Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles 7 PRC Factory vs Handloads

Well, I ordered up Hornady Match Grade dies for my 7PRC and some ADG casings that delivered. I have 100 once fired casings that came from Horns boxed 175’s that were frustrating me.

I’m usually a Redding house, but I could get the Hornady dies faster than Redding dies. By almost a week. So, I rolled the dice….and lost.

Horn dies land. They look good, but I noticed they require a separate bushing for loading. Fugg, that. Make the bushing a part of the die set, I figured. I boxed them up and they’re on the way back now.

I ordered up the Redding dies, so now I wait. I got brass, H-1000, and a few different bullets to try. I’m going to start out loading up these…





I’am shelving my personal, ass-hurt, feelers for Bergers and hoping they fly great with solid consistency.

Laffin

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Beav, You thought about the Sierra 165Gr TGK? .610BC Vs Berger’s .618 and the other TGK’s seem to be getting a good reputation. I ordered a box to try in a .280AI im having built.

Yes Sir, I do.






Jack, I have no first hand experience sinking these into a hide. Same for the 168gr Bergers, aside from a lot of glory stories I heard from guys that kill with Bergers.

Have you used the Sierra TGK’s before?


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Only the 90gr out of a .243. 75 yds on a 100lb WT, shoulder shot, exited. Heart was jello.
Deer are easy to kill though so not much of a test. Your elk hunting is way different than what we do.

Sierra bullets always give me great accuracy though.

Fellow Mashburn shooter ran those 165 TGK's through an elk, no drama. Left a dead elk behind with an exit. Seem pretty tough to me.

Roger that, Scotty!

Good to know a Wapiti isn’t immune to them.

Mortality matters!

Grins

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ADG brass showed up, nice stuff! Want to try the Hammer HHT 170gr first, so found some data for H4831, H1000 and Retumbo and loaded 5 each with the 15 bullet sample pack from Hammer. Found a replacement chronograph at Optics Planet, a Garmin Xero C1 Pro, that was stated as being in stock when ordered. 3 days later, received a back order email! So thinking by the time they went to fill my order, they were out of them. So, no shooting until that arrives. For factory ammo, I have Hornady 175gr ELD-X and 180gr ELD-M, and thinking I might pull some of those and load them in the ADG brass to compare with the factory loads. Also found some 190gr Berger Hybrids that have me thinking...

2850 fps average out of factory ELD-X for me today.

First 20 rounds through a 26” barrel, Remington 700 Long Range.

About what I'd expect - around 125 fps more in a 26" vs 22" barrel. 30'ish fps/inch of barrel...

I emailed Lapua today about the possibility of them offering 7 PRC brass, & if so, when. The answer was, no knowledge ad of yet. ADA & some Petersen floating around, but Lap is still the chit in my book.

Primers for the PRC, ?? Magnum? At ~66-67 grains of powder, I guess so. I like match for an application I have in mind, but finding match magnum, yeah right.

I'm using Fed 215M in mine...

Most people seem to be reporting 2850 from their 22” barrels - specifically with the 175 ELD-X.

Optics planet is notorious for that. I have had it happen with two alpha scopes and a bow sight. I've learned my lesson.

The bushings aren't included because it is impossible to predict what size bushing you will want or need. Some folks want 0.002" of neck tension. Some want 0.003" and so on. Some folks are using Hornady brass, some folks are using ADG or Peterson. Then consider what bullets the person is running. All of it matters in bushing selection. Most folks buy a range of bushings and see which gives them the best results.

Different bushings make a big difference in tuning a load, I dont use mandrels or expanders on my brass but my necks are turned.
Get out to 600 or more and test it will make you a believer

Email B/O notice was 2 weeks.... got a call from OpticsPlanet, now the B/O is 4 months! So looking around again...

Lesson learned.

Regarding 2850 in 22" barrels - factory ammo or hand loads? Beaver10 and I both got closer to 2700 in factory ammo, whereas I'm finding 2850 is doable with hand loads.

To clarify - 2850 with factory ammo sounds about right in a 26" barrel as compared to the factory ammo at a little over 2700 in my 22" barrel...

I'd think if factory is running 2700, it would not be easy to hit 2850 without some unseen signs of pressure.

I got 2726 with factory 175 ELDX, and think Beav might have been a little less, but don't recall without going back to his 7 PRC thread. 67 gr H1000 gave me 2830 with the 180 ELDM and the best accuracy I've seen so far. Hornady data lists 67.1 H1000 as max for the 175's and 67.4 as max for the 180 ELDM. Based on my fired cases, I'm fairly confident I can safely get to 2850 in my 22" barrel with the 180 ELDM and H1000. Over 2900 should be safely doable with RL26.

Case head on Hornady factory 175 ELDX is .529 before firing and .532 after. ADG with 67 H1000 and 180 ELDM is .530 before and .533 after firing. .003 case head expansion on both. Fired brass comparison:

Good info JGray, thank you. Redding responded to my query regarding the amount of "efort" required to size fired cases. They said the PRC "family" is experiencing that across the board, and recommended a specific lube/wax. As soon as I can get back to it and look it up, I'll post what Redding recommends.