The much anticipated 7mm PRC design by Hornady is in the news.  As if pre-planned, the articles piled up this week.

The Hornady 7 PRC is a new long-range hunting and competition cartridge that slides neatly into the gap that exists between the 6.5 PRC and 300 PRC. The best way to think about this round is as an updated version of the venerable 7mm Rem. Mag. I’ve been hunting and shooting with the 7mm PRC for a couple months now and I think it is going to do extremely well, particularly with Western and open-country big game hunters.

First of all, it fits in between the 6.5 PRC and the 300 PRC, which Hornady wants to be replacements for the 6.5mm Creedmoor and the 300 Win Mag, which they believe leave too much free bore and don’t fit well into the lands, leaving open the potential for bullet deformation when the bullet enters the lands.  So this 7mm PRC design not only fits in between the 6.5 PRC and the 300 PRC, it would fit in between the 6.5 Creedmoor and the 300 Win Mag, which aren’t even mentioned in the article.  He goes into some of the details on what Hornady intends to be available bullet designs, and then let’s pick it up later.  This next bit is interesting and correct if you have wondered about why new cartridge designs are being investigated.

The hallmarks of modern cartridge design include:

• Faster twist rates to stabilize heavy-for-caliber, long ogive, high BC bullets
• Adequate neck length on the case for consistent neck tension
• Headspacing off a steep-angled shoulder
• Minimal case taper
• Fine-tuned throat dimensions and taper (usually 1.5 deg.) in chamber
• Moderate muzzle velocities that deliver consistent shot-to-shot MVs and take advantage of the aeroballistically-efficient bullets the cartridge is designed for. This leads to better precision and longer barrel life

The 7mm PRC incorporates all these elements.

This is why he said this cartridge is an “updated version” of the venerable 7mm Mag.

The author says he got Miles Neville, an engineer with Hornady, to help him with accuracy testing.  I can say with utter confidence, Miles has the greatest engineering job on earth.

Unfortunately, there are two needs for a cartridge to be successful.  Rifles, and ammunition.  The manufacturers are making them now (and some already have), but the ammo may be a bit hard to find, at least initially, and then never if this turns out to be a “flash in a pan.”

Next up, Alloutdoor.com has three articles on current guns in production to shoot the 7mm PRC.

Mossberg Patriot Predator.  At an MSRP $616, this is an entry level rifle.

Savage.  They go the spectrum from their 10 Apex Hunter XP with an MSRP of $709, to their Impulse Mountain Hunter at $2,437.00.  It’s quite a good looking rifle, and certainly not entry level.

Then finally, as one would expect, Gunwerks breaks the bank with the ridiculous price of $9000.  You could have a gunsmith do a custom build for less than that.

It will be interesting to see where the 7mm PRC goes from here.