7 PRC SAAMI approved

[Harry Knutz]

So If I was Tikka, Or Savage or Christiansen, And I offered 260 rem as one of my calibers, I would promote my new Long throat fast twist 260 or even Swede, The list could go on, As an updated chambering with more potential, You would be surprised how many people would sign up for that. I built a 30-284 for F-Class with a long throat, Long before the creedmoor ever existed, It was not something Hornady invented, Nor was I.

 

[Harry Knutz]

Roy Weatherby realized the benefits of a long throat long before the creedmoor came along.

 

[Taylorbok]

So If I was Tikka, Or Savage or Christiansen, And I offered 260 rem as one of my calibers, I would promote my new Long throat fast twist 260 or even Swede, The list could go on, As an updated chambering with more potential, You would be surprised how many people would sign up for that. I built a 30-284 for F-Class with a long throat, Long before the creedmoor ever existed, It was not something Hornady invented, Nor was I.

I think you would be surprised how few people would go for the old cartridge with new life vs the NEW cartridge. You have to realize who the average consumer is, an average hunter who knows little to none about ballistics, those people vastly outnumber the educated who would even understand what the marketing team is selling.

 

[Harry Knutz]

You could be right, But You never know. I know there are a lot of people with a love affair for the Swede.

 

[rharfo]

You could be right, But You never know. I know there are a lot of people with a love affair for the Swede.

To your point I got a call from HS Precision today that my rebarrel from 6 Creedmoor to 260 Rem (8 twist) was ready to be shipped back. Bought the gun used - cheap and had it re-barreled for a less than a new one. Ya never know! And this thread is about the 7 PRC, but it keeps getting derailed by the great 260!!!!

 

[7.62 Gunner]

Well... we might both be wrong on the 6.5x284. You are correct, it has been adopted by SAAMI as the 6.5x284 Norma but it says it was issued in 2019 not two decades ago. It is still listed under the New Cartridges not in the main list which is where I looked before I posted.

New Cartridge & Chamber Drawings

It's been supported by Norma with their Saami equivalent in the USA since at least 2008.
I bought a savage weather warrior around that time, and Cabelas was well stocked with precision ammo from Norma

You can't deny that the cartridges work. Obviously that contributes to the success. There is tons of people who take long range very seriously that are shooting the PRC cases. I'm planning on doing my next barrel in 300 PRC improved to take the place of my 300 RUM just so I can mag feed it with the heavy bullets.

I think you would be surprised how few people would go for the old cartridge with new life vs the NEW cartridge. You have to realize who the average consumer is, an average hunter who knows little to none about ballistics, those people vastly outnumber the educated who would even understand what the marketing team is selling.

Im not saying no one who's serious about LR shooting is into the PRCs, I'm saying it's catered to people who don't know the first thing about handloading, ballistics, twist rates, or mag lengths.
Obviously you agree with this 100% given your second post above^^^

 

[gregsjt]

So If I was Tikka, Or Savage or Christiansen, And I offered 260 rem as one of my calibers, I would promote my new Long throat fast twist 260 or even Swede, The list could go on, As an updated chambering with more potential, You would be surprised how many people would sign up for that. I built a 30-284 for F-Class with a long throat, Long before the creedmoor ever existed, It was not something Hornady invented, Nor was I.

You are forgetting, arguably, the most important aspect of what a rifle or ammo manufacturer has to consider... Liability. Most are not willing to sway to far from SAAMI specs because they could be liable if something bad happens. It's way easier to create a new cartridge with the correct specs to start with.

 

[Harry Knutz]

You are forgetting, arguably, the most important aspect of what a rifle or ammo manufacturer has to consider... Liability. Most are not willing to sway to far from SAAMI specs because they could be liable if something bad happens. It's way easier to create a new cartridge with the correct specs to start with.

I have bought a lot of reamers from PTG, Many times they are marked "Rev 1" or "Rev 2 and so on, So chamber reamers are revised often.
There is a Plethora of factory bullets with ogives in different locations, They can't all be seated in the same location.

 

[Harry Knutz]

But I guess I would have to agree with you on the liability aspect.

 

[Wild Monkey]

Every time Hornady or anyone else pays to have a cartridge SAAMI certified, these "XYZ wildcat was stolen…" comments start.

The vast majority of products for sale are iterations on others; that doesn't make them stolen. We have the patent system for a reason

For the average layman the patent process is out of reach due to ridiculous costs, and if you do file most of the time it would expire before you got it into production anyway.

For those that don't know the dimensions, the 7-PRC is slightly shorter than the LRM, it was listed to fire 180 Grain Bullets. It's neither the short 6.5PRC nor the 300PRC, it's in between and will most likely equal 7RM performance with a better throat and shorter OAL..

 

[orkan]

For the average layman the patent process is out of reach due to ridiculous costs, and if you do file most of the time it would expire before you got it into production anyway.

For those that don't know the dimensions, the 7-PRC is slightly shorter than the LRM, it was listed to fire 180 Grain Bullets. It's neither the short 6.5PRC nor the 300PRC, it's in between and will most likely equal 7RM performance with a better throat and shorter OAL..

Do you hold any patents?

 

[Swinehunt74]

Sounds like a bunch of High School girls whining about who's taking who to the Prom. Why should anyone care If Hornady makes more money, this is still America (at least for a while longer). Quit your bitching and get to voting or none of us will have anything to load with.

