The Exception: A No-Nonsense Sporting Rifle Collab from Sauer and Field Ethos

Doug Howlett

Every now and then a new firearm arrives on the seen that makes total sense.  That’s the case with the new limited-edition 9.3×62 collaboration between J.P. Sauer & Sohn and the crew at Field Ethos. They’re calling it The Exception, and if it follows true to what brands like Sauer and Field Ethos are all about, the name fits. This is a real man’s adventure rifle built to take a beating, go anywhere and handle just about anything wearing hooves, hair or horns.

The chambering alone tells you what this rifle is meant to do. The 9.3×62 has been putting down Africa’s toughest animals for more than a century, trusted by German farmers and settlers who didn’t have time for theory. They needed a cartridge that worked every single day. Plains game, buffalo, big-bodied trouble in the brush…the old German round handled it then, and it handles it now.

Sauer, which has been around since 1751 (let that history sink in for a sec), built this rifle on classic safari bones, then tightened every bolt for the realities of modern hard-use hunting. A grade 3 walnut stock gives it that timeless look, while the Sauer red safari pad and semi-weight barrel with a 19mm taper, iron sights and barrel-band sling stud keep it honest in the field. The checkered steel bolt knob is exactly the kind of detail you appreciate when your hands are wet, muddy or sweating as a buff bears down on you like Francis Macomber and you need to run the action with confidence. Toss in the Field Ethos-branded floorplate, and you’ve got a rifle that looks and feels as sharp as it shoots.

The crew at Field Ethos has collaborated with J.P. Sauer & Sohn to make The Exception an all-purpose big game rifle built for any adventure. Photo Courtesy of Field Ethos.

It’s the kind of gun you can drag across the globe without worrying whether it’ll hold up, even if your globe stretches no farther than the 200 acres you hunt. The rifle is built to punch above its weight when the shot finally presents itself. And at $2,699—a price that is an afterthought for a globe-trotting wealthy adventurer and an aspirational reality for the working sportsman—it stacks features you’d usually expect at twice the price. All sales of The Exception run exclusively through Rivers & Glen Trading Co.

And look, I just have to point out how the Field Ethos connection matters here. If you follow their work, you already know their mindset: no apologies, no soft edges, just the raw, adventurous life of men who chase challenge because it makes them feel alive. Honestly, for many of us here, it is the way life is meant to be lived. I’ve written for them myself and have been a fan from the start. If you haven’t checked out fieldethos.com or subscribed to the magazine, do yourself a favor and fix that now. It’s one of the few places left that still speaks the language of men (and yes, even some women) who live for unbridled adventure without asking for permission or insisting on a helmet and safety strap. (Hey, we’re working our way there, but for now, we have some constraints they don’t! So, seriously, check them out.)