Sorry....this turned out to be longer reply than intended. Hopefully it makes sense:
I have a CZ550 FS and shoot 285/286gr bullets (usually Norma Oryx but also S&B, Remington SP and Prvi Partizan). They all seem to shoot well out of the relatively short barrel but I would not want to be pressed to shoot past 200 with it. More due to rainbow-like ballistics than anything else. I guess I suck at judging inches at estimated distances on unknown sized animals. Even at known distances, I would prefer a scope that has couple of bullet drop points/dots or hash marks in order to know where bullet hits at 150 and 200, etc. I found the 2-7x33 VX2 Leupold scope I had with 2 dots, would max out at about 200m. Sighted dead on at 100, the first dot was 140, the second 170 I think. The thick part of the post was 200 and a bit. I sight mine at 100 as I also shoot at 70m or so. Even closer sometimes (had a small buck at 30m). At 30, being 1.5" low is no biggie but at 70m it is actually shooting high and then comes down again to dead on at 100. So knowing where it hits is the main thing. This may seem like something everybody knows but I really struggled with it in Africa when the ranges changed quickly from 170 to 200m and beyond. Also at 200, even at full magnification the deer here was kind of small in the scope already. So while I believe one can easily shoot and kill with it at 300 or beyond, especially when sighted say 2" high at 100m, I still would consider this caliber more of a closer range affair. At least out of my 20" barrel and mainly with me behind the trigger. Anybody can hit a gong at known distance with any caliber if you are sighted in at one distance a know the ballistics and then dial in for the given distance but when hunting, I do not seem to be able to click my scope up or down, so having "BDC reticle" type of scope or flatter shooting cartridge seems to work better for me then.
As to penetration or killing power of the 9.3, I would not worry much. I find it overpenetrating on small, soft-skinned game, shooting through 2 hearts of 2 different animals leaving only a finger sized hole in the heart and the animal running or bucking wildly (bucking is preferred
). If you hit anything more solid or a heavier animal, the results seem impressive.
I shot a boar, impala, oryx, waterbuck, wildebeast and 3 whitetails so far since I bought it in 2012 or 2013. Getting to know the ballistics of this cartridge in my rifle was the biggest challenge but can be done easily and should be done with any rifle and cartridge one is not familiar with anyway. Unfortunately I was not familiar with either and did not have opportunity to learn more until my first African hunting trip and it put a bit of a damper on it. I feel better about the rifle/caliber choice now but I'm still going to try a flatter shooting rig for hunting this year. Yet I absolutely love the rifle and cartridge and it is the first one I grab when hunting starts. So there...the flatter ones I may try because I already have them but who knows if it means I will hunt with them.
www.africahunting.com
