  We have fabricated a series of iron-sheathed superconducting wires prepared
by the powder-in-tube technique from (MgB_2)_{1-x}:(Mg+2B)_x initial powder
mixtures taken with different proportions, so that x varies from 0 to 1. It
turned out that "ex-situ" prepared wire (x = 0) has considerable disadvantages
compared to all the other wires in which "in-situ" assisted (0 < x < 1) or pure
"in-situ" (x = 1) preparation was used due to weaker inter-grain connectivity.
As a result, higher critical current densities J_c were measured over the
entire range of applied magnetic fields B_a for all the samples with x > 0.
Pinning of vortices in MgB_2 wires is shown to be due to grain boundaries.
J_c(B_a) behavior is governed by an interplay between the transparency of grain
boundaries and the amount of "pinning" grain boundaries. Differences between
thermo-magnetic flux-jump instabilities in the samples and a possible threat to
practical applications are also discussed.
