I spent a few hours working the internet and the phone lines.

If indeed Remington has dumped the 416 Rem Mag cartridge case (and it very much looks to be the case), there will be large, and ongoing supplies of a well made replacement available in the not too distant future.

For right now:
1. You can buy cases from Qual Cart.
2. Buffalo Bore has some Bell cases left.
3. Cases made by Dieter Horneber are available from Reimar Johannsen in Germany. I buy stuff from then about once a year. They ask for a bank to bank wire transfer. That is not a big deal.
4. Cor Bon should have some loaded ammunition available soon, if not already. I do not know what projectiles they are using.

I will expedite getting my 006 FFL and will then have available loaded ammunition with 350 grain Swift A-Frames, 400 grain Swift A-Frames, and 380 grain North Forks, both softs and solids. They will be sealed for and aft and will be packaged in those brown "ammo-wallets" that MTM makes.

LD

Is the Remington brand brass that good or is it just a supply issue? I will look at home tonight but I think I have 100 new cases (I saw them a month ago)I bought on a whim right after the 416 Rem came out thinking I would buy the gun to go with it, but never did. I have been happy with my Rigby and just never had a great deal appear on a Rem nor the desire to build one. I will post them in the classifieds if I can find them.

Matthew

It is a supply issue. Horneber is a better case. If Hornady, Jamison, Norma or RWS were to make 416 Rem Mag cases, all would likely be better than the Remington product.

I just got used to having the Remington cases available off and on in lots of 500 cases for a very decent price.

I stocked up 10 years ago.Remington does this every 8 years to the awesome 416 rem mag.I wish winchester had made this cartridge instead of remington.I mostly shooted reduced loads which extands the life of the brass.I like a 350 gr bullet at 2400 fps which is plenty for all north american game.I really liked the 325 gr Barnes bullets which they gave up the ghost on.I had them to 2800 fps .I hope the 416 ruger does good.I wish it had been out a while back.i wish i had snagged more than 2 cases of the nickel plated cases .I got 8,000 caes plus alot of once fired brass.I really like the 416 rem mag as my # 1 all around big bore.The 375 just does not do it for me and the 458 and bigger stuff kicks to much.

JC

I'd stay away from Bell. Some may be just fine but the stuff I got (want some?) will show ejector marks nearly 9,000psi under the operating pressure of the factory loads I had. At the same pressures, the Rem cases showed no indications of stress what so ever. Like I said, some may be fine or even great but, at best, they are inconsistent.

Buffalo Bore is now out of the Bell cases. They called yesterday to say they were sold out. I ordered 200 Remington cases from Arms and Ammo last night and the returned email said they were in stock and would ship.

Just ordered a hundred pieces from Arms and Ammo. Paid too much, but I can't believe I had an action barreled, haven't got the real stock ordered and Remington has discontinued the brass for my chosen caliber(again). The nice lady at Arms and Ammo said they had a good supply of .416 Rem Mag brass in stock.

I've still got some of the brass that I initially purchased and I can make perfectly useable practice brass out of Hornady Basic Belted brass. This hundred will lay in wait for my first DG hunt.

quote:

I wish winchester had made this cartridge instead of remington.

What would the big bore landscape look like today, if back in the 1950's Winchester backed the 375H&H,(instead of cursing the length) introduced the equivalent of the 416Rem and 458Lott. Heck, then they could have their own version of the 300 Weatherby.

Never did the post 64 changes to the model 70. Decided to re-introduce the Model 92 and 85.

Oh, Damn - I just woke up

hornady basic brass

Thanks for the heads up on the Bell cases Mike. They were cheap enough, but forewarned is forearmed.

I will just use them for 350 grain FNGC lead bullets at very low pressure. Hogs and such.

I converted some Hornady basic last year on a cold, snowy Saturday. That worked well.

I believe that Remington will not have to worry about making more of this brass, even if they want to.

I do not have any problem getting 416 Rem cases.
From midway.

Isn't the 416 Rem a necked up and blown out 375 H&H? If you're shooting gascheck lead bullets why not fireform some 375 cases? They are plentiful and relatively inexpensive, at least compared to .416 brass.

Jerry Liles

Guys, if you are really stuck, I have some Remington 8mm Magnum cases that could be necked up. I have 1000 cases. IdahoSharpshooter is going to take half of those and I want to keep back 200 or so for my 8Mag but I could spare 300 if you are really in a bind.

quote:

Isn't the 416 Rem a necked up and blown out 375 H&H? If you're shooting gascheck lead bullets why not fireform some 375 cases? They are plentiful and relatively inexpensive, at least compared to .416 brass.

Jerry - Thank you for the input. That is a safe way to go.

I still have 500+ of the real deal cases.

8mm Rem Mag are an easy neck up.

The Hornady basic belted brass is also a very easy squeeze down.

Please excuse me for playing secret squirrel, but the conversations I had a few days ago give a reasonable level of confidence that a solid producer of brass will be running off 100,000 or so cases in the next few months, and will then keep them going as a regular stocked item.

jro45 - I checked Midway yesterday and didn't find any 416 Rem Mag brass, but I will happily check again today.

There is also the possibility that Graf's, Midway, etc. have talked to Remington in an effort to reconsider... I have no idea how likely that might be.

In any case, I may learn something about brass behavior from the Bell brass pieces. Is there a standard way of measuring brass hardness? Other than a skilled hand and a pair of pliers, that is.

LD

The Bell stuff was thinner (24 grains lighter) than Rem but I don't know if that should be used as a reliable measure. I don't know of a true way to check hardness that wouldn't at least put a big ding in the brass, rendering it unusuable. In my rifle, the Rem stuff was 66KSI and you could start to see marks on the Bell at 56KSI and by 60KSI things looked real spooky. Bell is all I had for a while but I stopped all loads at 60K anyway. When I finally got some Rem, I ran it up just to see what would happen. At 66K there was no problem at all and at 68K there still wasn't. My shoulder didn't want much more than that and I wasn't testing cases anyway

Again, I don't know if it is in any way a sure thing but every lot of brass that I have tested that appeared a tad frosty (large grain structure), would not handle pressure as well as ones that weren't frosty. Softness goes hand and hand with the size of the grains but I just don't know if a "visual" is reliable enough to tell that. I would guess that any frostiness could be tumbled off where you wouldn't see it anyway.

Thanks Mike,

I may dig out the strain gauge assembly (we just moved) to check things out. I have a 25X loupe somewhere...

I asked Santa for a metallurists microscope for christmas one year - no go.

quote:

hornady basic brass

Unless you're worried about "proper headstamp", this is the way to go!