 

[Jud96]

I'm going to chime in here and put my 2 cents in. First off let me start off by saying I'm excited for this cartridge. Having said that, yes there's other cartridges that are similar and more capable than the 7mm PRC will be. It looks to be a ballistic twin to the 7mm WSM and 7mm Rem Mag. However, this is designed to be a long range cartridge from the go just like the other PRC cartridges. Yes you can build your 7mm SAUM or WSM on a long action and run 0.200-.240 freebore with 168-180s at the same speed as the PRC. However, you have to build the rifle, order the reamer spec'd to work with the heavy bullets, and deal with the fact that no one supports either one of those cartridges anymore other than a couple brass manufacturers. No factory rifle, no factory ammo, and they're essentially a wildcat with the multitude of modified chambers out there to make them equal the 7 PRC. Yes there's the 7mm Rem Mag, but it's the same way, the SAAMI specs for it were never designed for long range, heavy for caliber, modern high BC bullets. You can make it work with those bullets with a fast twist barrel and handloads, but the average hunter who doesn't have a custom rifle and doesn't reload can't get that level of performance.

Now in steps the 7mm PRC. Whether it's a copy cat or a knock off, you can't dispute the fact that Hornady supports their cartridges as good or better than any other. They have the dies, the brass, the ammo, and they design them for modern bullets with a modern case design. Yes the PRC chambers have clicker issues, but it's fixable and doesn't matter for the vast majority of the market who just buy factory ammo. Factory rifle manufacturers pick up on the PRCs because they're good cartridges and bring a lot to the average guy who previously had to either build a custom rifle and handload or just deal with the fact they couldn't get near the performance as those custom rifles and custom handloads. I still think custom rifles and handloads are always the best solution, but cartridges like the PRC in quality factory rifles bridge the gap better than before.

I'm not denying how good the current cartridges are ie 7mm Blaser, 7mm WSM, 7mm SAUM, 7mm RM, etc. My opinion is I think Hornady took all of them into consideration and designed what they believe is a solid 7mm cartridge for long range shooting. It's not too overbore, but still gets 180 class bullets near 3000fps. There will be components, ammo, rifles, etc available for it and will be very well supported. That can't be said for some other cartridges. Looking at the 7mm PRCs siblings the 6.5 and 300, I bet Lapua, ADG, and Peterson will have brass available for it within 2 years of its release. So all in all, I think it's a good cartridge and will be very popular and successful for many reasons just like most of Hornady's cartridges. This is what the SAUM, WSM, Rem Mag etc should be but the market and technology was much different in their time of release.

 

[7.62 Gunner]

I'm going to chime in here and put my 2 cents in. First off let me start off by saying I'm excited for this cartridge. Having said that, yes there's other cartridges that are similar and more capable than the 7mm PRC will be. It looks to be a ballistic twin to the 7mm WSM and 7mm Rem Mag. However, this is designed to be a long range cartridge from the go just like the other PRC cartridges. Yes you can build your 7mm SAUM or WSM on a long action and run 0.200-.240 freebore with 168-180s at the same speed as the PRC. However, you have to build the rifle, order the reamer spec'd to work with the heavy bullets, and deal with the fact that no one supports either one of those cartridges anymore other than a couple brass manufacturers. No factory rifle, no factory ammo, and they're essentially a wildcat with the multitude of modified chambers out there to make them equal the 7 PRC. Yes there's the 7mm Rem Mag, but it's the same way, the SAAMI specs for it were never designed for long range, heavy for caliber, modern high BC bullets. You can make it work with those bullets with a fast twist barrel and handloads, but the average hunter who doesn't have a custom rifle and doesn't reload can't get that level of performance.

Now in steps the 7mm PRC. Whether it's a copy cat or a knock off, you can't dispute the fact that Hornady supports their cartridges as good or better than any other. They have the dies, the brass, the ammo, and they design them for modern bullets with a modern case design. Yes the PRC chambers have clicker issues, but it's fixable and doesn't matter for the vast majority of the market who just buy factory ammo. Factory rifle manufacturers pick up on the PRCs because they're good cartridges and bring a lot to the average guy who previously had to either build a custom rifle and handload or just deal with the fact they couldn't get near the performance as those custom rifles and custom handloads. I still think custom rifles and handloads are always the best solution, but cartridges like the PRC in quality factory rifles bridge the gap better than before.

I'm not denying how good the current cartridges are ie 7mm Blaser, 7mm WSM, 7mm SAUM, 7mm RM, etc. My opinion is I think Hornady took all of them into consideration and designed what they believe is a solid 7mm cartridge for long range shooting. It's not too overbore, but still gets 180 class bullets near 3000fps. There will be components, ammo, rifles, etc available for it and will be very well supported. That can't be said for some other cartridges. Looking at the 7mm PRCs siblings the 6.5 and 300, I bet Lapua, ADG, and Peterson will have brass available for it within 2 years of its release. So all in all, I think it's a good cartridge and will be very popular and successful for many reasons just like most of Hornady's cartridges. This is what the SAUM, WSM, Rem Mag etc should be but the market and technology was much different in their time of release.

Yeah I don't think anyone is denying the fact that the PRC is optimized for the non handloader.
What most of us aren't stoked about it that Hornady could actually do it right, and apply all the concepts you mentioned to a case that has a capacity and thus ballistic advantage over current offerings.
Offering a 7 prc based on a very slightly shorter 300 prc with a capacity around 90 + grains could have been a huge win.
Instead Hornady lame ducked it just like they did with the 6.5 version.
I'm not mad just disappointed

On another note, stuffing a longer bullet into a saami throated 7 RM will get very similar velocity, HSM offers 180 vld ammo that's getting 2850 ish.
We've already seen some manufactures like Browning offer faster twist barrels in 7mm