45-70 Annealing....

[Texasgrillchef]

I have been annealing all of my high pressure loads every time before reloading and every other time for my light loads. As of yet I haven’t had any issues of cases going bad yet. But I have only reloaded some cases only 5 times so far. All with smokeless. I use bullets from 300g to 535g

I am in the research stages go getting ready to load 45-70 in true black powder. Some heavy and some light loads. 405g, and some 535g, both heavy loads and slow light loads.

I would like to hear what others do in annealing in 45-70 caliber with smokeless as well as BP and with heavy high pressure loads and light easy loads, or do you anneal everything the same?

 

[mrawesome22-250]

I have a batch of Starline 45-70Govt that have over 20 loadings on them and have never had a failure of any kind. I have never annealed them.

Many of these loads were Hodgdon 40k C.U.P. loads.

I really don't see a need in annealing 45-70. The stuff seems to last forever even without it.

 

[Archie]

Annealing is to reverse the action of working brass (shooting, resizing, expanding, crimping and shooting). The internal pressure is NOT the primary factor. Most times one doesn't have a problem, but annealing is really not harmful in any case. I find the deep socket and drill motor method seems to suit me best. Video on YouTube demonstrates well and one is free to 'adapt' the method as desired.

 

[MEHavey]

getting ready to load 45-70 in true black powder

Yes. For BP, you need to soften/anneal the case mouth. (Starline even explicitly recommends it)

For big straightwall cases in the 45 rifle class, I strongly recommend the inside-the-neck/750-Tempilaq/spinning-socket method.
https://i.imgur.com/XePc0uw.jpg

both heavy loads and slow light [BP] loads

.There's only one loading with BP -- fill the case to the point of compression.
(maybe a relatively thin vegwad or two_




OOC, what are you shooting these in ?
(with 535 in the mix, sounds like a single-shot)

 

[Chuck R.]

I competed for a while with a 45-70, then moved on to .45-90, .45-100, and .40-70 shooting black powder cartridge silhouette, long range and buffalo matches.

Honestly IMHO it depends on how you're loading and for what. The two real reasons to anneal are, longevity of your brass, but also consistency in the form of neck tension. I annealed all of mine after each firing, 3 at the most. IF your crimping, even a taper crimp you may want to look at annealing for that reason. The majority of the folks I competed with annealed, at least the ones that were shooting well.

My .40-70 is utilizes a custom chamber designed for Starline brass, and slip fit bullets. Slip fit is generally non-sized brass, where the bullet simply sits on top of the compressed powder charge. It eliminates the need to size and also to anneal to some degree, but I still anneal that brass. I only shoot Swiss powder in that gun, so I never "stepped" on it as hard as with Goex, but there was still enough compression combined with an .070 LDPE wad to slip fit bullets onto. When Starline first came on the scene with their BPCR brass it was "known" that their cases were somewhat hard and annealing was needed.

I have a machine, that cranks out about 500 rds an hr, so annealing to me isn't that big of a deal.