Interesting article about annealing

I look forward to the next article. This one validated my thinking on brass cleaning and quenching after annealing. Spotless brass is cosmetic and there is no need to quench when annealing.

Steve
 
Thanks for a very good link that should help everyone to understand
what the benefits of good consistent annealing.

J E CUSTOM
 
I read that article sometime back and it shows a lot of facts + dispels a lot of speculation. I have been using the AMP setup for about 6-7 months (sold my BenchSource) and have not one complaint. My neck tension has been very consistent. Alex is a super guy to deal with and is testing and updating the program for nearly all brass and neck thickness for standard & turned necks.

A big $ outlay, but it was one of my best investments.
 
While for the last several years I have annealed my brass after 5 firings, prior to that I went through as many as 10-12 firings with no noticeable effect on accuracy, ES, or seating pressure with several rifle/cartridges. I have wondered about the necessity. I have noticed that the first bullet seating following the annealing process results in a distinct difference in seating pressure indicating some form of surface change on either the brass or the residual carbon residue inside the neck. Prior seating pressure is restored on subsequent firings. For this reason I will use some dry lube on the first load after an annealing. If annealing was truly un-necessary, I would just as soon eliminate the annealing process in preference for consistent seating pressure throughout the life of the brass, as well as saving time. I have generally chosen dye set-ups that would minimize over working the brass.
 
Annealing has always been somewhat controversial for many reasons and
like everything else , and If not done correctly can be useless or can damage the cases.

If done correctly, it can increase the consistency of the bullet grip, improve the brass life and prevent the premature splitting of the necks and shoulder. (the main reason I started annealing).

Over the years I have improved the end results and have seen the difference but I am still trying to get better and the most consistence
results.

Some habits may not be necessary (Like cleaning before annealing, but that's just me)

J E CUSTOM
 
I have bought and still have a few annealing kits over the years but have never used them for the sake of being lazy. That being said I recently processed 200 pieces of 6BR to 22BR and after neck turning and fire forming my ES was in the mid teens which is good enough for what the rifle is used for but I felt this could and should be better. At the range one day I was talking with a guy about his Labradar and ES and he mentioned he had an Amp Annealer and he volunteered to anneal 20 of my 22BR cases. I gave him the cases to take and a week or so later he returned them to me annealed. I loaded them up with my accuracy load and shot them over my Oehler and the ES was 4 fps for 20 rounds. To say I am sold is an understatement. I just have to now talk myself into spending the 1K for the machine
 
That was definitely a cool article. Thanks for posting the link.

I started annealing a few years back mainly to eliminate shoulder cracking after several firings on harder brass brands like Win & RP. Especially for cartridges like 280 AI and a 30 Hart (300 WBY AI). Norma or Nosler I've never had an issue. I've also never felt the need or seen a noticeable result in accuracy from annealing (or lack thereof). That is to say I've never annealed brass, shot it through X-firings, saw accuracy degrade, and then restored that accuracy by annealing. Just my experience. I've also never consistently monitored my velocities over a good chronograph so that is something to consider in the future.

I've also noticed that if I don't do some sort of dry neck lube or dry tumbling after annealing that the first rounds I load are noticeably harder to seat a bullet because of some sort of scale that builds up on the inside of the neck. Usually I just throw them in the tumbler for an hour or so and the small amount of media dust on them acts as a dry lube and they feel normal when seating again.

I took a few classes on metallurgy in college but haven't really used it. At some point last year I got in a small back-and-forth with a member on here when he stated "if your primer pockets start to get loose just heat them with a torch and dunk them in water. They'll harden back up". I politely stated that it was my understanding that you can't heat/quench brass like carbon steel that brass has to be work hardened and let it go at that. He disagreed with me but after reading this article it's nice to know I haven't completely lost it.
 
eshorebwhntr said:
That was definitely a cool article. Thanks for posting the link.

I started annealing a few years back mainly to eliminate shoulder cracking after several firings on harder brass brands like Win & RP. Especially for cartridges like 280 AI and a 30 Hart (300 WBY AI). Norma or Nosler I've never had an issue. I've also never felt the need or seen a noticeable result in accuracy from annealing (or lack thereof). That is to say I've never annealed brass, shot it through X-firings, saw accuracy degrade, and then restored that accuracy by annealing. Just my experience. I've also never consistently monitored my velocities over a good chronograph so that is something to consider in the future.

I've also noticed that if I don't do some sort of dry neck lube or dry tumbling after annealing that the first rounds I load are noticeably harder to seat a bullet because of some sort of scale that builds up on the inside of the neck. Usually I just throw them in the tumbler for an hour or so and the small amount of media dust on them acts as a dry lube and they feel normal when seating again.

I took a few classes on metallurgy in college but haven't really used it. At some point last year I got in a small back-and-forth with a member on here when he stated "if your primer pockets start to get loose just heat them with a torch and dunk them in water. They'll harden back up". I politely stated that it was my understanding that you can't heat/quench brass like carbon steel that brass has to be work hardened and let it go at that. He disagreed with me but after reading this article it's nice to know I haven't completely lost it.
Click to expand...
You were right.

Steve
 
Thanks for the thread as it sheds some light on stuff beyond my know how's.

I'm not up too speed on this annealing thing, but it seems to me that I'll do my neck sizing as normal, bump the shoulder back once in a while if I notice the cases are chambering tight.

Inspect, inspect, and inspect the brass at each reloading times,,, and keep a brass loading log page that I've been doing all along.

I got 8 FL sizing runs out of my Hornady brass as I can see outer fudge spots,,, and can feel the inner case wall splits with my in-side case pick.

Had I done more neck sizing only I could of got this brass too last longer then that.

I just switched over too Lapua brass from here on in,,, it will see neck sizing with the odd neck bump as I'll stretch the life out of it much past the Hornady stuff.

Don
 
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