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case annealing - who's doing it?

2K views 8 replies 5 participants last post by  GMFWoodchuck 
#1 ·
Those who are fans of annealing, have some experience and good techniques please chime in here. I'm interested to see if anyone is getting longer lives from their brass, or have noticed accuracy improvements by doing so.

I noticed a good portion of Lake City .223 brass looked to be annealed in the past but don't see it anymore, true?
 
#2 · (Edited)
I dont do it anymore simply because its a pain in the butt. But when I did anneal, mostly .45/70, I used a baking dish with the cases set on end side by side in water. I would heat the neck to a cherry glow and push them over in the water to quench. Only do about 10 or 15 at a time and change the water after every batch. it heats up pretty quick. Annealing is supposed to make bullet pull from case to case more consistent thereby making your rounds more accurate, but the accuracy gain is only realized at extremely long distances (past 500 yds) Its also supposed to add to the life of your cases making them more maleable and less stressed from constant firing and resizing. When I used to shoot BP silhouette Id anneal and trim every time I reloaded my .45/70s, but toward the end it just became an unneccesary step for me. But it does carry its advantages...
 
#3 · (Edited)
I have an annealing "test" going. It's in another thread. Basically I have 20 annealed, and 20 unannealed. Every 5 shots I'm reannealing. It's going a bit slower than I what I had intended that test to take, But I'm up to 7 reloads so far. 7 for the unanealled, and 5 before annealing and 2 after. Nothing to report as of yet. I can't really tell a diference yet. I suspect I will see little until 10 reloads before I see anything any way.

By the way, I'm testing midrange power loads (same for both) for 22-250. My first 7 were 32.5-33.5 grains of IMR 3031. I will be switching to H4895 being that I'm almost out of the IMR powder. And I'm annealing per Varmint Al's recommendation. http://www.varmintal.net/arelo.htm

I hope that there is little difference. Only so I do not have to anneal being that it's a pain. *chuckle*
 
#5 ·
Thank for your input guys, I understand the principles of annealing and what the theory is, I am wondering how are your experiences if you are doing it.

GMF - I would really like to know how things go with your experiment, please keep us posted! Thanks.
 
#6 ·
When reloading you got two choices,

Aneal, and bring back the soft necks on your brass

Dont aneal and let them crystalize, crack, and throw them out

You decide

a little gas now, new brass later
True, but the trouble is that at 30 dollars for fifty cartrigdes I'm down to them only costing a few cents per shell per reload with out the annealing. I'm curious to see what I can bring it down to. However, at the rate I'm going what little brass actually costs per reload I do not think that it's going to be a habit that I commit to very much. The bullets are cost way more than that.
 
#7 ·
BEWARE OF LOADING H. P. RIFLE CASES EXCESSIVELY.

Most experienced HP rifle reloaders are aware that the pressure causes the case to flow forward making case neck (OAL) trimming necessary. Many reloaders are not aware that the case neck also tends to grow thicker with each firing. This fact and general lack of knowledge about it has caused several spectacular failures of rifles over the years.

The outside neck diameter of a reloaded high power (especially bottle-neck) cartridge should be measured with a micrometer and compared to the blueprint dimension in a respected reloading manual. If it is oversize, pull the bullet and scrap the case.
 
#8 ·
BEWARE OF LOADING H. P. RIFLE CASES EXCESSIVELY.

Most experienced HP rifle reloaders are aware that the pressure causes the case to flow forward making case neck (OAL) trimming necessary. Many reloaders are not aware that the case neck also tends to grow thicker with each firing. This fact and general lack of knowledge about it has caused several spectacular failures of rifles over the years.

The outside neck diameter of a reloaded high power (especially bottle-neck) cartridge should be measured with a micrometer and compared to the blueprint dimension in a respected reloading manual. If it is oversize, pull the bullet and scrap the case.
Weatherby mags and RUMs are particularly bad about it. The 7mm STW is probably the worlds worst. Usually the neck will split and/or the round wont chamber after the neck becomes too thick, but there have been instances where some retard beat the bolt shut and fired one anyway causing catastrophic failure and a ball of fire that scorches everything in a 5 foot radius...
 
#9 ·
I also figure that resizing them stretches them as well. Expand, squeeze, only to be expanded again.... But do not worry I'm not going to hammer my gun shut. I suppose I could use one of them reamer kits to really extend how many shots they'll last if the neck thickness becomes an issue. Though I figured I would come across some sort of shoulder or body failure from the constant resizing and thinning rather than he neck being too thick. We will see....
 
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