7prc hype ?

[Hitzy]

I’ve probably had 30 or so PRC chambered rifles and never had clickers yet, I had 6 reloads on Hornady 300 PRC brass and never an issue, alls I ver did was full length size and trim to length if needed, I have over 400 rounds on one of my 7 PRC rifles and no issues,

I think at times it’s a combination of things, hot loads and or worn reamer carriers when chambering, apparently all of the new Manson reamers are to Wheeler specs.

Probably majority can be attributed to hot loads, but when the SAAMI spec is 65kpsi, it's not hard to go over if someone is chasing book FPS/velocity.
I don't care who makes the brass, there is none out there that can handle a steady diet of 70-75kpsi.
Same things happened with belted mags, then they came out with that collet web sizing die affair to size the base of the brass.
That little extra chamber room could be the fix for the 300WSM, custom dies would probably work fine too, just a little more sizing like small base dies for semi's kind of thing if you know what I mean.
Also loading down a bit...that would be my first go to, if there is a node at 70-75kpsi, there is one lower at reasonable pressure as well, everything else can be calculated on the velocity as long as it's consistent.

 

[Buckmastr]

All these new cartridges are apparently “easy to load for”
A good barrel, a bedded action with a decent trigger regardless of cartridge is easy to load for…
The 7prc is no more a hit than the 6.8 Western imo.

 

[Joel]

Funny how a lot of people who have/had a lot of guns still say they're the easy button though.

 

[SuperCub]

7mm PRC? ..... Never heard of it.

Guess I'll have to make due with the 7x57 for deer hunting.

 

[profesional 111]

Ive had a few built and it’s an excellent cartridge, easy to load for, if your a velocity hound I will say the cartridge performs better on a 24” barrel or longer, if you shoot lots it needs a brake as with 175/180gr bullets tend to wear on you,

for everyday hunting I prefer not to use a brake, one of the reasons I’m looking forward to my new rifle chambered in 7mm-6.5 PRCW,

I love the 280AI as it’s a nice balance of performance with moderate recoil so I’m thinking the new cartridge will be excellent as well.

As far as people selling them I’m sure it’s just that time of year, you always see an abundance of rifles for sale this time of year.

Thats a sound explanation. Never thought of the time of year. Makes sense.

 

[Hitzy]

All these new cartridges are apparently “easy to load for”
A good barrel, a bedded action with a decent trigger regardless of cartridge is easy to load for…
The 7prc is no more a hit than the 6.8 Western imo.

That is some kind of old man talk there lol.
But I agree 100%, never met a rifle yet that I couldn't get shooting sub MOA regardless of age/manufacturer/caliber/or cartridge.
Even have a funky old half bubba commercial HVA on a 98 action in 9.3x62 that a member here reamed out from 9.3x57 in his garage (lol, long time member and friend, very smart guy and has done some destruction tests, many many max load tests for old cartridges and rifles and posted them here, worked up loads from unknown surplus powders, he's my Ganderite for all things ammo or gun related, goes by Andy, super guy) that weird ugly gun with side mount and bubba added on wood cheek piece shoots 1/2" at 100m with a little 1.5-5x scope on it. Definitely not made as a target rifle, firing a cartridge not designed for target shooting, with a 5x max scope. Younger folks will call bull####, but hey, when you combine our reloading experience (his is way more then mine on testing boundaries) we have something like 50 years combined loading experience. You are in the same league, I've read your posts, add you in there and the 3 of us are in the 80-90 years of reloading experience? Somewhere around there.
But I do get these new cartridges, they are not made and marketed for folks like us, they are for a newer gen shooter, with way too much money, can only shoot factory store bought ammo and no time for reloading, and this stuff comes in all flavors of factory ammo... hunting to long range target types. I haven't shot factory ammo in 25 years, but the only factory target ammo I can even think of being available was Federal 308 Match for my generation.
I'm 100% sure there isn't any factory ammo out there that will shoot as good as we can load, that isn't anything new, that's WHY we load lol.

 

[remington jim]

I was getting 2970 fps with factory 175 ELDX with a 22" barrel when it was new. It has since sped up to over 3000fps for what it's worth. Mine won't be for sale any time soon. I get what people are saying about it not being a huge improvement over a 7 rem mag and everything, but I didn't have a 7 rem mag before so 7prc made sense to me.

