Annealing

S

sako2

New member
I was looking for a annealing machine to do my 6.5 prc cases. Found a brand new Bench source at a gun show that i got for $350. I annealed my caes and shot some today. I was getting soot on the necks before. Today my cases didn't look like fired ones. No soot on the necks. I shot this same load over my chrono before and today they were 40 fps faster. Does that seem possible?
 
Less gas escaping around the brass (the cause of the soot) means the pressure curve starts up slightly earlier, resulting in a little bit higher peak pressure and more bullet velocity.
 
now imagine firing a mix of rounds with different degrees of hardening. That is where I ran into problems when I quit annealing for a bit and some of my cases with different numbers of firings got mixed together. Now I just anneal every case, every firing.
 
hounddawg said:
now imagine firing a mix of rounds with different degrees of hardening. That is where I ran into problems when I quit annealing for a bit and some of my cases with different numbers of firings got mixed together. Now I just anneal every case, every firing.
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That's what I do. I anneal each case every time I load it during brass prep. Since, I have had the pleasure of far more consistent velocity spreads too.
 
I just started annealing my brass as well. I too noticed less soot on my cases and POI shifted about 1" high right along with my groups opening up a bit. The next loads I made I dropped my powder charge by .3 grains and brought my POI and groups back to where they were before. My SD has improved from 12 fps to 7 fps. Not something I'll ever noticed at the ranges I shoot but a single digit SD sure makes me feel good.
 
A friend full length sized a Federal 308 Winchester case over 50 times shooting Sierra 168 grain bullets at 100 yards. No annealing whatsoever yet the group size extreme spread was 3/8ths inch.
 
If it's not broke Don't fix it. But when your splitting necks on $4.00 a pieces brass try fixing it.:D
 
I anneal to enhance brass life. Didn't notice improvement on MV though.

Talking about change in MV, don't ignore temperature effect. I noticed 0.15% per degree C. Same load fired at 60F and 80F (about 11C difference), the difference in MV is easily 50fps for a .223 Rem load.

-TL

Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk
 
Bart B,

I wonder what difference it makes at 1000 yards vs 100 yards. I was under the impression most top shooters in the world anneal their brass.

50 uses out of 1 case is pretty remarkable. I figured his primer pocket would have been toast long before.

I was also under the impression that annealing ammunition stemmed from the military to help with longterm storage and that accuracy was a bi product of this
 
Annealing every 5 loads, I can do 20-30 loads. Full length resizing without annealing, neck split probably happens less than 10 loads. Primer pocket is too loose when primer falls out by its own weight. I don't do hot loads, it seldom happens.

-TL

Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk
 
Bryan Litz did a test with the AMP annealer in one of his books on 308 cases and used velocity consistency as the criteria and measured no advantage in cases annealed every time over cases not annealed over ten rounds. However, guys on the Long Range Hunting Forum say they do see a difference with 300 WM and that this is very cartridge dependent. I would want to run my own tests before I could be convinced. But as far as the elimination of soot goes, as the OP described, it should help with that.
 
Or the case is now over annealed and its just soft and will stay that way.

Temperature Quality control is extremely hard.

Lapua brass in the 6.5 x 47 has proven to hold up well.

That said, I could feel the difference in seating after annealing a trial batch of 15. Much more resistance. My take is the non annealed are getting soft.

I don't claim any benefit other than saving cases and at a $1 or more a case, yea its worth it.
 
RC20, perhaps your seating resistance is influnced by lack of rebound when the neck is sized. Hardened brass will resist the effort to size and you get spring back. With the Annie, preheated, I don't feel any difference in bullet seating with that run of brass, mixed. That was what let to the Annie, I couldn't get it uniform.
 
Just seat of the pants opinion but the only time I saw a difference was when shooting groups using cases with different numbers of firings on them. Annealing just keeps everything even if you are disorganized like me and can't keep the cases on the same number of firings.
 
Hounddawg,

This is why I only use 1 Brand of brass now. It was a nightmare using 4 different manufacturers of brass in different lots.

If 30-06 starline brass ever comes back available ill buy another 500
 
akinswi said:
Hounddawg,

This is why I only use 1 Brand of brass now. It was a nightmare using 4 different manufacturers of brass in different lots.

If 30-06 starline brass ever comes back available ill buy another 500
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I basically only use Lapua cases for rifle ammunition. For handgun ammunition, I am not as picky. I have had excellent luck with Sig Saur brass in my semi-auto pistols.
 
Each time you fire and resize a case the brass gets a little work hardened. This adds up a bit each cycle. Take 10 cases with different numbers of firings and resizing and each neck will have a slightly different neck tension which is what will affect the accuracy. Keep all the brass on the same number of firings and you will never see a problem. As Akinski pointed out different manufacturers and even different lot #'s can have a different composition. Consistency is precision reloading's main principle.
 
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