I looked at the KL machine on his website and thought to myself it looks well built but cumbersome and the idea of changing the complete turntable for different cases seems a bit, well, underdesigned.
I see the Bench Source machine rotates the cases without using the turntable itself to rotate the case, a good idea.
That Giraud machine is entirely different in approach and alos interesting. All of them appear to have strong points and weak points. It's is just a hard decision as to which.
It's not predicated on price at all. It's predicated on ease of use, especially setup and execution. I'm fully aware of what over annealing a brass case does, I'm in the metal trades, and I could build my own but why do that and suffer the trials and tribulations of design and executiuon when there are already good machines out there.
I keep reading posts on here about splt necks on .338 cases and in my opinion (may be FOS), split necks are a result of the brass becoming brittle in the bottleneck area and loosing the ability to expand and spring back after the charge pressure subsides.
I've never had the need to anneal before becaue I shoot primarily .223 Remington in small caliber. That's my go to cartridge for 100 yard match target and once fired cases are readily available in quantity so I buy a couple thousand once fired, bust out the crimped primers, prep the pockets on a CNC lathe and continue through the loading process. I have enough loaded .223's on hand that I don't think I could fire them all more than twice in the time I have left on earth...I have that many loaded in various recipes and bullets...
However, I do run quite a few 300 Weatherby Magnums and now .338 Lapua and both are expensive factory loaded and still expensive handloaded, especially the brass so I want to get as much mileage as possible. I know the Rockwell increases with every discharge so in the interests of maximum case life, I see annealing as a viable alternative, especially when .338 Lapua Brass is over 200 bucks for 100 cases and 300 isn't far behind.
Plus I want to play with straight walled cases in 45 auto (in a Kimber full size 45-1911) and 44 magnum (in a Model 27 Smith double action long barrel revolver). I shoot both calibers indoors, 50 foot with lead bullets. I realize a straight wall is a different animal than a bottlenceck.
I need to make an educated purchase based on ther's experience as I have no experience with any of the 3 machines available.
Forums are great. 30 years ago, a decision like this was 'wing it' and hope for the best.
