9.3×62mm

The 9.3×62mm is a rimless bottleneck rifle cartridge the German gunmaker Otto Bock designed in 1905 specifically to fit the standard-length Mauser 98 bolt action without lengthening its magazine, since a cartridge under 84mm overall would work in an unmodified receiver. It was never a military cartridge in its own right, which mattered more than it might sound: colonial authorities in parts of Africa restricted military-calibre rifles and ammunition out of concern over armed rebellion, but the 9.3×62mm fell outside that restriction while chambered in the same inexpensive, reliable Mauser actions military rifles used, and it spread quickly among European hunters and settlers as a result.

Its original loading pushed an 18.5-gram bullet at roughly 655 m/s; after the First World War, several makers raised velocities to around 730 m/s using lighter bullets, and both older and newer loadings remain available today, meaning a rifle sighted for one may not shoot to the same point of aim with the other. A related rimmed cartridge, the 9.3×74mmR, evolved separately from an earlier black-powder round and reaches similar energy levels from a longer, lower-pressure case, but the two are not derived from one another despite the shared bullet diameter.

All dimensional and pressure figures on this page come from C.I.P.’s own published standard and are recorded as verified. Three published Norma loads and their velocities are recorded as estimated: Wikipedia attributes them to Norma without linking a specific product page, so they are not independently verified against the manufacturer’s own current listing.