Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters 7x57 Brass ?

I�m just getting setup for loading 7x57. For anyone with experience with 7x57 Norma brass, is it worth the extra cost (over twice Remington price) or is there a better choice?

Thanks,

Dennis.

I've loaded 7x57 over the years with Norma, Remington, Winchester and Federal brass, at least. May be something else in there that I can't remember at the moment. Norma brass is just fine, but I don't think it's any better than any other brass -- for assembling hunting loads, at least.

I personally won't spend the money for Norma or Lapua brass for a cartridge unless that's the only source -- which it is for some cartridges I load for, like 9.3x57 and .404 Jeffery.

FWIW...

Dennis

I'm not a big fan of Norma brass. It is soft and stretches badly in my experience. I use Remington brass only for my 7X57 AI and have never had a problem with it. I found it thicker than Norma brass, so use starting loads!

I used a lot of Norma brass for my drillings over the years, and my Weatherby brass is all Norma, so I have had plenty of experience with it.

Enjoy the satisfaction of crafting your ammo.

Same here, I prefer Winchester brass for my 7X57...... now if I could just find some!

7x57 brass is getting very hard to find in Australia too. We can buy cheap Highland loaded cartridges but I haven't heard too many good things about their brass. I made up 50 cases by necking up .257 Roberts cases. They are a little short in the neck but work fine in my mates rifle. Problem solved.

I don't load for the 7x57 but have used a lot of 7x57 brass over the years to load 6mm Rem, 257R & 257RAI. I've used Winchester brass almost exclusively with some Rem thrown in. I prefer Winchester because on average it has more capacity. As to durability, the Win brass has rarely failed despite many reloading cycles.

I think that's the more pressing issue today, more so than what brand to buy. 7x57 ain't readily available in any make.

I use Winchester..

Ive used them all over the years as well, don't see much appreciable difference....If I had to pick, I'd be in with the Winchester crowd...
Ingwe

I think that Winchester has stopped making 7x57 brass. I tried to get some from Black Hills Shooters Supply, and that is what I was told.

I've been using Winchester brass for years, and I just loaded my last 100 rounds of virgin brass.

If anyone knows where I can get some more Winchester 7x57, I'd appreciate it.

Thanks,
Steve

AARRGGHH! Tell me its not true!
Ingwe

Winchester usually does seasonal runs of 7X57 brass. If Winchester were to discontinue 7X57 brass, they would have to accept responsibility for speeding global warming......grin

Hopefully there will be some showing up soon!

I too, use Winchester although Remington also has worked for me in the past. Either to me are better than Norma and usually cheaper besides.

Midway still shows it as a seasonal run so it should be available sometime in the future. It never seems to last long so I can't imagine Winchester will drop it completely.

Even if dropped at some point by Winchester - which I doubt given the global demand for this 7x57 ammo - the whole family of cartridges based on the 8x57 (6mm rem, 257R, 8x57) are easily interconvertible. Even though the headstamp won't be 'correct' they'll work fine. As a last resort, converting the 30-06, though laborious, will keep us in the 7x57 game. Hope it doesn't come to that.

I used to be one of those who insisted on Winchester 7x57 brass because it was lighter and therefore had more case capacity. This is because I read about it in some magazine somewhere, and thought it might make a difference.

Then I figured out the 1-to-4 rule and after some measuring figured out that Winchester brass held (MAYBE!) 2% more powder than other brands. This translates to a .005 difference in possible muzzle velocity at the same pressure, or 14 fps with a typical 140-grain load of around 2800 fps.

Since then I quit worrying and use whatever 7x57 brass I can find. I got a good deal on Norma a while back and use it a lot, and have also had good luck with Remington (just picked up another 100 rounds of new Remington at a local store last week). Either one works just fine with the same loads and I don't lose sleep about that extra 14 fps.

Thanks everyone for the info and comments. Looks like I�ll be buying 100 rounds of Winchester ammo. That way I can do some shooting, get used to a new rifle and make brass at the same time.

Dennis.

All good things!

I used Winchester Norma a few RWS over the years, and about 15 years ago I bought 500 nickle cases from Remington. I have not noticed anything out of the ordinary. I have 2000 cases from Winchester in 6.5 x 55, those will keep me in hunting loads till I either shoot out the barrels, hunting is banned, or I wake up one morning and find I have taken a dirt nap, and the sheep mountain I am on at this moment looking at a 40+ Shone Sheep is not Northern BC, but a place hunters go to there reward, and 270 Jack being next to me, is the give away. Joking aside, life is to short to split hairs over this issue.

JB, agree with you. But it's not a disadvantage to have the greater capacity - admittedly inconsequential - without losing case durability. If you'll remember, the same magazine articles that touted Winchester cases' greater capacity also imputed greater longevity to the "thicker" Rem cases. This last observation hasn't held up in my experience with a variety of cartridge cases that are manufactured by both Win & Rem. Different manufacturing methods seem to result in slightly different case properties - neither good nor bad necessarily - that sometimes may mean slight mods in reloading techniques. Just my .02.

Heck, I will be happy to find Rem., Norma or Winchester right now!