Small superconducting magnets were fabricated with powder metallurgy processed Nb‐Al wire and with powder metallurgy processed multistrand Cu‐Nb–Sn wire with 19 tin cores. Tests in a background field of up to 15 T showed that short sample characteristics were achieved for three coils. Upper limits of resistivity were established for both powder metallurgy processed wires. The reacted wires in the magnets gave upper limits of resistivity at 10 T of less than 1.4×10−14&OHgr; cm for the Nb3Sn wire, and less than 9×10−13&OHgr; cm for the Nb‐Al wire.