9,3 × 62 Cartridge: Efficient and rational products can be set aside for commercial issues often linked to nationalisms, but are fatally rediscovered when their functionality becomes specific to a particular sector.
di Emmanuel Tabasso
Beginning of the twentieth century, we free ourselves from the nineteenth century and we enter 1900: for some decades the French discovery of smoky powder has given way to specific studies for cartridges animated by this propellant with much more functional qualities than the old black powder . These are the times when the European wars and, pardon the appearance, hunting in the colonies, at least for those who have them, act as an irrepressible push for ballistics studies. The British are masters of an enormous percentage of the world, the one with the highest income obviously, and have become protagonists of a historical development in rifles and cartridges: the concept of the slow and heavy bullet dominates for the heavy and dangerous game of Africa and India. , together, and it should be emphasized, with conspicuous doses of energy, lethality and respect for the shooter: dropping prey and hunter at the same time would highlight an erroneous project.
In the express calibers the sons from across the Channel are masters of the situation, but in the rifle cartridges the Germans briskly trim down their competitors, even if their colonial territories are decidedly inferior. In the studies, the subjects of the Kaiser add up the needs of these areas, together with the much more congenial and practicable ones of old continental Europe, with repeating rifles: the Mauser K98 movement has begun to show the world how to contain high pressures with two, or rather three small steel prisms. The cartridge we are examining was born at the dawn of the century, around 1905, by the Berlin technician Otto Bock who identifies in the diameter of 9,3 mm, already widely used in Germany, the appropriate size for large deer, elk of Prussian territories, the most handsome African antelopes and also dangerous elements such as large cats, leopards or lions, buffaloes and even pachyderms. The cartridge already benefits from the evolution of smoky powder and the arrival of tapered bullets, enjoying considerable success starting from colonies such as South West Africa, placing itself almost in parallel with the .375 of Holland & Holland, a little less powerful, but equally dignified in her work. To reach and surpass the fantastic English one, another 9,3 mm will arrive after a few years, the one designed by Wilhelm Brenneke with its classic case length of 64 mm. Returning to Bock's creature and its carving out an important slice of the market, we must note how balanced performance, a more than tolerable recoil, appreciable energy and vulnerable capacity often combined in those years with the ability of industry and craftsmanship to provide excellent rifles so chambered at prices that today we would define popular. The monetary topic is always interesting and so cartridges and rifles spread quickly.
Cartridge 9,3 × 62: Some data and today's use
We have taken some data from the charge of the Bows arrived on the market not long ago identifying how, even in a short barrel of only 51 cm, the performance remains very respectable: the Soft Point Bonded bullet, therefore with a soft tip and jacket welded to the inner core, from 286 gr (18,5 g) achieves an average V / 2 equal to 701 m / sec with SD of 9 m / sec and E / 2 of 463,3 kgm, an appropriate entity in order not to generate an annoying recoil while maintaining guaranteed damaging capabilities; these then the further values in kgm with E / 50 of 415, E / 100 of 383, E / 200 of 328. A comparison with the other three German 9,3 mm cartridges remaining in the breach would see the forerunner in contention, calm 9,3x72R, sister of five other same diameters differentiated by the length of the conical cylinder case which ranged from 48 to 82 mm: this one is the only one still in RWS production and allows you to experiment above all mixed shotguns of the time with considerable satisfaction. Brenneke's 9,3 × 64, already cited, is of much greater caliber, a little tiring due to the not exactly light recoil, but with energy (reaches 640 kgm) and grazing to sell thanks to the increased size of the case and the proportional content. of dust. Yields similar to the 9,3 × 62 are returned with the 9,3x74R, thanks to the collar suitable for overhead doors and, again, still on the scene.
From what has been reported, it is easy to understand how the charge developed by Otto Bock proved to be very suitable for the rifled semiautomatics of current production and their preferred use. The shooting distance is on average within 100 meters, often below 50, therefore grazing is a secondary factor and the developed one is enough and advances even for longer shots; the energy developed within these sizes is numerically excellent (average between 460 and 490 kgm) with the advantage of the sectional density of the 9,3 mm bullets and weight from 15,0 to 18,5 g (232 - 286 gr ) which, in the soft-nosed types, yield a lot of energy, creating important and very harmful means; last but not least the moderate recoil thanks to a not too accentuated shoulder angle, just under 40 °, a not exasperated charge and to the shotgun kinematics for which the force develops in an extended time, without annoying peaks for the shoulder of the shooter and for the fletching of the barrel, therefore with easy return to aim. A rediscovery, therefore, that does justice to a long and undeserved oblivion and an application that today is truly fitting in the specific gun-making typology for the wild boar hunting.