Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles Winchester vs prvi - advice requested

I can get Winchester and prvi brass locally (7mm rem mag). I was told old blue bag Winchester brass is fine, but the newer red bag stuff should be avoided - not sure why or if there is even any truth to that. I know even less about the prvi stuff.

I’m a hunter not a target shooter and typically lose my brass before I ever wear it out. They are priced within $2 of each other for bags of 50.


Which would you buy?

I would like to buy locally, but if both are junk I would be willing to mail order. If that’s the case, what brand(s) should I look for?

Thanks in advance.

I would buy the WW. Give my experience/observation PRVI brass has never been good, current WW ain’t great but my experience with it hasn’t been as bad as others have suggested.

You can try the red bag WW, but I don't have high hopes for it. The stuff I've seen/had was garbage. Really thin, and caused issues with neck tension. YMMV, but I know of others that have had issues with that brass as well. If you can find older WW, or even R-P, that is what I'd buy. If I were wanting brass for a 7mm RM, I'd probably even buy factory blue box Federal, or Hornady ammo, shoot those, and make brass.

I used 300 WM Prvi brass and couldn't tell the difference between it and FC or Win in group size. Nosler and Remington are a lot better, Nosler had the best groups.

The red bag Winchester brass has a lot of defects. Bad enough that quality control should never have let it leave the factory. Defects that I have seen are shoulder folds, shredded case mouths, collapsed shoulders, oblong flash holes, and damaged rims. The last 50 count red bag W-W brass I bought, 25 of the cases were defective.

Now I’ve not used a ton of the PRVI but that which I have used were much better than the red bag brass.

I've had great success with Prvi Partizan brass and bullets. PPU 286gr 9.3x57mm bullets are my favorite. Recently got some 8x57mm Mauser PPU brass as well and it's top notch. Very nicely annealed.

I've used alot of blue winchester 308 win brass, but not much of the more recent red bag stuff. Blue bag is indeed just fine. Red bag, on the otherhand, headstamps look like a team of value, aka, cost cutting manufacturing engineers had their way. They forget that the customer is watching.

There are folks that sell used range pick up brass.... one I've used is based here locally. Their pricing has always been pretty darn good.

https://brassmanbrass.com/

They usually have a lot of stuff in the 7 Rem Mag caliber.

They get this stuff from Police Ranges and the Manufacturers and Gun Manufacturers. who use the brass for testing barrels and verifying accuracy quality. These are usually once fired....

and much of what they carry is older production....

Buy the Prvi.

Hornady or Prvi... i bought several bags of "Red Bag" 7 Mag during the recent shortage (never opened it), after reading the reviews, i think i will blow it off...

Good info seafire. I wonder why they have a lot of 7mm RM range pick up though. I rarely see it at the range. I find a lot of 223, 308, 6.5 creedmoor and even 300 blackout though!!! I sometimes feel sorry for guys that don't have a shop that they can buy brass from. I have one here, that I always go to when I need brass. He usually has it. Even really hard to find stuff. The last time I was there, he had about 500 pcs of new 358 Winchester brass, and a couple hundred new 284 Win. And so much inbetween. If I buy a rifle and need brass, he's the first shop I visit. Everyone needs a "go to" shop like that. Get out and stretch your legs people!!!

I am currently using PPU and Red Bag Winchester in my 7mm mag cause it was all I could get. No problem with either. I would say the PPU is a little softer. It seems a little easier to full length resize. I have had no problems with either and would buy again. I just bought some PPU 308'S AND HAVE USED PPU 22Hornte brass for years . No problem ( coyotes don't seem to know they have been shot with East European brass).

I tried to buy 7x57 Mauser brass but it was cheaper to buy the PPU loaded ammunition. Odd you can't find brass for a caliber that has been around for over a 130 years.

I really like the old WW brass, but have heard a lot of negatives about the new WW brass. I bought my first Prvi brass last year for an old obsolete military cartridge …..I’m not impressed. It is a rimmed cartridge, and when sizing the brass some fit nicely into the shell holder, while others require a lot of force to insert them into the shell holder. Very inconsistent in dimensions! memtb

Having looked into buying new brass for a couple of my rifles, I mostly gave up on it. Even at current ammo prices, I can usually buy loaded ammunition for the same price (or cheaper). When I got my 9.3x62, I saw that I could buy two PP loaded cartridges for the price of one empty casing. I have read that the Prvi brass wears out faster than some of the so-called premium brands, but I figure if I have twice as much of it, then that is really immaterial. I ended up with 120 rounds of Hornady factory seconds and 120 rounds of Prvi 9.3x62 loaded. It all looks horribly irregular as loaded ammo. I doubt there are any two rounds in a given box that are the same OAL. But since it is already cheaper than the empty brass, I can spend an afternoon pulling the bullets and reloading them (or just use them as primed brass) and still come out ahead on the transaction.

My basic approach when I buy any new rifle now is to order 200 rounds of factory ammo for it, use that sighting in, getting a feel for what bullets it likes best, and getting comfortable with the rifle. Then work up a load or two and get enough components to reload each four or five times. If I manage to shoot 1000-1200 rounds from each of my rifles in the next 30 years (I'm 45), I'll be pretty happy. With proper storage, I should be able to pass on something to my daughter. While I used to love playing with obscure calibers, I've come more around to making sure I have some of the standard, "always should be available" calibers in my safe. My grandchildren might not be able to find 7x57R, but they should be able to find .30-06 (especially if I also leave them $700), .270, .243, .308, etc.

PPU is far superior to the Winchester brass you buy today.

There is an exception, for whatever reason, wsm brass seems to be really good from Winchester.

Get some ADG.

The only Privi brass I have is 100 rounds of loaded ammo. Some company in Australia used it to load 120 gr. monometal bullets for 7x57. Price was right but I have as yet shot any of it. The ammo looks good and as to fit in the shell hold, I ran all 100 round the several proper sized shell holder and no problems there. From what I've heard on the various sites I go to, that brass has gotten some very positive comments.

On the other hand, I've always preferred Winchester brass and when I lucked in almost 500 rounds of 7x57 brass, 300 from Winchester and 250 more from Remington I snagged the whole pile. I also grabbed 300 rounds of Winchester .358 Win. brass as well. That was sometime about ten or so years ago when Winchester brass was quite decent. I load 7x57 pretty darn hot and both Winchester and Remington brass has held up quite well.
PJ

Ive used a ton of Prvi. Heavy but lasts forever.

I used some PRVI a while back and I wasn't happy with the case necks. They were tapered in thickness top to bottom. Not a dreaded donut near the shoulder, but an actual taper. As a result, they didn't mix well with the collet sizing die I like to use.

I had that issue with PPU 222 brass, they didn't play well with my collet neck sizer at all; kept getting neck wrinkles. I just went back to FL sizing and haven't had any issues since.

I occasionally find a fat rim on thier 303 Savage brass too, but overall I've had less problems with PPU than newer production Win or RP brass.