[edSky]

I just bought a few hundred brand new Winchester .308 Win cases. They look very nice, but they do not appear to be annealed.

I know other brands come annealed, and the Winchester .308 Nato rounds look like their cases were annealed.

So my question is, should I anneal them before I load them the first time?

[SlamFire1]

No, do not anneal. They were annealed at the factory and then tumbled/cleaned to remove the oxidation.

The military made a habit of leaving the oxidation marks on the case, so it would be easy to tell if the cases were properly annealed.

On the commerical market, ammunition manufacturers have found that customers prefer shiney things, so they polish the heck out of the brass.

[edSky]

Thanks. I don't think I've ever seen brass that shiny. I have always reloaded factory ammo I've shot, and never bought new cases. Have a good weekend.

[243winxb]

Factory annealing is carried out in an oxygen, carbon, and nitrogen free atmosphere to avoid oxidation, carburization, and nitriding respectively, less likely to see annealing on the brass after cleaning.

[fguffey]

If I was curious I would neck up a few of the 308W cases to 338 or 35 Whelen, if the cases split I would get my money back, once fired cases will neck up to 338/35 with little effort and with out spliutting.



F. Guffey

[fguffey]

splitting

sorry about that,

F. Guffey