Yup ! and to add to THAT nobody said it was gonna be FASTER ! What they did say was it was gonna BE better with a FAST twist and a Longer throat to shoot the HEAVIER bullets BETTER and get rid of belted brass headspacing and head space on the shoulder where it SHOULD be done ! Its just a BETTER 7 RMag cartridge thats ALL ! RJ

If you were to build a FAST twist 7 Rem mag with a long throat it would near be the same performance ! 7 RM actully holds around 3-4 grs more powder . BUT No Belt and Steeper shoulder angle and Head spacing is a PLUS 3 for the 7 PRC ! RJ

 

[Buckmastr]

Guns become hard to reload for when fancy brass needs to be pulled out of the US by Gary at 4$ a piece. Plus shipping.

 

[remington jim]

All these new cartridges are apparently “easy to load for”
A good barrel, a bedded action with a decent trigger regardless of cartridge is easy to load for…
The 7prc is no more a hit than the 6.8 Western imo.

The 7 PRC is like a 100 times the HIT is then a 6.8 Western or more ! There's already more ammo sold in a Day then prob ever for the Up Dated Jack Oconnor 270 ! LOL RJ

 

[Hitzy]

The 7 PRC is like a 100 times the HIT is then a 6.8 Western or more ! There's already more ammo sold in a Day then prob ever for the Up Dated Jack Oconnor 270 ! LOL RJ

But only because of marketing. They are both 7mm, really....277 vs .284, 7thou difference. All things being equal, case, bullet weight, twist, etc, the 277 will have a higher BC then the same bullet weight and design as a 284. Marketing trumps performance these days.

 

[pete dobinson]

But only because of marketing. They are both 7mm, really....277 vs .284, 7thou difference. All things being equal, case, bullet weight, twist, etc, the 277 will have a higher BC then the same bullet weight and design as a 284. Marketing trumps performance these days.

Now you can get a factory 270win with a faster twist barrel 7 or 8 twist me thinks, heavier bullets as well. So the beat goes on!

 

[remington jim]

But only because of marketing. They are both 7mm, really....277 vs .284, 7thou difference. All things being equal, case, bullet weight, twist, etc, the 277 will have a higher BC then the same bullet weight and design as a 284. Marketing trumps performance these days.

You are CORRECT ! and if here was a even better selection of .277 dia bullet and a few more 270 cal cartridges ? Who knows ? JMO RJ

 

[dgradinaru]

7mm PRC? ..... Never heard of it.

Guess I'll have to make due with the 7x57 for deer hunting.

It's interesting looking at specs of the 7mm Prc and you could almost see a modern 7x57 mag in it. Case length is 57mm , shoots heavy for cal bullets, barrel twist optimized for heavy bullets, bullets seated out just like the 7x57. Other than the prc having more powder capacity and velocity, it seems to me that there's is nothing new under the sun. Technology hasn't really improved, they just seem to be going back realizing that the originals had it figured out.

 

[remington jim]

7mm PRC? ..... Never heard of it.

Guess I'll have to make do with the 7x57 for deer hunting.

YES you Have ! Come on BUD ! Can make DUE with a 7-08 - 284 - 280 - 280AI also but so what RJ

Nothing WRONG with new cartridges ! Like cars and trucks there’s new models and engine- transmissions every year or So . But you don’t have to buy one . RJ

 

[CLW .45]

Why would anyone purchase any PRC cartridge? Many cartridges long before had it covered.

Purely from my point of view, if I don’t already have one of the “other cartridges,” the PRC cartridges have benefits mentioned by others that make the PRC more reasonable to purchase than the others.

 

[remington jim]

That can be said for just about every factory ammo claims, one of the biggest was my 7mm Weatherby factory claims 3200 fps in my 24” barrel, 2950 !!!
My 24 inch 1-8 twist Benchmark barrel was running 40 fps slower than all three factory Hornady offerings in 7mm PRC so not terrible really.[/QUOTE

what IS the highest FPS AVERAGE you ever got from Hornady fact ammo Don ? the Match 180 ELDM the Hunter 174 ELDX and the Outfitter 160 CX ? thxs RJ

 

[Weatherby Fan]

That can be said for just about every factory ammo claims, one of the biggest was my 7mm Weatherby factory claims 3200 fps in my 24” barrel, 2950 !!!
My 24 inch 1-8 twist Benchmark barrel was running 40 fps slower than all three factory Hornady offerings in 7mm PRC so not terrible really.[/QUOTE

what IS the highest FPS AVERAGE you ever got from Hornady fact ammo Don ? the Match 180 ELDM the Hunter 174 ELDX and the Outfitter 160 CX ? thxs RJ

