We see a lot of RWS 308 Win brass in the UK as the GB NRA has a contract with RUAG to manufacture the cartridge for GB 'Target Rifle' competition and NRA sales at Bisley. The factory load has the original 155gn Sierra MK loaded to somewhere around 2,925-2,925 fps in a 30-inch 'tight' TR barrel with a Palma 95 or Bisley 150 type chamber. It shoots very well.
As the NRA retains all fired brass from major comps that use this stuff as 'issued ammunition', and as many GB TR shooters who buy supplies for other comps don't handload, the resulting large quantities of once-fired cases have been almost a drug on the market and are sold on at what is a bargain price compared to that of new unprimed brass.
In terms of quality and weights/capacities, they're very similar to 308 Lapua. Same neck thickness too. I've had just a 'feeling' they're not as hard as Lapua in the head / web area so a warm load sees expanded primer pockets a loading or two earlier. In terms of results, there's little or nothing between them, and it's more a matter of good and not so good batches. Weights aren't maybe quite as consistent as Lapua, but still very good - but several people I know and trust are saying they think recent Lapua 308 isn't as good as it used to be, anyway.
Otherwise, although we have importers in the UK, RWS is generally bought for cartridges that Lapua doesn't make. Ian Boxall (Elwood on this forum) used RWS 7x57mm brass to reform to a wildcat called the 6mm Crusader two or three seasons back and walked away with our one annual short-range (4 matches at 600 yards) league round shooting it. Ian was full of praise for the brass - very strong too, he said, and he was running some seriously hot loads in the cartridge.
As the NRA retains all fired brass from major comps that use this stuff as 'issued ammunition', and as many GB TR shooters who buy supplies for other comps don't handload, the resulting large quantities of once-fired cases have been almost a drug on the market and are sold on at what is a bargain price compared to that of new unprimed brass.
In terms of quality and weights/capacities, they're very similar to 308 Lapua. Same neck thickness too. I've had just a 'feeling' they're not as hard as Lapua in the head / web area so a warm load sees expanded primer pockets a loading or two earlier. In terms of results, there's little or nothing between them, and it's more a matter of good and not so good batches. Weights aren't maybe quite as consistent as Lapua, but still very good - but several people I know and trust are saying they think recent Lapua 308 isn't as good as it used to be, anyway.
Otherwise, although we have importers in the UK, RWS is generally bought for cartridges that Lapua doesn't make. Ian Boxall (Elwood on this forum) used RWS 7x57mm brass to reform to a wildcat called the 6mm Crusader two or three seasons back and walked away with our one annual short-range (4 matches at 600 yards) league round shooting it. Ian was full of praise for the brass - very strong too, he said, and he was running some seriously hot loads in the cartridge.
