Anneal after prep/sizing? Not the typical question...

[entoptics]

I normally salt bath anneal (540° C, 10 seconds) every firing, after a depriming the dirty brass and giving them a quick wash, but before any other preparation. Helping a buddy get a load set up for his new rifle, but due to various work/life factors, I got discombobulated, and forgot the annealing step. These particular brass are now fully prepped, except for trimming to length. This is once fired hornady brass from another rifle, fired once more in my buddy's rifle. So it's 2X fired, heading into 3rd firing.

So...

Is it worth it to anneal now, after a 0.002 shoulder bump in FL RCBS die then re-expanding the neck with Sinclair mandrel die? Of course I'd give them a quick wash to remove salts, then trim to uniform OAL.

or...

Fagetaboutit...And just load them up and proceed?

Vote or comment.

 

[AZHTR]

Fagetaboutit...And just load them up and proceed?

 

[KSAv8r]

Annealing after resizing will change the neck tension. I would suggest to load them up and go have fun. Anneal them next time as you normally do.

 

[Rick Richard]

Shoot and anneal next time.

 

[jimbires]

I agree , once fired brass will be fine to use without annealing this cycle .

 

[Citified]

With the price of good brass these days, I will continue to anneal to stretch the case life and keep the neck tension consistent.

 

[huntinghuasna]

I anneal first before starting any case prep (AMP), brass must be relatively clean.
I have used salt bath as well, remove primers only first.

 

[baldhunter]

Here are a couple of things I've noticed about brass.I buy a lot of once-fired brass.The first couple of times I load it the brass is still soft and I have a low percentage of run out without annealing.I also noticed once I got a Frankford Arsenal Trim and Prep Center,around the fourth firing when I was deburring and chamfering,I noticed I was getting some chatter because the brass was getting harder.Once this occured,I also noticed I was getting a higher percentage of runout on my loaded ammo.This is telling me that seating a bullet in a case that is hardened may result in a higher runout.After about the fourth or fifth firing,you start getting more case failure issues.Some people anneal after every firing and really that makes a lot of sence after what I have observed.I personally don't,but I think it should be done by at least after the third firing.

 

[VenatusDominus]

Depends on what you are going to be doing. If you need to squeeze out every fraction of an inch at 1000 yrds (bench rest or F-class competition) then I would anneal and resize, as annealing helps get consistent shoulder bump and neck tension in addition to brass life. If you are just shooting paper or steel to work up a load, then I would probably just load and shoot and anneal the next go around.

 

[Shootin4fun]

Agreed, load and shoot unless you are really depending on this batch for ES/SD statistics. If that's the case (no pun intended), then anneal and resize again.
The tests I have run show that if not annealed after second firing, ES/SD will rise.

 

[Flatbow]

Also depends on the caliber of rifle.
Some work the brass WAY harder than others.
However, I would say with most you could get by with loading them up and anneal them next time.

 

[lancetkenyon]

Trim/chamfer/deburr, then anneal.

 

[Mike D Texas]

Trim/chamfer/deburr, then anneal.

I have switched to this method of annealing after prep and find more consistent neck tension.

 

[coach p]

I saved my pennies and only use Lapua brass in my hunting rifles, (not a brass snob). I have tried other brass and found that the Lapua brass is more consistent than other brands in powder capacity and wall thickness. Anyway after my case prep is done I anneal the cases, however I anneal on the fourth firing.

That system works for me and I have not had any issues.