Thread: 7x57mm 1st effort - comments?

Originally Posted by zimmer

@Jhon just an aside and it may have no relevance to your caliber but I popped into Gunstuff last year to buy some RWS cases in 22 Hornet. I took my wee portable scales along and weighed them. Extremely nice consistant brass however.....they weighed quite a bit heavier than the Winchester brass I'm currently using which would have reduced the powder capacity in my already fairly full cases. I ended up not buying them.

That's interesting..I was reloading a mix of headstamps yesterday, Sako, Winchester and R.P.. the Sako were almost filling to the brim when the others had a good 4-5mm of space above the powder. I tap tapped the full cases on the bench top and settled them down enough to get a bullet started. I also emptied the first couple out and re weighed the charge thinking I had made a mistake. The RL19 being a big stick powder it does tend to bridge and hang in the funnel neck when dropping in to the case and I wondered at first if it was doing this in the case. But no, too consistent with the Sakos, even tho they did tap down quite a bit. In the end, knowing high end RL19 loads are compressed anyway, I just went ahead and seated the bullets. There was no noticeable resistance when doing so. I will be noting headstamps alongside chrono data when testing and watching closely, as always, for pressure. And now to my point, loading the RWS today, they had far more visible space in the case above the powder at the near max loads than any of the other headstamps. So maybe a calibre dependent issue. Will add to my interest in the range results.

Originally Posted by Jhon

........loading the RWS today, they had far more visible space in the case above the powder at the near max loads than any of the other headstamps. So maybe a calibre dependent issue. Will add to my interest in the range results.

I try to stick to one brand of brass, and match lot numbers as well.

Made a mistake in my original posting - went into Shootingstuff and weighed the brass not Gunstuff. Looks like Shootingstuff are now trying to clear their remainng stock thru Gunstuff. Shootingstuff have had the RWS for some time and their prices of what's left are heavily discounted. Probably wasn't popular given the original v high prices.
As I said, it appeared very good quality.

Where I am using a powder that fills the case (still safe load) up into the neck I use a drop tube. I have a homemade one about 40mm long. Powder will settle maybe 2mm lower depending upon cartridge and powder type.