I had thread on the old forum about this gun so some of you may remember this gun and maybe some details from that thread, however for the benefit of newcomers I will try to give a recap of this project.
I picked up this rifle on auction from a local gun shop, I had wanted one ever since I heard about the cartridge and I thought this was my chance.
First thing I did was install a hidden steel block behind the recoil lug, bedded that in with JB weld, a previous owner had repaired a tiny crack at the tang and installed a steel tube for the tang bolt, so all I did there was relieve some wood and bed the tang with JB’s.
At first I couldn’t find dies for it as Hornady was working on mainstream stuff and Lee had their custom shop closed at that point so I turned to making my own. I have a little taig micro lathe and not much skills with it but managed to make some chunks of steel that turn R-P 30-06 brass into 9.3x57mm with a fireform step to blow out the neck. Made me up a nice batch of 50 some pieces and they looked great , big mouth tiny shoulders they just look cool
@joe16 pointed me to a .358 win FCD which works a treat when combined with a custom made thick washer that I hand filed to the correct thickness so that the crimp landed right on the case mouth.
I tried shooting some 300 gr DGS to help iron out the cases after fire forming which worked well. Ran them over imr3031 for 1600 fps, mild load. Saw some funny marks on the case neck though, and hard to open bolt(more on this later). Went to check the target and found a nice 2-3moa group of oblong holes! Shot from sitting off of cross sticks. Sold the remaining bullets.
Checked my twist rate and found it to be 1-14.25” which after searching the web a little seems to be normal for all Husqvarna 9.3’s whether 57mm or 62mm. Running those 300 grainers through a stability calculator (can’t remember which one I think it was Berger cause theirs was the first one that came up in the search) revealed totally unstable, not even marginally stable.
The funny marks on the case I think are the result of a chip on the reamer when the chamber was cut. It was causing some sticky extraction and Joe16 gave me some ideas on how to polish it out. Which I did a little between each range trip and thought I had got it smooth but Oh NO!
Okay on to hammer bullets!
I am in Canada and shipping bullets straight from Montana is EXPENSIVE, so I went with the 258 gr SH that was in stock at George’s, the only Canadian distributor at the time. Put them in my lathe and shortened some to the bottom pdr groove, they now weigh 214 gr and they will now stabilize in my twist, wouldn’t have before.
Loaded one over 35 gr of imr3031 for 1757 fps hoping to test the low impact velocity, didn’t catch the bullet .
Had some more loads along!
These were loaded over H4895
46.5gr 2215 fps
47.5gr 2275 fps
These were shot into stumps and through the chrono all at close range found one with a petal still attached and the other is still sailing, I think it may have lost all its petals and therefore didn’t get slowed down as much.
48.5gr no velocity because we put it through a water jug about 12” before the stump and didn’t want to douse the chronograph. It kept all its petals. It looks like a Barnes. Not sure why. This case got stuck in the chamber and today, over half a year later due to life and a move, I finally got it knocked out of the chamber.
I will attach a couple of photos of the bullets I caught and the case I removed from the chamber so you can see the funny marks I’m talking about.
I have some ideas on how to proceed but it’s getting late and I need to work tomorrow so I’ll sleep on it and continue this thread tomorrow.
I picked up this rifle on auction from a local gun shop, I had wanted one ever since I heard about the cartridge and I thought this was my chance.
First thing I did was install a hidden steel block behind the recoil lug, bedded that in with JB weld, a previous owner had repaired a tiny crack at the tang and installed a steel tube for the tang bolt, so all I did there was relieve some wood and bed the tang with JB’s.
At first I couldn’t find dies for it as Hornady was working on mainstream stuff and Lee had their custom shop closed at that point so I turned to making my own. I have a little taig micro lathe and not much skills with it but managed to make some chunks of steel that turn R-P 30-06 brass into 9.3x57mm with a fireform step to blow out the neck. Made me up a nice batch of 50 some pieces and they looked great , big mouth tiny shoulders they just look cool
@joe16 pointed me to a .358 win FCD which works a treat when combined with a custom made thick washer that I hand filed to the correct thickness so that the crimp landed right on the case mouth.
I tried shooting some 300 gr DGS to help iron out the cases after fire forming which worked well. Ran them over imr3031 for 1600 fps, mild load. Saw some funny marks on the case neck though, and hard to open bolt(more on this later). Went to check the target and found a nice 2-3moa group of oblong holes! Shot from sitting off of cross sticks. Sold the remaining bullets.
Checked my twist rate and found it to be 1-14.25” which after searching the web a little seems to be normal for all Husqvarna 9.3’s whether 57mm or 62mm. Running those 300 grainers through a stability calculator (can’t remember which one I think it was Berger cause theirs was the first one that came up in the search) revealed totally unstable, not even marginally stable.
The funny marks on the case I think are the result of a chip on the reamer when the chamber was cut. It was causing some sticky extraction and Joe16 gave me some ideas on how to polish it out. Which I did a little between each range trip and thought I had got it smooth but Oh NO!
Okay on to hammer bullets!
I am in Canada and shipping bullets straight from Montana is EXPENSIVE, so I went with the 258 gr SH that was in stock at George’s, the only Canadian distributor at the time. Put them in my lathe and shortened some to the bottom pdr groove, they now weigh 214 gr and they will now stabilize in my twist, wouldn’t have before.
Loaded one over 35 gr of imr3031 for 1757 fps hoping to test the low impact velocity, didn’t catch the bullet .
Had some more loads along!
These were loaded over H4895
46.5gr 2215 fps
47.5gr 2275 fps
These were shot into stumps and through the chrono all at close range found one with a petal still attached and the other is still sailing, I think it may have lost all its petals and therefore didn’t get slowed down as much.
48.5gr no velocity because we put it through a water jug about 12” before the stump and didn’t want to douse the chronograph. It kept all its petals. It looks like a Barnes. Not sure why. This case got stuck in the chamber and today, over half a year later due to life and a move, I finally got it knocked out of the chamber.
I will attach a couple of photos of the bullets I caught and the case I removed from the chamber so you can see the funny marks I’m talking about.
I have some ideas on how to proceed but it’s getting late and I need to work tomorrow so I’ll sleep on it and continue this thread tomorrow.