Hornady 7mm WSM brass

[762 ULTRAMAGA]

I'm putting a 7 WSM together and looking for some feedback on the Hornady brass.
I've heard a lot about loose primer pockets with Hornady brass, but I'm also hearing that guys running it in 6.5 PRC and 28 Nos are having good luck with primer pockets staying tight.
Anyone tried 7 WSM?
I know Bertram makes 7WSM but my experience with their SAUM brass is that it's horribly inconsistent with case capacity.

 

[Bradu]

From what I've seen most people have just weighed the brass and not case capacity. I might have to go do that on my saum brass, I believe I have some fired cases that haven't been resized yet. I do know neck thickness wasn't consistent but I did neck turn them.

 

[cornhusker86]

I've only used win brass in this cal. and that stuff is next to impossible to find. I'd be interested to hear other peoples experience with the Hornady brass.

 

[762 ULTRAMAGA]

From what I've seen most people have just weighed the brass and not case capacity. I might have to go do that on my saum brass, I believe I have some fired cases that haven't been resized yet. I do know neck thickness wasn't consistent but I did neck turn them.

Yeah I got case capacity variation of 1.7 grains between the Bertram cases I tested, they were once fired zeroed on the scale and filled with H20.
I had case weight variation of almost 7 grains as well.
like you I found the necks really inconsistent with variation from .015-.020, did you have big jagged pieces of brass obstructing the flash hole on your Bertram cases? Mine had the worst flash holes I've seen yet.
Definitely not liking the steep price for crappy brass..
Really hoping for a good Hornady 7WSM review

 

[Bradu]

Yeah I got case capacity variation of 1.7 grains between the Bertram cases I tested, they were once fired zeroed on the scale and filled with H20.
I had case weight variation of almost 7 grains as well.
like you I found the necks really inconsistent with variation from .015-.020, did you have big jagged pieces of brass obstructing the flash hole on your Bertram cases? Mine had the worst flash holes I've seen yet.
Definitely not liking the steep price for crappy brass..
Really hoping for a good Hornady 7WSM review

Thanks for posting that info on your findings. I was curious what they would be like since my case weight varied almost 10 grains out. I turned quite a bit off and some of them still had large parts that weren't touched by the cutter. I figured that was a good part of the variation when weighing them. All my flash holes were good, I checked them after seeing the posts on Facebook. After my hornady experience with my saum, I will avoid them if at all possible.

As far as the 7 wsm, I had to buy a bunch of loaded ammo to get most of my brass. I know this probably won't help much but when this barrel is done, I'm saving it to fire form 300 wsm norma brass to turn into 7 wsm. The newer Winchester has had quality issues so I'm trying to avoid that.

 

[762 ULTRAMAGA]

Interesting idea forming 7wsm from 300. I'm guessing you could form a false shoulder while necking down, and form with the COW method.
What issues did you have with Hornady SAUM brass?

 

[cornhusker86]

Scroll down to see 7mm-300wsm info;

www.6mmbr.com/7mm284.html

 

[Bradu]

Interesting idea forming 7wsm from 300. I'm guessing you could form a false shoulder while necking down, and form with the COW method.
What issues did you have with Hornady SAUM brass?

Yeah, just create a false shoulder so it chambers snug. I've never tried COW method so I can't comment on that. Another option is catch Winchester ammo on sale and pull it down, it's cheaper than Norma brass last I looked and you don't have to deal with fire forming. That's not ideal either though. The primer pockets didn't last very long on Hornady brass, that's why I decided to try Bertram brass. There is a lot of hate towards them but ADG hadn't announced a release date when I needed brass so I gave them a try. I wish Peterson or ADG would pick up the 7 wsm so we had great brass.

 

[762 ULTRAMAGA]

Yeah, just create a false shoulder so it chambers snug. I've never tried COW method so I can't comment on that. Another option is catch Winchester ammo on sale and pull it down, it's cheaper than Norma brass last I looked and you don't have to deal with fire forming. That's not ideal either though. The primer pockets didn't last very long on Hornady brass, that's why I decided to try Bertram brass. There is a lot of hate towards them but ADG hadn't announced a release date when I needed brass so I gave them a try. I wish Peterson or ADG would pick up the 7 wsm so we had great brass.

No kidding on ADG, to be clear my Bertram brass was 6.5 saum.
After ready about the 7 saum im half tempted to go that route.
I'm looking to drive 180s 3000 from a 26" barrel.
Primary use will be long range elk hunting so velocity is important.

 

[Bradu]

If you don't have the barrel chambered yet, I would go that route. You will give up a little velocity over the wsm but the better brass from ADG would be worth it once it's in stock. I wanted a 28 nosler but the brass selection scared me away so I went with a 7-300 norma for Peterson and Lapua brass. I'm learning to follow the quality brass when choosing a caliber.

 

[pengilly]

Following ! curious myself as I love my 7WSM. I just started playing with it again and the RL26 looks like its going to be a real winner pushing my 180s to 3000 under saami max.