Thread: 9.3 cast bullets

Thus is an old post from cast boolits website

Also called the 360 nitro, a popular calibre in the Husquvarna single shot and combination guns. I recently acquired one in a Husky 16x9.3 cape gun. It came with dies and was acquired cheap and came with dies. The owner gave up on it as he said there was no where to get brass.

I checked with Buffalo arms and they had the 9.3x 74 brass which could have been cut down for $80 a box of 20. Gunbroker had some Bertram brass for $200 a box. All way to dear for my budget. But since this is a metric 38-55 I thought I would give it a try.

Starline brass in 38-55 is 2.130 untrimmed from the factory. The 9.3 brass is suppose to be 2.250. This is just abouot like shooting 38 special in a 357 so I thought I would give it a try. I made a sizeing die that would squeeze some undersize .374 bullet down to 369 as the bore is 368 with a fairly tight chamber. I resized the 38-55 cases in the C and H die and they came out just over .1 short for the chamber as cast with cerrosafe. I seated the 250 grain bullets over 10 grains of Trail Boss for the first load. They shot just fine with just a little swelling at the base of the case, less than you get shooting factory 303's in a military rifle. The bullets are stable in the rifling and are about 4" to the left with the sights at the factory setting. I was so happy I ordered a mould from Mountain Moulds for the rifle and wills see if a dedicated mould will do any better.

On a hunch I seated some Lee 365 bullets for the Makarov over 5 grains of trail Boss and they shoot dead on at 20 yards with the third sight flipped up. A rabbit load too,same as the original!

I will post more as I work up a hunting load. The 240 grain bullet I have coming should be good for 1700-1800 fps or about the same as a 38-55.