Nosler brass for 7 Remington Magnum:
In March 2015 purchased 100 Nosler brass, was excellent quality and weighed 215 grains.
Also had some much older Norma brass that weighed 218 grains. I could load interchangeably either brass with no noticeable difference in speed or accuracy.
In March 2016 purchased 100 Nosler brass and opened them couple days ago to load and the first one I loaded I crunched powder at seating. This caused pause to check brass. Found this batch weighed 256 grains!! Bout passed out!
So on to check h2o capacity.
215 grain brass h2o capacity = 84 grains
256 grain brass h2o capacity = 79 grains (6% difference) I have found that a 4% capacity change = approx 1% velocity change, not even mentioning pressure change! So in my situation I can expect a 1.5% velocity change or approx 50fps.
ALSO 215 grain brass with bullet loaded measures .313 at neck while the 256 grain brass with bullet loaded measures just .309 so also thinner necks. I never used a .307 neck bushing unless I was neck turning back in the day of using Federal brass (oh by the way the old Federals avg weight was 235 grains with h2o capacity approx 78.7 grains)
And head stamps different too, the older 215 grain brass head stamped 7mm (lowercase) but newer 256 grain stamped 7MM (uppercase).
I dug out some 20+ year old Norma brass that where several years difference in age and they weighed from 213 - 218 grains, hmmmm?
Then go to my old Ken Waters manual published 1980 and he listed Norma weighing in 218 grains.
THEN finally got to talk to Nosler customer service yesterday and he seemed less than concerned and stated their brass is made to SAAMI dimensions at the Redmond plant. (True or not have no idea).
One thing seems to be is that it is NOT made by Norma.
In March 2015 purchased 100 Nosler brass, was excellent quality and weighed 215 grains.
Also had some much older Norma brass that weighed 218 grains. I could load interchangeably either brass with no noticeable difference in speed or accuracy.
In March 2016 purchased 100 Nosler brass and opened them couple days ago to load and the first one I loaded I crunched powder at seating. This caused pause to check brass. Found this batch weighed 256 grains!! Bout passed out!
So on to check h2o capacity.
215 grain brass h2o capacity = 84 grains
256 grain brass h2o capacity = 79 grains (6% difference) I have found that a 4% capacity change = approx 1% velocity change, not even mentioning pressure change! So in my situation I can expect a 1.5% velocity change or approx 50fps.
ALSO 215 grain brass with bullet loaded measures .313 at neck while the 256 grain brass with bullet loaded measures just .309 so also thinner necks. I never used a .307 neck bushing unless I was neck turning back in the day of using Federal brass (oh by the way the old Federals avg weight was 235 grains with h2o capacity approx 78.7 grains)
And head stamps different too, the older 215 grain brass head stamped 7mm (lowercase) but newer 256 grain stamped 7MM (uppercase).
I dug out some 20+ year old Norma brass that where several years difference in age and they weighed from 213 - 218 grains, hmmmm?
Then go to my old Ken Waters manual published 1980 and he listed Norma weighing in 218 grains.
THEN finally got to talk to Nosler customer service yesterday and he seemed less than concerned and stated their brass is made to SAAMI dimensions at the Redmond plant. (True or not have no idea).
One thing seems to be is that it is NOT made by Norma.
