9.3 bolt action & cast boolits

[Brother_Love]

I have been looking at some 9.3 sporting mausers for sometime now. They are available in 9.3 x 57 and 9.3 x 62. I can get brass and dies for both. Ammo is available for both with the 62mm being a lot more costly.

What I am interested in is a cast bullet for one of those rifles. I know that there is not a mold made now for them but there were some molds made earlier. I have found that these are almost impossible to get hold of. Anyone know of a 9.3 mold option available today at a reasonable cost? I would like to have one of these fine rifles if I could shoot cast bullets through it.

Regards, Malcolm

[frank505]

we have been shooting a 9.3x57 with excellent results(6 cow elk and 9 antelope) with a Mountain Mold 270 grain gas check flat nose. Barrel slugs at .366, but be advised, a friend just bought from Cabelas that slugs .370 which is ok, just size down 376 bullets.

[Crooked Creek]

A friend of mine recently bought a 9.3 x 57 Husky from Cabela's. Story is they (Cabela's) bought several thousand from the Swiss government. His is in excellent condition and he talked them down to $525 (from the asking price of $599) I saw about 10-12 more at the same store (but he got the best of the lot by far) from $499 to $599 asking. A few were 8 x 57's, but most were 9.3 x 57's. I would think the smaller case of the 57 is better if you are intending to focus on cast bullets. You are correct that molds would be a custom venture, but there is an alternative. We have discussed taking .375 cast bullets down through a series (maybe two to three, maybe one will work fine) of "Lee type" push through dies to around
.367"-.369" to get around the mold availability problem. I've taken .458 bullets (.459"-.460" as cast) down to .451" in a single pass through a Lee pass through die with excellent results and not a great deal of "felt" pressure/force on an RCBS Rockchucker press. I applied a little Imperial wax to the bullet first. I tried the same thing using a Lyman 450 sizer with the correct for bullet nose punch with unacceptable results. The nose was distorted and the sizing marks were lopsided (off-centered) and it took considerable pressure with the lower mechanical advantage 450 press. The bullets from the pass through die looked great...perfect (untouched) nose, square base, and even sizing marks all around. If you have access to machinery, pass through dies are not all that difficult to make or, you could hone out a Lee die for .35 cal. starting at about .359"-.360". You might want to consider this approach. If you can get the 9.3 x 57 in good shape at a reasonable price, I'd go that route over the 9.3 x 62.
Best of luck on your venture,
Roger Allen

[stuffy]

Try http://www.castbulletengineering.big...com/custom.htm the site is a little confusing it is organised by introduction date then calibre but he does ship to the internationally and has a large range
Cheers

[vincewarde]

Ammosmith shoots cast squib loads..... out of a 9.3x57 (or 9.3x63) - he covers it in one of his videos. He might be able to help you. http://www.ammosmith.com

[Ben]

Brother_Love :

Deputy AL is the " resident authority " on the 9.3. He is very knowledgeable about the 9.3 and cast bullets.

Maybe he will read all this and offer some input.

Ben

[Nelsdou44]

The 9.3x57 Huskys are good cast shooters, just be aware of some variance in dimensions. I have one the chamber is slightly long so I have to form the brass accordingly. I am on the hunt too for a 9.3 mould; see the group buy section and bump up the interest in getting a group buy going. I've been buying and shooting the .367 Mt Baldy bullets with good accuracy. Flat meplat and 270 grains.

Nels