With a 24 inch benchmark 1-8 twist on the Sako A7 rebarrel job,

160gr CX 3010
175gr ELDX 2960
180gr ELDM 2980

 

[waldo54]

I have a 6.5 PRC and a 7 PRC both at CA mesa long range with 26" pipes, NF NX8 scopes, I have not loaded anything yet for the 7 PRC as I'm still shooting up the factory loaded 175 ELDX and 180 ELDM as managed to find some at a great price $74 and brass was non existent at the time, the 175 gr ELDX averages 2993 FPS and the 180 ELDM averages 2971 the gun is still new ( 80 rounds ) so I suspect it will speed up a bit in the next little while. I have about 220 rounds yet of factory ammo to shoot but I now have 80 brass to do some load development. Since it is primarily a hunting rig I am going to load the 175 ELDX for now with the powders I have, H1000, RL25, Retumbo and H4831 I have some US869 which should work but can't find any data for it so for now I'll stick with those 4. When I do my part it shoots very nice groups and will ring the gong at 1124 yards with ease, it was a bit breezy the day I was at nose hill and I was not getting consistent hits at 1410, by the end of a long day of shooting this old guy get's tired so more than likely the misses were on me not the gun. It shoots great no complaints at all, it's the only gun I have in 7mm

 

[remington jim]

I have a 6.5 PRC and a 7 PRC both at CA mesa long range with 26" pipes, NF NX8 scopes, I have not loaded anything yet for the 7 PRC as I'm still shooting up the factory loaded 175 ELDX and 180 ELDM as managed to find some at a great price $74 and brass was non existent at the time, the 175 gr ELDX averages 2993 FPS and the 180 ELDM averages 2971 the gun is still new ( 80 rounds ) so I suspect it will speed up a bit in the next little while. I have about 220 rounds yet of factory ammo to shoot but I now have 80 brass to do some load development. Since it is primarily a hunting rig I am going to load the 175 ELDX for now with the powders I have, H1000, RL25, Retumbo and H4831 I have some US869 which should work but can't find any data for it so for now I'll stick with those 4. When I do my part it shoots very nice groups and will ring the gong at 1124 yards with ease, it was a bit breezy the day I was at nose hill and I was not getting consistent hits at 1410, by the end of a long day of shooting this old guy get's tired so more than likely the misses were on me not the gun. It shoots great no complaints at all, it's the only gun I have in 7mm
View attachment 736916

Nice there Waldo ! Hey thats nose hill Alberta range ? What size is that GONG at 1124 yards and at 1410 Please ? Just wondering - RJ

 

[BigUglyMan]

Fast flat 7s always make people happy. The way that bullet technology has improved over the past 20 years has left us in a situation where, even though a 7 Weatherby beats it handily, you generally cant get the legacy cartridges in the fast twists that stabilize the long bullets that have become popular. The factories tend to not want to build rifles like the 7 Remington and Winchester in a 9 or 8 twist, (possibly requiring resubmission to SAAMI?) so the new cartridges like the 7PRC or 28 Nosler pull ahead in the market for guys who want a long range rifle with none of the headaches of trying to develop a load. My cousin kills more animals than car crashes and he has a pair of 28 Noslers and shoots nothing but Hornady Precision Hunter factory ammo. That almost makes me break out in hives, but he and his family stack animals in the freezer like nobody's business, so perhaps he's onto something.

At the same time, Hornady only offers three loads for the 7PRC and only two of those are hunting bullets so that's not a lot of selection and really speaks to the specialized nature of the cartridge. It was designed to take advantage of modern bullet technology to give a long range hunting product in a niche that wasn't entirely filled. They offer 7 different hunting loads for the 7 Remington and a much wider range of bullet weights, because there are 60 years worth of 7 Remingtons out there being used in every different kind of hunting scenario.

The bottom line is this...New sells. Anyone who lived through the introduction of the 300 WSM and all the surrounding hype has watched this cycle happen several times. In the early 2000s the used gun racks were full of 300 Winchesters, traded in by guys who wanted a WSM. There was no reason that the WSM should have existed and been as successful as it was. But it was new, and that was all that mattered.