe this to necessarily be true. Unless my calculations are off, a standard 286 grain bullet traveling at 2510 feet per second is going to deliver 4000 foot pounds, at the muzzle. This is not very difficult to achieve. If you can nurse a little more speed out of the round, that energy figure will be achieved further and further out. Right?

We are talking here about a round with but a little bit more powder capacity than say a .35 Whelen, a .30-06 based round. It wont be easy to get over 2500 fps/286 out of a 9.3x62, it simply wont. Not saying it cannot be done but it will require a maximum load to do it and sometimes max aint the best way to go. I have taken a fair amount of game with one using 250 gr Noslers and Tripleshoks and feel it is a great round and is legal for DG in some places. I personally would prefer a .375 for buff, elephant, hippo and even lion or certainly rhino. For anything else including leopard, the 9.3 if fine. Its not that it wont do it, but its on the fringe of being a DG round.

65 grains of Big Game will kick you over 2500 out of a 24" barrel, with no pressure issues.

Is that a load you have personally chronographed or a book load? Most of the loading manuals print some pretty optimistic loads that dont hold up on the chrony. I have seen some pretty fantastic claims made for this round, most of them I dont believe. If you look at a later edition of Cartridges of the World you will see the editor say the same thing on about half the loads for this caliber. My 24" barreled CZ got about 2400fps with that bullet weight and I settled on a load that went 2350 and figured that was far enough. Its a great round that I love but I dont think its a marvel of modern science

To be honest, if you don't believe their claims, why would you believe mine?

I'm with you, as far as being quite satisfied with the slower load. It works and it is probably all that anyone needs, under most hunting conditions. However, if you are willing to push the bullets, you may safely do so. John Barsness' Big Game loads have become quite popular, because they are very accurate and easily achieved.

Even the reloading data on Real Guns lists several 4,000+ ft.lb loadings. Considering only bullet weights of 285+ grains:

Code:

Bullet            Weight    Powder    Charge    FPS    Ft/Lbs
Prvi SP         285    Re17     65.0     2565     4165
Prvi SP         285    H414     67.0     2550     4116
Prvi SP         285    BigGame    64.5     2535     4065
Hornady SP RP         286    Re17     63.5     2525     4049
North Fork Bonded Core     286    Re17     61.0     2510     4000
Woodleigh PP SN     320    Win 760    61.0     2385     4042
Norma Oryx         325    H414     62.0     2368     4046

I hope this helps!

So I guess the answer is no you havent actually chronoed the load. I suppose I may be all wet on its potential within safe limits but those loads go beyond where I want to go with it. It always amazes me when people try to make a magnum out of a non magnum. Those are going to be some heavily compressed loads!

Does it always always amaze you, or just sorta sometimes?

My loads chronograph at 2560 with a Prvi SP 285 (I'm cheap) and 65.0 grains of Big Game. But then, you don't believe that either, so what is the point? I'm not illustrating these loads to be confrontational, but to demonstrate the capabilities of the caliber. Magnum is a marketing term that sells rifles; nothing more. These are not overly compressed loads and there are hundreds of people out there shooting them to great effect.

OK, so I'm all wet.

Originally Posted by mlg

I got to see a couple of examples at my local gunshop yesterday and I was very impressed.

They are exactly the same configuration as the 375 Ruger African Safari - same dimensions, weight , excellent open sights with barrel band and a very smooth action with a crisp if slightly heavy trigger.

Ruger have gone back to the gloss bluing and it certainly looks better than the matt finish on the 375R, though its probably not as practical in the bush.

This is the first chambering of the 9.3 in an American factory rifle as far as I am aware.

All in all a very nice package for the money (1100 Aus dollars!).

Hi Mig,
I've had a Ruger African in 9.3 for a couple of months now and I love it. I've used Hornady brass and Hornady 286grn pills ahead of 64grns of AR2209. This fives a velocity of about 2340fps.
I found the recoil a bit stout, but it's been a while since I've used firearm, but I did have a LIMBSAVER recoil pad install and this helped a lot.
I put about 40 rounds down range last sunday and really enjoyed it, suffice to say that the target was safe, but with practice I should be able to hit anything out to 200 metres.
You'll probably find she has a bit of muzzle rise on recoil and thats because it's a light rifle compared to it's bigger brothers, but nothing but a bit of practice won't fix. I've topped mine off with a Vortex 1.75x5x32 scope which seems to be ideal for the range of the rifle.
Hope this helps Mate?

I myself would rather use a 338 win mag. for buffalo with the proper reloads. I am thinking of buying one of those rugers in either the Alaskan or African and it will be a 375 ruger. This round is getting more and more popular even in Africa PH's are using it and alot of Australians are buying it. Oh and alot of guns stores are sold out for this round and may take some time to get one

Originally Posted by lwaters

I myself would rather use a 338 win mag. for buffalo with the proper reloads. I am thinking of buying one of those rugers in either the Alaskan or African and it will be a 375 ruger. This round is getting more and more popular even in Africa PH's are using it and alot of Australians are buying it. Oh and alot of guns stores are sold out for this round and may take some time to get one

Hey, horses for courses. I don't intend to use the 9.3 on buff, I'm not that stupid. But if I was going to buy a bigger rifle it would definitely be a 375H&H. Thats just me. It really doesn't matter so long as you can put the bullet exactly where it should go and have total confidence in your own marksmanship and rifle. Having said that; opinions are like arseholes, everyones got one.

I love the 9.3x62... Light in recoil and pretty darn accurate. I have one in a Sauer 200. It is the first gun I took to Africa. First gun I packed for elk, Heck it just might be my fav all around gun!

Ed