7mm Rem Mag Brass

[Jud96]

I would probably use Nosler brass if I didn't have a surplus of other brass at my disposal. I have roughly 400 once fired Federal brass right now and 150 or so of 7-8 times fired. I keep getting more of this brass because my hunting buddies don't reload and only shoot Federal ammo. I used this brass in my 7mm, before the re-barrel, with good results. I was shooting a stout load of Retumbo with 180 VLD's at 2975fps. Accuracy was 3/4 - 1 MOA with this load, plenty accurate enough for a factory hunting rifle (Sendero SF-II). I never did any brass prep other than trim and resize. If I remember correctly, the cull on these was less than 5 or 6 pieces. When I do use this brass again, I'll take the time to do proper prep work and weight sort them.

After the re-barrel, I had 200 new Winchester brass that I had purchased earlier and decided to work up a load with. The WW brass is working out quite well but I did spend the time prepping this brass. As mentioned, the necks are not very consistent so I turned them all down to 0.012". I have not weight sorted them, yet. I'm running a fairly stout load in these as well with the 180's but with VV N570 powder this time getting 3050fps. I'm only on my 2nd firing of these so I don't yet know how much life I'll get from them. I'm seeing 1/2 MOA with this load but I attribute that more to the new barrel, not the brass or prep work.

Thank you for sharing. Sounds like the WW brass is working well in your rifle. I'm surprised that Federal brass held up as well as it did. I shoot Federal in my .243 because I bought 200 pieces for like $50 awhile ago. It only holds up to about 7 firings before the primer pockets get loose. So not terrible, but not what guys are getting with like Lapua or something of that quality. My Dad has decided to get some Norma brass, so I'll report back how it does.

 

[DUSTY NOGGIN]

most brass can be made into good brass . it just takes some specific tools and some labor

anneal , turning and flash holes

the norma is fairly inexpensive in 7mm .. he'll be happy with it .. id still debur flasholes from inside true up the necks on the norma youll probably find 6-8 of 100 that dont turn 100% at .014ish .. so no real need to turn in my opinion

 

[maximini14 223]

What powder are you using? That's good velocity!

Using IMR Enduron 7977
Start load 66.5 grs=2888 ave vel, 1.5"
Max load 70.5 grs= 3103 ave vel, 1/2"
This is out of a off the rack Browning Abolt with 26" barrel I bought used!
I sorted the eldx bullets first by weight and then by length to get a uniform lot.
Cases are fireformed, primer pocket uniformed, flashole reamed, and necksized only. I'm very happy!!!

 

[cohunt]

You're good man. I had assumed they'd have it too after hearing of people using their .300 WIN brass. Gunwerks used to use a ton of 7mmRM rifles, so it only would make sense for them to offer brass for it.

gunwerks used to use norma brass for their 7rm loads, they used to sell the new and 1x fired brass-- I bought 250 pcs of 1x about 2 years ago for .35 cents each---now that they sell "premium brass" they may no longer use Norma, I'm not sure --I know they had issues with their 7lrm brass made by hornady which is what prompted them to go to a new brass manu (thats what i heard anyway)

Lapua actually had headstamped 7rm brass for a very short time --it was suposedly manufactured under contract by norma because Lapua refuses to manufacture belted cases for some reason--don't believe me? read this thread: https://www.longrangehunting.com/th...ion-lapua-7mm-rem-mag-brass-production.55654/
--Nosler 7RM brass is still manufactured by norma, but nosler does extra prep and sorting before they box and sell so it seems to have less variance than norma brass does-- I have not used 7rm brass from adg. but I have used it for my 7wsm--it seems to have some weight variance issues but it seems to be from the rim thickness and relief cut not the case volume--so far only 2x loaded though

my norma 7rm brass has 5 loads on it (actually 6 if you count the 1st time fired at gunwerks) --my loads are 162's at 3080--some of the primer pockets are starting to get a bit loose, but still usable--BUT I have no idea how hot or what rifle they were shot while at gunwerks

basically what I see is that Norma has made 7rm brass for not only them selves, but under contract for both Lapua and nosler---both of those companies have high quality controll standards so I think the "best" 7rm brass is probably the norma/nosler brass as its been around and proven for the longest length of time. ADG would be good to test if it was readily available

7rm brass seems to go through surges of availability, if you find the brass you want to use make sure you buy enough of it to last for a while

 

[Jud96]

gunwerks used to use norma brass for their 7rm loads, they used to sell the new and 1x fired brass-- I bought 250 pcs of 1x about 2 years ago for .35 cents each---now that they sell "premium brass" they may no longer use Norma, I'm not sure --I know they had issues with their 7lrm brass made by hornady which is what prompted them to go to a new brass manu (thats what i heard anyway)

Lapua actually had headstamped 7rm brass for a very short time --it was suposedly manufactured under contract by norma because Lapua refuses to manufacture belted cases for some reason--don't believe me? read this thread: https://www.longrangehunting.com/th...ion-lapua-7mm-rem-mag-brass-production.55654/
--Nosler 7RM brass is still manufactured by norma, but nosler does extra prep and sorting before they box and sell so it seems to have less variance than norma brass does-- I have not used 7rm brass from adg. but I have used it for my 7wsm--it seems to have some weight variance issues but it seems to be from the rim thickness and relief cut not the case volume--so far only 2x loaded though

my norma 7rm brass has 5 loads on it (actually 6 if you count the 1st time fired at gunwerks) --my loads are 162's at 3080--some of the primer pockets are starting to get a bit loose, but still usable--BUT I have no idea how hot or what rifle they were shot while at gunwerks

basically what I see is that Norma has made 7rm brass for not only them selves, but under contract for both Lapua and nosler---both of those companies have high quality controll standards so I think the "best" 7rm brass is probably the norma/nosler brass as its been around and proven for the longest length of time. ADG would be good to test if it was readily available

7rm brass seems to go through surges of availability, if you find the brass you want to use make sure you buy enough of it to last for a while

Thanks for all the information and help. What powder are you running in your 7mm? My Dad picked up some Norma 7mm after all of the positive responses we got. I appreciate it. His load now with the PPU brass is 3070 with the 162 ELD. We are going to work back up a new load with the Norma brass. He's wanting to get around 3050, so If we get 7 or so shots out of the brass that will make us happy. Thanks again!

 

[Jud96]

Using IMR Enduron 7977
Start load 66.5 grs=2888 ave vel, 1.5"
Max load 70.5 grs= 3103 ave vel, 1/2"
This is out of a off the rack Browning Abolt with 26" barrel I bought used!
I sorted the eldx bullets first by weight and then by length to get a uniform lot.
Cases are fireformed, primer pocket uniformed, flashole reamed, and necksized only. I'm very happy!!!

Awesome man! We were actually going to try some of the IMR 7977. He ended up finding a few more pounds of RL26 and he's on a wait list for another 8lb jug of it, so he should be good on powder for awhile. I'll keep that 7977 in mind if we ever have to change powders for the 7mmRM.