Annealing and Case prep questions: Clean/size/Anneal? or Clean/Anneal/size?

H

helocat

Inactive
(Yes I did searches on the board before posting. I am new to the board but not new to forums)

I have almost 20+ yrs experience pistol loading, but very little rifle loading experience.

Annealing questions:

Cleaning first makes common sense, will just assume this is always first.

Next do you Anneal? OR do you deprime and resize, then anneal?

I have seen both discussed and both shown on youtube.

I run a progressive press so I like the idea of resizing and depriming AFTER, annealing. This way I can keep the brass in the press. It also makes since to size after annealing so any deformation from heat is corrected by the neck sizing process. (probably not enough time to deform, but still)

BUT next question.... When do you trim the case? It would seem to trim the case after resizing the case to offset any stretch. So perhaps the case needs to be sized then removed for trimming.

Quality brass probably makes the difference on how often for all of this.
 
My suggestion is to deprime before anneal. If you accidentally get a live primer mixed in it will make you change your pants.

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I clean, anneal, lube, size/de-prime, corn cob tumble to remove lube and shine up the brass, and then trim if necessary. I do this on my Rockchucker. When I go to load I switch over to the Dillon 550. I also anneal every other time.

You will find that there are many different methods. I have a buddy that sizes/deprimes after the initial cleaning then wet tumbles with SS pins, then anneals, and trims. He likes the nice shiny lower case with the evidence of heat at the top.
 
I don't think there is any right way or wrong way.

The way I process my cases, I resize, clean, then anneal.

No reason not to clean, anneal and resize.

I would not anneal a dirty case, just based on assumption it would cook stuff on that might not come off reasonably.
 
Annealing before resize so the case resized easier.

As for cleaning, metallic residue can introduce issues.
I clean first, then anneal.
Depending on what customer wants, polishing can be done after annealing and/or resizing.

I actually wash to get grime off, polish somewhat to dry and clean up a little more, case roll, anneal, resize if ordered that way, and high polish/wax if ordered that way.
Some guys actually want annealing to show, so when ordered that way, annealing is done last (no was in annealer! Stinks like crazy.)
 
helocat,

Just so you know, the reason to anneal brass is because the case necks have work hardened and you are getting spring back (neck dimensions are larger than before). So, ideally you would resize after annealing so the necks would not spring back and would be dimensionally correct to give you good neck tension. Hope that helps.

Don
 
If you anneal often enough, the brass is still fine.

Ergo you can do it in any order.

I am doing mine at 3 to 5.

There is no distortion of the case if the annealing temperature is correct.

That is more difficult that it might seem.
 
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