Historical Question- Lapua 7mm rem mag brass production

[klee]

I recently purchased 140 cases of once fired Lapua 7mm rem mag belted brass. Lapua does not make this brass anymore. Does anyone know when Lapua stopped making this brass?

I did many pages of google searching on the internet and found that Accuracy International went in with Lapua to make some 7mm rem mag belt brass for the US Secret Service as well as the British Intelligence back in the early to mid 60's. The US SS had at one point chosen the 7mm rem mag as their sniper rifle needs but later went to different caliber. I Just want to find out if I'm sitting on some pretty historical brass or not.

Thanks

Klee

 

[Autorotate19]

Not sure but I sure wish I could get some. Id use it

 

[Kevin Thomas]

Hi Klee,

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

 

[klee]

Hi Klee,

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

Thanks for that info. I should have mentioned that the head stamp on the brass says: Lapua 7mm rem mag. But it makes sense that if norma made the brass for Lapua that the Lapua stamp would go on the brass. It could have been that Accuracy International made the brass for Lapua with the Lapua stamp on it. But I guess it's such a minor point. I'm just trying to find out if there is any interesting history behind the brass. Knowing that it could be a Norma product is nice to know. I know my 7mm buddies are gonna raise an eyebrow and grill me with questions when I show them the brass.

Klee

 

[Kevin Thomas]

There's actually some pretty interesting little interchanges that go on behind the scenes from time to time in this industry, and this sounds like one of them. Like I said, I'll have to confirm this with the factory, but I know that the 300 Win Mag stuff we sold some years back (complete with Lapua headstamp) were made by Norma. It's not just overseas stuff, either. Sierra used to make a few types of bullets for Speer (pistol stuff, mostly), and produced hundreds of millions of Gas Checks for Lyman. Last time I went through the Smith & Wesson plant, their hammer forges were turning out Weatherby actions. Makes for some strange bedfellows at times, but it does keep the machines running, and that's always a good thing.

As to the headstamp on your 7mm Mag brass, Lapua's extremely quality conscious. It may have been produced by Norma (and they make pretty good products in their own right), but the QC standards would have had to have met Lapua's specs. Should be good brass, no matter how you slice it!

Kevin Thomas
Lapua USA

 

[260shooter]

Kevin

A 7MM Scenar in the 160 to 180 range would be a winner. To steal a line from a Kevin Kostner movie. If you build it poeple will buy the s^*t of it! Or something like that.

260

 

[Kevin Thomas]

Funny you should mention that! I've passed along the same advice several times now, since I shoot a 7mm in HP Silhouette competition. Here I work for Lapua and have to shoot Berger bullets in that particular game . . . but I do still use Lapua brass and Vihtavuori powders. The 7mm bore is a real hole in our line and several of us are trying toget them to fill that gap. Nothing firm at this time, but I can assure you, you're not the only one who'd like to see a line up of Lapua 7mm match bullets.

Thanks!

Kevin Thomas
Lapua USA

 

[PrecisionRifleBlog]

This is actually a pretty confusing question. I had read this several months ago, then when I was at the 2013 Shot Show I noticed Lapua's new reloading manual also listed the 7mm Rem Mag loads to be using a Lupua case. They also reference that on their website. I talked to the Fins at the booth about it a little, and wrote a recent blog post that sums up the conspiracy up to this point.

Check out the full article here: http://precisionrifleblog.com/2013/05/31/lapua-brass-for-7mm-rem-mag/