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I shoot a 7mm Remington Magnum, and when I started handloading for it I began by looking for a high quality brass case. I started by looking to see if Lapua made cases for a 7mm Rem Mag, and although I didn’t see any for sale through MidwayUSA or Sinclair … I did find some mixed opinions on whether Lapua had ever made cases for belted cartridges, and the 7mm Rem Mag in particular.
Then earlier this year while I was at Shot Show, I was at the Lapua booth and noticed in their new VihtaVuori Reloading Guide they actually reference that the 7mm Rem Mag data was using a Lapua case. At first I thought maybe they just said everything was a Lapua case, but you can see in the excerpts below they said they used a Winchester case for the 7mm WSM, and a Weatherby case for the 7mm Weatherby Magnum … but a Lapua case for the 7mm Remington Magnum.
I asked the Fins working the Lapua booth at the 2013 Shoot Show if Lapua had ever made any cases for the 7mm Rem Mag, and after they called over their brass expert guy … he confidentally said they never had. I then showed him the reference in the reloading guide, and after a few minutes of discussion they told me it must be a misprint. I noticed that same info is now listed on Lapua.com as well:
Here is a quote from a Lapua rep I was able to find on an online forum. This is his response to being asked whether Lapua had ever made 7mm Rem Mag brass:
Actually, I don’t believe that Lapua has ever made 7mm Remington Magnum brass. There was a time when we offered 300 Win Mag brass, but this was also something that we didn’t manufacture; it was produced under contract for us by Norma. I think this may well have been the same situation for the 7mm Mag brass you’ve encountered. I’ll have to check with the Finns to make certain of this, but I’m fairly confident that this is what you’ve run on to here. They’ve generally had a fairly strong aversion to producing belted cases, and this is what makes me suspect that this is the case.
We have a 7mm Naturalis hunting bullet, but aside form that, the 7mm bore size seems to be a weak spot in our line. No surprise that the 6.5s hold more sway in that region of the world, but we keep trying to get them to broaden the 7mm offerings. In the meantime, whether the brass was produced by us or Norma, it should be good quality stuff either way. Enjoy!
Kevin Thomas, Lapua USA
Quote Source: http://www.longrangehunting.com/forums/f28/historical-question-lapua-7mm-rem-mag-brass-production-55654/
So all that to say … the mystery of the Lapua belted magnum case continues. I can say I ended up buying Norma brass, and although it is slightly more expensive than most Lapua brass … it is very high quality and very, very consistent. Check out my blog post on the consistency I found in the Norma 7mm Rem Mag brass.
Lapua definitely did produce 7 Rem Mag brass (or at least commissioned it from Norma). I have about 100 of these cases.
Not sure why Lapua has such an aversion to belted cases. They’d make a ton of money if they would just make ’em. The 7mm RM has got to be the third most popular bigger-game rifle cartridge in this country, behind the .308 Win and the .30-06. Oh well, looks like I’ll be buying Norma brass.
I’m definitely with you. Lapua seems to be leaving some money on the table here, but honestly the Fins I talked to at the 2013 Shot Show didn’t seem to care. They were a little bit of an arrogant bunch.
I’ve now purchased 400 cases of Norma brass for the 7mm Rem Mag, and honestly couldn’t be happier. I’ve used Lapua brass for other cartridges, and I’m not sure they could top the Norma brass even if they did make it. I measure the weight consistency of every batch of brass I get, and the Norma 7mm Rem Mag is much more consistent than some of the Lapua brass I’ve weighed.
Check out these others posts to see exactly what I’m talking about:
http://precisionrifleblog.com/2012/06/15/norma-7mm-rem-mag-brass-weight-variation/
http://precisionrifleblog.com/2012/07/05/lapua-223-rem-brass-quality/
Yes lapua has made 7mm Remington Magnum brass, I have 150 of them, but good luck trying to find any more of them. I got mine 17 years ago and have never seen any since.
Wow! Someone confirmed the mythical brass cases. Thanks, CW. You should have seen the looks on the faces of the fins when I tried to ask them about it at SHOT Show one year. They were completely sure they had never done it, but there seemed to be other sources that said it had happened. Finally, someone has confirmed it did exist! The 7mm Rem Mag is such a great cartridge … sure wish we could still buy Lapua brass for it. I’d lay in a supply!
Thanks,
Cal