8X56, my reccomendation to you is load both soft, and solids! Work up the load for the softs first. When you get a load with the softs that shoots to the regulation of your rifle, then drop the load by about 3 grs, and substitute the solid of the same weight! A good choice is Woodliegh 286 gr softs, and solids, they are designed to be used together! They are available from HDS!

The reason you need to drop 3 grs for the solids is, they build more chamber pressure than the same weight soft point. When useing a double rifle for Buffalo hunting, I load a soft in the right barrel, (bottom barrels on your O/U), and a solid in the left barrel, (top barrel in the O/U). The first shot on Buffalo, as a rule, is with the bull relaxed, so a soft placed in the heart/lung area is the ticket, followed by a solid in the shoulder. Reload the rifle with all solids there after! As you know, the 9.3X74R is light for Buffalo, and in some countries illegal. Haveing said that, I would not hesitate to take on Cape Buffalo, with my S/S double chambered for the little 9.3X74R, but bullet placement is something that one must consider! NITRO 450 No2 who posts on this site, and AR was well, can give you some real nice loads for that little jewel!