To all,

I have asked the shooters on shooter.com about this and have gotten a little response and would like to know what you think.

Last fall I had Virgin Valley build me an Encore barrel using a 7mm Lilja 15" stainless barrel blank I had in the safe. I wanted a high performance, long range big game round and was going to go with the 7mm Rem Mag when I noticed they chambered for the 7.21 Tomahawk.

Well I got the barrel back just before last falls big game season and barely got the barrel broke in and had time to develope one load for the season.

I got load data from Lazzeroni and started with his starting load of Rl-19 under the 140 gr Ballistic Silvertip. This round is stated to be able to get 3400 fps with the 140 gr pill in a 26" pipe. I had talked with a fellow handgunner who used the 7.82 Patriot in a 15" XP-100 and got +3000 fps with the 150 gr ballistic Tip.

Well I started loading test rounds from the starting load up to the max load. As I tested them I noticed the cases were getting a shiny ring around the heads. Obvious case head seperation warnings. Problem was that I knew my chamber was cut to very tight specs, in fact I had trouble closing the action on sized cases.

To make a long story short, I was having full head seperation long before I got to max pressures. I soon found out that the large diameter Tomahawk case greated enough "bolt thrust" to stretch the Encore frame and allow the cases to stretch.

Finally I come to my question. In all this testing and measuring of internal case dimensions, I found that the Lazzeroni brass, which costs $2 per case, had very poor body wall consistency. On most cases, one side would measure around 0.035" and the other side would run around 0.065". This was on virgin brass. It also was discovered that the case always failed on the thin side of the case(no suprise).

I made a call to Mr. Lazzeroni to ask about any quality control problems with their 7.21 brass and he got insulted and told me that there was no possible way that his brass would have measurements like this and that I needed to learn how to use my tools better to take more accurate measurements.

I then measured the following cases and sent the results to him on e-mail:

17 Rem
223 Rem
22-250 Rem
220 Swift
243 Win
6mm-284 Win
25-06 Rem
270 Win
7mm-08 Rem
7mm Rem Mag
300 Rem Ultra Mag
375 Rem Ultra Mag

Not one of these had a case wall 0.010" greater or less then the other side.

He never replied back.

Has anyone else had any experience with these brass and if so, how do they compare in concentricity?

I know the Encore is strained with this round so I down load it. Still I get +2750 fps with the 140 gr ballistic Silver Tip, about 100 fps faster then my 270 win Encore with 140 gr Ballistic Tip.

your experience would be great.

Good Hunting and Shooting!!

50

50,
You might try the same post on the single shot pistol forum. I don't think there is a large number of shooters who have used Lazz brass in any specialty pistol. I still don't have a concentricity gauge yet. I wonder how many other handgun hunters do?
xphunter

Xphunter,

I believe your right, how are your XP's shooting for you lately?

Barrel for 338 WSM ahould be here in about 1 week, getting excited!

Good Shooting!

50

50,
Check out my post on the singleshot forum. Yesterday, was a frustrating day with the Patriot, but everything should correct by the end of next week. The 284 is fine, it will be my main shooter for the clinic.
xphunter